Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

imidazol97

Amazon is good about replacing an item for flaws and giving a credit for the return as soon as it is picked up with UPS, without waiting until it comes back to their warehouse.

graphicguy

I like Amazon, too. I have encountered some real and true crooks ordering from Indiegogo and Kickstarter, though. I now stay away from them. A shame, since I supported FLX when they were doing their Kickstarter campaign and they were wonderful. Now, they're a viable and growing company.

The others I've supported? Took my money and squandered it. Won't do that again. Probably miss out on some really good products/companies as a result. But, following The Who...."Won't Get Fooled Again"!

venture

fintail said:

There was a distracted driver-related fatality at an intersection near me last year, so the city reacted and made the intersection no right on red, along with changing the light sequence. Much of it is moot, as I see right on red at the intersection daily - literally zero enforcement. Still chasing that speed bogeyman and little else. I feel very protected.

I like normal blinking yellow turn arrows - my city moved to them at many intersections several years ago. They help with congestion. But a few had to be rolled back to normal sequencing, as the diverse and incompetent driving skill in the area couldn't figure it out, and there were several cases of "drivers" breezing through a blinking yellow turn arrow and striking the oncoming car which had right of way. Dumbing down a notch, that's how we roll.

That green-red-yellow thing sounds very non-intuitive, and I would love to see one of the "engineers" justify it, especially from an end user standpoint.

xwesx said:

We have a few intersections where there are signs saying "no U-turn" or "no right on red" or some such. Usually the no rights are on those intersections with terrible visibility or those with multiple right turn lanes. For some reason, people forget that part in driver manual that traveling through an intersection on red is allowable only when not crossing a lane of travel and unless otherwise posted. In other words, left on red from a one-way street to another is okay, just as right on red is okay. However, right on red from the second of two right lanes (counting toward the left, or center, of the road) is not okay.

While they usually get away with such shenanigans (and, it is fairly rampant), sometimes the police monitor those locations to educate drivers on the correct use of these intersections.

We also have these odd left turn signals that were recently installed all over the area. For intersections with dedicated left signal ROW, they will turn green with the other lights red. Then, instead of turning flashing yellow, they go from solid yellow to red for about three seconds before going back to flashing yellow. In the meantime, the "go straight" lights turn to green when the arrows turn to red. It's really odd - the answer to a question nobody asked.

I treat them like I always have (e.g., yield on green), but it wouldn't surprise me if I was pulled over at some point for "running a red light" during that brief three-second interval when the light is that color.

Typical (over)reaction.

There was a project here quite a few years ago where a 2 lane road was modified to a 4 lane with center left turn lanes. They lowered the speed limit from 50 mph to 40 mph.

I told the project manager there was not enough sight distance and there may be an accident because of it. Well...a guy was speeding at, what they figured, around 75 mph, hit a car full of college kids who were making a left turn and killed one of them. Instead of attempting to fix the sight problem they lowered the speed limit to 35 mph.

venture

graphicguy said:

I like Amazon, too. I have encountered some real and true crooks ordering from Indiegogo and Kickstarter, though. I now stay away from them. A shame, since I supported FLX when they were doing their Kickstarter campaign and they were wonderful. Now, they're a viable and growing company.

The others I've supported? Took my money and squandered it. Won't do that again. Probably miss out on some really good products/companies as a result. But, following The Who...."Won't Get Fooled Again"!

The Jack Rabbit bike I am supposed to get in December is Kickstarter project. Now we wait.

ab348

I had a battle with Amazon last year that was somewhat troubling although I came out reasonably OK in the end, though they could have done a lot better.

I like to find DVD sets of long-lost TV series that I enjoyed when I was a kid. Sometimes they are even better than I remembered, sometimes they are awful but whatever. Last year a seller on Amazon offered the two seasons of "Banacek" with George Peppard for about $60 Cdn total. I had never seen these available before but they were in Universal Studios packaging so I knew they were legit. The vendor name had a ".ca" suffix and there was no mention in the listing of these being non-standard region code discs for North America, so I took the plunge.

When they arrived after a couple of weeks I noticed the postal markings on the package said "Royal Mail", so they had come from England. When I opened it both DVD sets were labeled as Region 2 (Europe) which meant that my machines would not be able to play them. I did not open the sealed DVD cases and contacted the vendor. The first response from some lady with a Russian-sounding name indicated that I could watch them on my computer. That was unsatisfactory to me so I contacted them again and a different but similarly-named person gave me an address in London, England to return them to.

