Road Trip!

fintail

From what I recall about driving in suburban LA, I believe it. I bet it's a blast there right now, 1970s traffic volumes.

andres3 said:

In CA they seem to be lax.... as long as you keep it 99 and under.

fintail

Had to run another errand to a place that doesn't open til 10. Coming home, turning left onto a 2 lane in each direction cross street, I have a blinking yellow turn lane, car approaching is turning right. I yield as directed, older guy in a Rogue bumbles into the intersection and straddles both lanes. By then I am on the cross street and approaching faster than he is moving, as he is going maybe 20 in a 30, and I didn't even honk. He finally moves over (as required, one is supposed to turn into the nearmost lane) and gives me the finger. As I accelerate to move past, he speeds up to maybe block me from changing lanes, but we were going slow enough that a one gear downshift has me shooting past him, and by then he's giving me the bird with both hands. Ah the zero self-awareness demographic. I move into the right lane and turn about half a mile later. I see him turning and think he might want to chirp, which could be fun for a Youtube video, but then recall this is the land of the free and the home of the whopper, and some of these old drones pack heat. I eventually turn again, and he goes straight. Still thinking of getting the footage from my rear and putting him on Youtube. I know these are stressful times, but these are also dumbed down simple traffic rules and lowest common denominator speed limits.

fintail

On the road today, crisis driving mode seems to have made the already timid locals go 5 under (social distancing in cars?) and never signal (don't let people know what you're doing, and they will keep a distance?) Some dawdling/distraction at lights - I tooted the horn twice, but that could also just be normal dopeyness. Traffic volumes remain sparse, although people are still out and about.

xwesx

People here seem to be getting into "summertime" mode, even though there are quite a few patches of ice still on the roads in many places, and those patches are particularly slick due to warming temperatures and the ground still being quite cold.

That said, I had the cruise set at 60 (SL55 roads) on the way in, as I always do, and there were people veritably flying by me on a regular basis. I guess it was just one of those days....!

One such driver in a newer Forester was caught at a light with me. He was in the left of two lanes, with me in the right, and I had a feeling that he wanted to move into the far right lane to take an exit ramp just beyond the light. For a moment, I considered smoking him at the light just for a chuckle, but I decided to go easy on the acceleration. As expected he finally got that brick moving and jumped on ahead, took the right, and scooted away on down the road. Funny enough, he was caught at every single light on the expressway (three of them), during which time I would mostly catch up without needing to stop before the light turned green.

The guy just kept up the jack rabbiting from one light to the next. I was imagining a "traffic control engineer" having a mighty good time just watching the cameras and timing the lights to catch that guy. Hahahaha

fintail

Sometimes I doubt there's such a thing as a traffic control engineer - sarcastic quotes? On that note, my city has changed the light sensors to weekend/evenings, so they change faster now, but sometimes throw a random bit in there, probably because they run on software written in 1983 by someone's now-wealthy brother in law. On the lights topic, when I was driving earlier today, I finally got past a no-signal 5-under "driver", then applied some moderate throttle (may or may not have briefly doubled the underposted SL) and cruised down the empty road. I made the next light, the dope didn't, but they were probably engrossed with their phone or passenger and didn't care.

Out for my afternoon walk today, been trying to add maybe half a mile per week to it (I injured my leg around 6 weeks ago, slowly coming back online). We're apparently on stay at home orders now until early May at the earliest, so I'll get some more walking in. It's kind of cool to see the sparse traffic, and the fresh air is a godsend. Traffic volumes have bottomed out, I think - I notice no decrease. Even had a close-ish call with an Acura-"driving" brainless drone while in a crosswalk, moved through like I wasn't there. Just like when things were normal which seems like 100 years ago.

andres3

xwesx said:

People here seem to be getting into "summertime" mode, even though there are quite a few patches of ice still on the roads in many places, and those patches are particularly slick due to warming temperatures and the ground still being quite cold.

That said, I had the cruise set at 60 (SL55 roads) on the way in, as I always do, and there were people veritably flying by me on a regular basis. I guess it was just one of those days....!

One such driver in a newer Forester was caught at a light with me. He was in the left of two lanes, with me in the right, and I had a feeling that he wanted to move into the far right lane to take an exit ramp just beyond the light. For a moment, I considered smoking him at the light just for a chuckle, but I decided to go easy on the acceleration. As expected he finally got that brick moving and jumped on ahead, took the right, and scooted away on down the road. Funny enough, he was caught at every single light on the expressway (three of them), during which time I would mostly catch up without needing to stop before the light turned green.