I went to the post office and discovered that the cheapest way to send something like that to England was about $15. If I wanted signature on delivery it was double that. I took the cheapest option and sent them off, keeping the postal receipt. Weeks go by with no refund, so I contact Amazon. After a while they say they contacted the vendor and they had not received the package. I respond with scanned copies of the post office document and the letter I enclosed with the package outlining the reasons for the return and that the listing still had not been updated to indicate these were Region 2 discs. Another few days go by and I get a response from an actual person at Amazon Canada in Montreal that my refund was denied. I was flabbergasted.

They have a somewhat cumbersome appeal process so I took that route. I pointed out that I had provided them with proof of shipping, that the vendor did not indicate the discs were unsuitable for North America, and that the ".ca" in the vendor name indicated they were a Canadian vendor. I also noted that since they were actually in the UK any other kind of return shipping would be prohibitively expensive and make no sense to me. Within a couple of days I got a response from a person at Amazon saying that my appeal was approved and that I would be refunded the original purchase price. It was as if they had not read any of the original documents I sent them the first time. I was sore that I was on the hook for the $15 return shipping but chalked it up to experience.

In the note I got back from Amazon they said that if anything in the future were to occur where a vendor provided a continental return address, to contact Amazon immediately. Interestingly, they also indicated that if I had contacted Amazon saying that I never received the item in the first place, there would have been an immediate no-hassle refund provided by them. Lesson learned if this ever happens again.

OTOH a few months ago when I bought a supposedly unlocked iPhone via Amazon that turned out to be tied to AT&T, the refund was applied as soon as the shipper logged in the package, and shipping was paid by the vendor.

graphicguy

venture said:

graphicguy said:

I like Amazon, too. I have encountered some real and true crooks ordering from Indiegogo and Kickstarter, though. I now stay away from them. A shame, since I supported FLX when they were doing their Kickstarter campaign and they were wonderful. Now, they're a viable and growing company.

The others I've supported? Took my money and squandered it. Won't do that again. Probably miss out on some really good products/companies as a result. But, following The Who...."Won't Get Fooled Again"!

The Jack Rabbit bike I am supposed to get in December is Kickstarter project. Now we wait.

Interesting bike. I like it. Keep us posted.

xwesx

venture said:

Typical (over)reaction.

There was a project here quite a few years ago where a 2 lane road was modified to a 4 lane with center left turn lanes. They lowered the speed limit from 50 mph to 40 mph.

I told the project manager there was not enough sight distance and there may be an accident because of it. Well...a guy was speeding at, what they figured, around 75 mph, hit a car full of college kids who were making a left turn and killed one of them. Instead of attempting to fix the sight problem they lowered the speed limit to 35 mph.

Yes, because the guy that caused the crash would have only been driving 65-70 if the speed limit had been lower! Hahahaha. I can imagine these meetings now:

"Sir, improving the sight distance on the road is the best thing we can do to avoid something like this."
"We just finished the road! How much would that sort of change cost?"
"About as much as the modification did in the first place. We'll need $25M and a year to complete it."
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING NOW! SOMEONE JUST DIED, AND NOBODY IS EVEN GOING TO REMEMBER IT IN A YEAR!"
"Well, we could reduce the speed limit, but it won't prevent this type of thing happening again."
"How much will that cost?"
"$500. We could have it done tomorrow."
"Now that's what I'm talking about! Make it happen."

xwesx

I typically don't have any issues with Amazon refunds, but I don't do that very often. Also, it is completely automated, and it is next to impossible to get a real person when your situation does not fit the mold of their automated system.

As such, I don't consider them to have good customer service. They have a good system but terrible "service."

tjc78

venture said:

fintail said:

There was a distracted driver-related fatality at an intersection near me last year, so the city reacted and made the intersection no right on red, along with changing the light sequence. Much of it is moot, as I see right on red at the intersection daily - literally zero enforcement. Still chasing that speed bogeyman and little else. I feel very protected.

I like normal blinking yellow turn arrows - my city moved to them at many intersections several years ago. They help with congestion. But a few had to be rolled back to normal sequencing, as the diverse and incompetent driving skill in the area couldn't figure it out, and there were several cases of "drivers" breezing through a blinking yellow turn arrow and striking the oncoming car which had right of way. Dumbing down a notch, that's how we roll.

That green-red-yellow thing sounds very non-intuitive, and I would love to see one of the "engineers" justify it, especially from an end user standpoint.

xwesx said:

We have a few intersections where there are signs saying "no U-turn" or "no right on red" or some such. Usually the no rights are on those intersections with terrible visibility or those with multiple right turn lanes. For some reason, people forget that part in driver manual that traveling through an intersection on red is allowable only when not crossing a lane of travel and unless otherwise posted. In other words, left on red from a one-way street to another is okay, just as right on red is okay. However, right on red from the second of two right lanes (counting toward the left, or center, of the road) is not okay.

While they usually get away with such shenanigans (and, it is fairly rampant), sometimes the police monitor those locations to educate drivers on the correct use of these intersections.

We also have these odd left turn signals that were recently installed all over the area. For intersections with dedicated left signal ROW, they will turn green with the other lights red. Then, instead of turning flashing yellow, they go from solid yellow to red for about three seconds before going back to flashing yellow. In the meantime, the "go straight" lights turn to green when the arrows turn to red. It's really odd - the answer to a question nobody asked.

I treat them like I always have (e.g., yield on green), but it wouldn't surprise me if I was pulled over at some point for "running a red light" during that brief three-second interval when the light is that color.

Typical (over)reaction.

There was a project here quite a few years ago where a 2 lane road was modified to a 4 lane with center left turn lanes. They lowered the speed limit from 50 mph to 40 mph.

I told the project manager there was not enough sight distance and there may be an accident because of it. Well...a guy was speeding at, what they figured, around 75 mph, hit a car full of college kids who were making a left turn and killed one of them. Instead of attempting to fix the sight problem they lowered the speed limit to 35 mph.

The speed was certainly excessive, but isn't the person who made the left turn at fault? As far as I know you can't impede someone's travel lane.

In this case the speed made the accident worse, but didn't cause it.

xwesx

tjc78 said:

The speed was certainly excessive, but isn't the person who made the left turn at fault? As far as I know you can't impede someone's travel lane.

In this case the speed made the accident worse, but didn't cause it.

Not at all. If the driver was in excess of the posted speed like that, and there is limited sight distance, there would be no way for the left turner to have yielded to another vehicle that did not exist within that driver's "threat radius."

I have seen several times, including once with my grandparents, where the person making the left turn was not found at fault in such a situation due to excessive speed on the part of the person going straight. The tricky thing in that situation is to have witnesses, as well as insisting on an collision investigation. Physics does not lie.

tjc78

I'd love to know the ruling. It has to be extremely hard to prove, and without witnesses virtually impossible.

fintail

And what determines "excessive speed". 5 over? 35 over? Something even more subjective? And maybe then some burden on those setting the limits that the limit is optimal?

Inept left turners are a big reason I don't want to operate a motorcycle on public roads here.

fintail

I am old enough to predate the use of "AP", but I attended a small town high school, took many "honors" classes, and I don't think the education was bad. The town supported the school, and any demands of certain organizations that get in some peoples craw didn't derail anything. I think running to the last resort of private schools will only increase the socio-economic chasm enjoyed in this wonderful time of late-stage capitalism.

IMO a huge part of it is the parents, and then the kids. If the parents don't want to put anything into their kids, and the kids then don't want to put anything into it, success is going to be tough.

imidazol97 said:

We are in an area where we were able to direct our last son through the courses where he took advanced or AP courses.
We have private and religious schools in our area that are deficient. They have trouble getting and keeping qualified teachers. We have charter schools that are woefully deficient for the most part.

Nothing replaces a public school that is still doing its job. But the big unions have turned many schools into their own schools with goals that don't fit most of the community.

explorerx4

@venture,
Hope you have better luck than I did with 'The Coolest Cooler'.
At least I actually got one, although I had to pay a lot more that the original 'kickstarter' price.
It was supposed to be a Christmas present. That xmas went by, so I thought, ok Birthday.
That went by, but did get it in time for the next xmas.
Was kind of like the 35k Tesla.

henryn

xwesx said:

I typically don't have any issues with Amazon refunds, but I don't do that very often. Also, it is completely automated, and it is next to impossible to get a real person when your situation does not fit the mold of their automated system.

As such, I don't consider them to have good customer service. They have a good system but terrible "service."

I have had the same experience with Amazon. I ordered a set of Husky floor mats (liners) for my new F150 Supercrew earlier this year. I clicked on the wrong box while ordering (my truck does have underseat storage under the rear seats). Consequently, the rear liner was too big by about 1.5 inches. I went on Amazon and attempted to get the floor mats replaced with the correct version, but I couldn't actually do that. I had to request a return shipping and refund, and then order the correct set.

Only after going through the online process of requesting the return for a refund did I discover they were going to charge me $20 for the return shipping. Once I realized that, I changed my mind, got out my biggest pair of scissors and trimmed that floor mat. Which now works just fine. But it took me nearly 2 months to get my account at Amazon straightened out. They actually credited my account for the purchase price (giving me an immediate refund, which was nice). But I could not for the life of me undo that refund. I had to wait 30 days, after which time they charged my credit card again because they had not received my return.