The guy just kept up the jack rabbiting from one light to the next. I was imagining a "traffic control engineer" having a mighty good time just watching the cameras and timing the lights to catch that guy. Hahahaha

On the flip side, if the Traffic Control Engineer is a GREENIE, the driver might be the one laughing as he wastes gas and emits greater pollution through his exhaust all due to poorly timed lights of said Engineer.

fintail

But negligently timed lights "calm" traffic and "save lives", "vision zero!" (all sarcastic quotes).

fintail

On my walk today there seemed to be noticeably more traffic, like 50% more, especially around the Whole Foods/C-F-A mess of an intersection. I think people are getting cabin fever and doing some shopping/eating.

fintail

On the road : Bellevue is still quiet, no less busy than a weekday, but I think that's the pattern these days. Issaquah and Redmond however were pretty busy, looked like a normal day - lots of cyclists, walkers, and suburban hoverparents out for a run to the store. I did see some dumb moves - bad U-Turns, running lights, a right turn over multiple lanes from a left turn lane, etc. I got to honk/toot a couple times. First at a potato/CRV that sat at a green - I knew something dorky was going to happen, as they were driving slow. I tooted once to wake them up, then they took off at a speed equal to me pushing their car with one hand, so I honked. Second one was more fun. I am on a deserted 35 mph arterial, in the fintail (no excuse to miss that thing) going maybe 40. Red late model Civic pulls out from a side street right in front of me even there's nobody behind me in the line of sight. Initilly no big deal - late model car, red, so fast driver right? Maybe they'll speed up and go faster. Nope, a 25 mph crawl. When the driver decided to turn right after an arduous half mile or so, I laid on the horn, and noticed as I moved past, the old fart behind the wheel rolled down his window and gave me the finger. lol - try moves like that in some parts of the country and see what it gets you. I know these are stressful times, but basic driving etiquette isn't that difficult.

maxspeed22

I feel like when no one is watching the more drivers are not minding some etiquette!

fintail

I think one needs to have etiquette to mind it.

On that note, idiocy exists even in the worst battleground of this crisis - this guy's rep precedes him, it'll be interesting to see if daddy's dirty money gets him out of it, I mean, if justice is served.

imidazol97

Our city speed limits are usually 25 mph. I'd say that vehicle was going far over 25 mph. What's the NYC speed limit?.

Good thing is I see several folks wearing face masks to slow spread of the virus from China spreading here.

Michaell

imidazol97 said:

Our city speed limits are usually 25 mph. I'd say that vehicle was going far over 25 mph. What's the NYC speed.

Good thing is I see several folks wearing face masks to slow spread of the virus from China spreading here.

Our local toll road posted on their facebook page yesterday a photo of a car that had been pulled over by the State Patrol for doing 55MPH over the posted 75MPH speed limit.

I know traffic is light (and, that road doesn't have a lot of traffic to begin with), but sheesh.

fintail

NYC is also 25, they've fallen hard for the "vision zero" scheme.

No doubt due to population density and how so many ignored things at the beginning, NYC is a bad place in terms of the virus now.

imidazol97 said:

Our city speed limits are usually 25 mph. I'd say that vehicle was going far over 25 mph. What's the NYC speed limit?.

Good thing is I see several folks wearing face masks to slow spread of the virus from China spreading here.

andres3

fintail said:

NYC is also 25, they've fallen hard for the "vision zero" scheme.

No doubt due to population density and how so many ignored things at the beginning, NYC is a bad place in terms of the virus now.

imidazol97 said:

Our city speed limits are usually 25 mph. I'd say that vehicle was going far over 25 mph. What's the NYC speed limit?.

Good thing is I see several folks wearing face masks to slow spread of the virus from China spreading here.

The 25 MPH speed limit is perfect so that you can blame "speeding" for reckless, stupid, and even drunk drivers like that guy. Sure he was going more than 25 MPH, probably a lot more, but that wasn't the cause of the wreck.

What about the guy going 26 MPH and crashing, was speed the cause of that too? With a 25 MPH speed limit you get to pad the stats.

fintail

The guillotine fodder in the Porsche probably suffers from car control issues. Look up "Ben Chen" - he has a rep for stupid behavior. He'll probably get away with a slap on the wrist, too, while someone from a rough area in a hooptie would be behind bars, because justice.

I think artificially low limits and dumb traffic management are also a ploy to get people out of cars, usually implemented by people who aren't burdened by the routes they manage. Also they go hogwild with speed limits, but no enforcement for distracted driving crosswalks, which remain a sore point in my area anyway - casualties and fatalities all the time but mum's the word, don't question authority, no matter its ineptitude.

andres3 said:

The 25 MPH speed limit is perfect so that you can blame "speeding" for reckless, stupid, and even drunk drivers like that guy. Sure he was going more than 25 MPH, probably a lot more, but that wasn't the cause of the wreck.

What about the guy going 26 MPH and crashing, was speed the cause of that too? With a 25 MPH speed limit you get to pad the stats.

ab348

The modern urban planner curriculum starts with the premise that cars are bad if not outright evil, so no surprise that stuff like Vision Zero gets promulgated once those folks are working within government agencies. It is just the latest example of how planning theory and reality tend to conflict.

fintail

The schizophrenic enforcement that seems to go hand in hand with "Vision Zero" really amuses me. It's a con, which I guess in this age of fraud being lauded, means it will continue to grow. And no doubt most of it has to do with other people giving up personal transport, good for thee not for me.

fintail

It's all about safety lol - I shudder to think about the bribes and other deals that got this ball rolling.

andres3

fintail said:

It's all about safety lol - I shudder to think about the bribes and other deals that got this ball rolling.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/2010/ca-sancarlos.pdf

I might be biased, but when the first paragraph discusses a desire to remove a red light program, and the 2nd paragraph says "we are losing money." I put 1 and 2 together and see the cause and effect. Others may say it isn't about the money though, despite being in paragraphs 1 and 2 at the top of the document.

fintail

LOL and there have never been quotas for LEOs either.

fintail

Quick run to the store showed very sparse traffic on the road, and the stores weren't too busy. Also some really dumb light sequencing - some are on "quick change" weekend/night timing, some are not, which creates stupid situations like cars queuing up in 3 of 4 directions at an intersection while the direction with green has zero traffic in the line of sight. I got into the wrong profession, should have been a "traffic engineer" - apparently there's no real QC, and I am sure the perks would be amazing.

I'll admit I stopped on red and just went at a couple intersections, where there was so little traffic I could have pushed my car across the road and been safe.

fintail

Out on the road on foot yesterday, saw a group of middle aged women set up a net in an empty parking lot and were starting to play tennis. I wonder how long it took for the cops to arrive, seriously, people.

xwesx

Tennis is a good sport for maintaining social distancing.

kyfdx

xwesx said:

Tennis is a good sport for maintaining social distancing.

It's touching each other's balls that is the problem.

fintail

Maybe distant if it was just 2 of them, but this was a small non-regulation net, and there was a gaggle of Karens.

Right now there's been a 500 decibel leaf blower running outside for about half an hour. "Essential" business.

imidazol97

fintail said:

Out on the road on foot yesterday, saw a group of middle aged women set up a net in an empty parking lot and were starting to play tennis. I wonder how long it took for the cops to arrive, seriously, people.

Here the local county health commissioner must have wanted to get some air time, so he banned people having parades in their own personal cars past student's house for events such as birthdays. No driving your cars in that manner. Verboten.

fintail

That's really lame. No bans like that here, in fact, several groups such as teachers and birthday celebrants have done it and made the local news.

Was out again, the Karens were in the parking lot, but now only 4 of them, and they were at what seemed like more of a distance. Maybe someone whined at them.

Also what seemed like more cars on the road, I suspect people going to the store for holiday weekend grub.

imidazol97 said:

Here the local county health commissioner must have wanted to get some air time, so he banned people having parades in their own personal cars past student's house for events such as birthdays. No driving your cars in that manner. Verboten.

kyfdx

@imidazol97 @fintail

I agree... that's dumb. Unless they are actually seeing some sort of close contact.

ab348

imidazol97 said:

Here the local county health commissioner must have wanted to get some air time, so he banned people having parades in their own personal cars past student's house for events such as birthdays. No driving your cars in that manner. Verboten.

Up here the newly-deified Public Health Chief (whom I am just waiting to see the public turn against given his past record of going overboard) was asked if people can go out for just pleasure drives in order to get out of the house. He said it wasn't banned yet but he advised against it because if you had an accident then you would be taking away from EMS resources and putting first responders at risk. So now some people are bullying others who admit to being on the roads.