If what you're trying to do fits their system, you are in great shape. If it doesn't fit, well ...

abacomike

andres3 said:

So I've been away for awhile.

As for, “...I’ve been away for awhile...”, it didn’t seem that long.

imidazol97

@ab348
With the right combination of computer software, typically available free, you could copy each of the disks to the computer and then rewrite it to a DVD of your own which removes the region coding.

murphydog

Good news - I am back posting under @murphydog!

Amazon is interesting - I do like getting products shipped right to my house, but I don't trust them in terms of returns, or even not selling counterfeit items.

jmonroe1

murphydog said:

Good news - I am back posting under @murphydog!

Amazon is interesting - I do like getting products shipped right to my house, but I don't trust them in terms of returns, or even not selling counterfeit items.

How did you manage that?

jmonroe

explorerx4

@murphydog,
Not sure if you know but I got a new truck. Less trucky, more lux.

ab348

imidazol97 said:

@ab348
With the right combination of computer software, typically available free, you could copy each of the disks to the computer and then rewrite it to a DVD of your own which removes the region coding.

I suppose it might have been possible. But I didn't want it bad enough to do that and let the slippery vendor off the hook.

abacomike

explorerx4 said:

@murphydog, Not sure if you know but I got a new truck. Less trucky, more lux.

Looks like a truck to me! 

Lots of luck - Black certainly is appropriate on a rig that beautiful.  Enjoy! 

abacomike

murphydog said:

Good news - I am back posting under @murphydog! Amazon is interesting - I do like getting products shipped right to my house, but I don't trust them in terms of returns, or even not selling counterfeit items.

Great, Murphy.  Now help jmonroe get his back.

explorerx4

@abacomike,
I got it back in March, but I'm not sure how long it's been since murphydog posted.

xwesx

fintail said:

And what determines "excessive speed". 5 over? 35 over? Something even more subjective? And maybe then some burden on those setting the limits that the limit is optimal?

Inept left turners are a big reason I don't want to operate a motorcycle on public roads here.

Reconstruction places traveling speed in a narrow range. If that range is over the limit, then that opens one up to liability in the event of a collision. In my grandparents' case, crash evidence estimated the at-fault driver's speed at 55-60 mph.... in a 35.

xwesx

henryn said:

I have had the same experience with Amazon. I ordered a set of Husky floor mats (liners) for my new F150 Supercrew earlier this year. I clicked on the wrong box while ordering (my truck does have underseat storage under the rear seats). Consequently, the rear liner was too big by about 1.5 inches. I went on Amazon and attempted to get the floor mats replaced with the correct version, but I couldn't actually do that. I had to request a return shipping and refund, and then order the correct set.

Only after going through the online process of requesting the return for a refund did I discover they were going to charge me $20 for the return shipping. Once I realized that, I changed my mind, got out my biggest pair of scissors and trimmed that floor mat. Which now works just fine. But it took me nearly 2 months to get my account at Amazon straightened out. They actually credited my account for the purchase price (giving me an immediate refund, which was nice). But I could not for the life of me undo that refund. I had to wait 30 days, after which time they charged my credit card again because they had not received my return.

If what you're trying to do fits their system, you are in great shape. If it doesn't fit, well ...

Yes! I had something very similar happen. I usually only return if there is a problem with the unit. However, in one case, I bought some measuring cups only to have my wife reject them at the door. They cost something like $8. I went through the return process on Amazon, and found out there that the return was going to cost me $6. At that point, I didn't want to return them anymore, but since it already processed it, I just chalked it up to experience and sent the darn things back.

Perhaps the best lesson: Don't try to do something nice for the wife and/or house, as I will probably just end up screwing it up. I guess the nicest thing I can do is give her all the cash and get the hell out of the way!

carnaught

With a rare Amazon return, I learned that what they will charge for return shipping is often much higher than what it would cost for you to have it shipped. In my case, it was one-third of what they wanted. Sometimes the seller will cover the cost though.

berri

I'm not really sure how Amazon return costs work. Seems to me that anything from their warehouse has been free, but returns to their direct vendors vary on charges.

roadburner

The only problem I had with Amazon was from one of their vendors; I ordered a set of rubber mats for the Clubman and they arrived loose and rolled up rather than in the factory package- and one mat clearly had a BMW label on it. I contacted Amazon and within a week I had my refund and no charge for return shipping. I'm never using that vendor again- morons.

jmonroe1

xwesx said:

henryn said:

I have had the same experience with Amazon. I ordered a set of Husky floor mats (liners) for my new F150 Supercrew earlier this year. I clicked on the wrong box while ordering (my truck does have underseat storage under the rear seats). Consequently, the rear liner was too big by about 1.5 inches. I went on Amazon and attempted to get the floor mats replaced with the correct version, but I couldn't actually do that. I had to request a return shipping and refund, and then order the correct set.