Realistically, if his reasoning was true, the first thing he should have done was ban cycling, since the odds of getting injured doing that are much greater than someone tooling around their neighborhood in a vehicle.

The other thing he did was to close all provincial and municipal parks after the first weekend when on a nice day people went to them for walks, leading to some crowding. This was just after the 6-ft social distancing mandate was issued and people were still unfamiliar with how it worked, but no matter, he shut everything down. But that included large open spaces that were just grassy fields with paved paths that people used to shortcut on those paths to get from point A to point B, just like a sidewalk. Sidewalks remain open of course. No matter though, the police started handing out $700 tickets even in one instance where the city had marked a few of the most used paths with flags indicating where people could walk. Lunacy.

imidazol97

Our Health Director in Ohio is under fire. But our local "news" stations haven't mentioned this as it occurred. Censoring the dissent by omission:
https://theohiostar.com/2020/04/10/people-protest-at-ohios-capitol-the-states-handling-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-call-on-acton-to-resign/

The huge over estimate in numbers using the information from China and WHO molded to help scare people is now collapsing and people in Ohio at least are close enough to farmland to recognize that stuff on the ground when they see it that was being misused. Now the Health director says all the change came from adding in distancing (which was in the numbers to begin with) and came from the population following social distancing so well. She praises the people now.

fintail

That "no pleasure driving because you might get injured" one is complete idiocy, the line of thought that should cause the unfireable over-bennied public sector suit to be canned. I suspect it is riskier to go out for a walk or jog, not to mention a bike ride. That's the problem with these "stay home" ideals - they are half-baked. Either limit everyone to food or doctor-related trips, or simply make everything a "suggestion".

Protesting the directives with a gun, lol, I bet that guy has issues. I say open it all up - and if you get sick, you don't get priority. If you infect someone else, you open yourself to liability.

fintail

So much traffic in a few areas today it seemed like a normal day - specifically around parks. Probably more ped and bicyclist traffic than on a normal sunny summer day. Seattle closed its large parks, so I think many just drove across the bridge. Another goofy move showing the lack of consistency and mixed messages during this mess.

Only one funny incident today, someone in a roundabout yielded to me as I was waiting to enter. I like roundabouts, but I have doubts this motoring culture can ever handle them,

xwesx

fintail said:

Maybe distant if it was just 2 of them, but this was a small non-regulation net, and there was a gaggle of Karens.

Right now there's been a 500 decibel leaf blower running outside for about half an hour. "Essential" business.

Maybe it was pickleball rather than tennis. I've been itching to play pickleball again.

xwesx

imidazol97 said:

fintail said:

Out on the road on foot yesterday, saw a group of middle aged women set up a net in an empty parking lot and were starting to play tennis. I wonder how long it took for the cops to arrive, seriously, people.

Here the local county health commissioner must have wanted to get some air time, so he banned people having parades in their own personal cars past student's house for events such as birthdays. No driving your cars in that manner. Verboten.

I think I would tell him to go take a long walk off a short pier.

xwesx

fintail said:

I say open it all up - and if you get sick, you don't get priority. If you infect someone else, you open yourself to liability.

Yeah, but good luck proving that one beyond a reasonable doubt! Hahah

fintail

You never know, this is the land of affluenza and getting millions from hot drink spills.

On the road today, light volumes as expected, drive home especially was a breeze, I don't think I had to even tap the brakes once on the freeway.

I forgot about pickleball, but they were using a tennis ball. Reminds me of a game from high school PE, "volleytennis". I'm itching to get back to the rink, I fear my less than first round draft pick skills are decaying.

xwesx said:

Yeah, but good luck proving that one beyond a reasonable doubt! Hahah

fintail

On the road again this morning, wanted to get some half price Easter candy (just what I need) and needed something from Home Depot, essential tasks. Went out to Redmond as I figured a short drive would be good for the car. 520 was almost empty at ~9am, which is usually peak Microsoft/tech commute time. I hit some nice speeds that I won't admit here.

On the crazy front, stopped by Costco as it was on the way, and I forgot something on my last visit. Arrived too early, 30 minutes before opening. Filled up, then sat and waited. Almost nobody queuing up then, but by opening time the line was maybe 120 shoppers, and quite long due to distancing. They had no TP, which amused me as both Fred Meyer and Home Depot had quite a bit this morning. Oddly enough, Costco did have tons of paper towels, more than I've ever seen. All of the other panic bought items were gone - masks, sanitizer, flour, etc.

imidazol97

Vitamin C.
Zinc tablets.
Hand sanitizing wipes.
Hand sanitizer alcohol squirt bottles.

fintail

All of that material was gone. Well, multivitamins should have ample C, those don't seem to be a target of hoarders.

There was a list before entering Costco stating what was out of stock. I still find it funny that Costco is a TP desert while other places had plenty.

andres3

fintail said:

All of that material was gone. Well, multivitamins should have ample C, those don't seem to be a target of hoarders.

There was a list before entering Costco stating what was out of stock. I still find it funny that Costco is a TP desert while other places had plenty.

Please don't give a "certified" accountant at Costco these ideas. I'm sure there's one in a board meeting "by phone for social distancing" right now arguing they need to raise the price of Kirkland TP.

fintail

Probably not worth the negative PR risk. They are making money hand over fist as it is.

andres3 said:

Please don't give a "certified" accountant at Costco these ideas. I'm sure there's one in a board meeting "by phone for social distancing" right now arguing they need to raise the price of Kirkland TP.

fintail

I heard on TV that school zones are being enforced even though school is out for the rest of the spring? Yeah, I'd lawyer up hard about that one, if true, time to shame some of the "authorities".

andres3

fintail said:

I heard on TV that school zones are being enforced even though school is out for the rest of the spring? Yeah, I'd lawyer up hard about that one, if true, time to shame some of the "authorities".

This might be one where different State laws will prevail over what is reasonable.

If your State (like CA) correctly uses "when children are present" that's my favorite, and I'm always prepared to go to bat.

If your State uses "when lights are flashing" and the lights were flashing, even despite Covid-19 the law just IS NOT ON YOUR SIDE!

That being said, I'd support a petition to FIRE any police officer that uses their discretion to issue such a citation. No collective bargaining, no negotiation, just a simple Trumpian "You're fired!"

fintail

I am sure the most powerful and least accountable union in this society would nix that idea before it took flight.

It's funny how the "law and order" set usually hates unions, save for a certain one. Just as they always whine "it's the law" but are often getting their coddled knickers in a twist about the COVID regulations.

Out on the road today, intersections around stores seem busy, but otherwise quiet - although I suspect traffic has increased maybe 10% over the past few days, just seems like a little more out there. Some are taking advantage of it, the Harley dork set is out zooming around, the dodderers can now bumble around and get honked at less, too.

andres3 said:

That being said, I'd support a petition to FIRE any police officer that uses their discretion to issue such a citation. No collective bargaining, no negotiation, just a simple Trumpian "You're fired!"

andres3

Social distancing during a lunch break from essential work.

fintail

Fun side effect of low traffic volumes

Hit the road again today a little, had to drop something off for grandma and pick something up at Costco for mom - I am a useful errand boy these days, 405 was sparse as usual these days, arterial surface streets were busier, lots of truck traffic and people probably going to the store. Costco wasn't very busy at all. A lot of traffic was kind of slow, too, and a few LLCs, I undertook one or two. Light traffic is the one cool thing about this mess.

andres3

fintail said:

Fun side effect of low traffic volumes

Hit the road again today a little, had to drop something off for grandma and pick something up at Costco for mom - I am a useful errand boy these days, 405 was sparse as usual these days, arterial surface streets were busier, lots of truck traffic and people probably going to the store. Costco wasn't very busy at all. A lot of traffic was kind of slow, too, and a few LLCs, I undertook one or two. Light traffic is the one cool thing about this mess.

It's almost like they don't want people to drive fast because it'll prove that it's perfectly safe by and large. If not prove, provide more evidence to support the NMA, vs. silly equations the IIHS uses like being 12% more likely to die for every 5 MPH faster you go or something like that . Very silly. Every race car driver should already be dead 100 times over.

fintail

No stories of an increase in local high speed crashes yet, indeed.

I might be adding a few mph to my speed from time to time on 405, but on the stretch I often drive, speedtraps are either impossible, or very visible, so it isn't so bad.

andres3 said:

It's almost like they don't want people to drive fast because it'll prove that it's perfectly safe by and large. If not prove, provide more evidence to support the NMA, vs. silly equations the IIHS uses like being 12% more likely to die for every 5 MPH faster you go or something like that . Very silly. Every race car driver should already be dead 100 times over.

Michaell

I'm thinking that when travel restrictions ease up, I'll rent a car and drive to CA to visit family. May be fall before everything aligns.