Only after going through the online process of requesting the return for a refund did I discover they were going to charge me $20 for the return shipping. Once I realized that, I changed my mind, got out my biggest pair of scissors and trimmed that floor mat. Which now works just fine. But it took me nearly 2 months to get my account at Amazon straightened out. They actually credited my account for the purchase price (giving me an immediate refund, which was nice). But I could not for the life of me undo that refund. I had to wait 30 days, after which time they charged my credit card again because they had not received my return.

If what you're trying to do fits their system, you are in great shape. If it doesn't fit, well ...

Yes! I had something very similar happen. I usually only return if there is a problem with the unit. However, in one case, I bought some measuring cups only to have my wife reject them at the door. They cost something like $8. I went through the return process on Amazon, and found out there that the return was going to cost me $6. At that point, I didn't want to return them anymore, but since it already processed it, I just chalked it up to experience and sent the darn things back.

Perhaps the best lesson: Don't try to do something nice for the wife and/or house, as I will probably just end up screwing it up. I guess the nicest thing I can do is give her all the cash and get the hell out of the way!

Sounds like you have a problem. I never had that problem because early on I decided that our marriage should be 50/50. Mrs. j interpreted that as meaning I make it and she spends it. If I were to call that off now after more than 50 years of that arrangement, it would be disastrous. Another trip around the dining room table would be a cake walk compared to the consequences of trying that.

jmonroe

explorerx4

I found a picture of Jmonroe's dining room table.

abacomike

Just made an appointment to bring the S450 in for its first service - November 8th.  It will be 12 months since I got it and will have about 8500 miles on the odometer by then,

The service manager (Mike) laughed at me and said he bet $20.00 with the general sales manager that I would get a new car by the time it was due for its first service.  I told him I would reimburse him for the $20 he will lose.  He then said, “...I still have 30 days to win that’s bet and my chances are always good when betting against you, Mike!”

What can I say?  My reputation precedes me! 

jmonroe1

That was the size before I took out the leaves.

jmonroe

imidazol97

Did you explain that your next car will likely be a Camry?

imidazol97

More bad news in Mudville.

Got call from appliance repair company. Said part didn't come in today. They even tried to get it directly from Whirlpool and have it overnighted to my address. Whirlpool is out of the circuit board they need.

Sort of like parts for autos when there's a problem part and they're on backorder.

Repair company is getting it from another of their warehouses. It should come in Monday morning and they'll have it run to the repair guy and he should come here Monday afternoon.

With my luck it'll be the wrong part, a bad part, or there'll be something else that was wrong as well as the fan and the circuit board powering it. No, I'm not negative much.

xwesx

jmonroe1 said:

Sounds like you have a problem. I never had that problem because early on I decided that our marriage should be 50/50. Mrs. j interpreted that as meaning I make it and she spends it. If I were to call that off now after more than 50 years of that arrangement, it would be disastrous. Another trip around the dining room table would be a cake walk compared to the consequences of trying that.

jmonroe

LoL. I definitely do. But, don't tell her that.

xwesx

roadburner said:

The only problem I had with Amazon was from one of their vendors; I ordered a set of rubber mats for the Clubman and they arrived loose and rolled up rather than in the factory package- and one mat clearly had a BMW label on it. I contacted Amazon and within a week I had my refund and no charge for return shipping. I'm never using that vendor again- morons.

Only time I experience a return shipping fee is if the reason I want to return it is on me (e.g., I ordered wrong part or didn't want it). If the item breaks, is the wrong one, etc., they issue the RMA with return shipping free of charge.

oldfarmer50

abacomike said:

explorerx4 said:

@murphydog,
Not sure if you know but I got a new truck. Less trucky, more lux.

Looks like a truck to me! 

Lots of luck - Black certainly is appropriate on a rig that beautiful.  Enjoy! 

Looks dark blue to me.

sda

imidazol97 said:

More bad news in Mudville.

Got call from appliance repair company. Said part didn't come in today. They even tried to get it directly from Whirlpool and have it overnighted to my address. Whirlpool is out of the circuit board they need.

Sort of like parts for autos when there's a problem part and they're on backorder.

Repair company is getting it from another of their warehouses. It should come in Monday morning and they'll have it run to the repair guy and he should come here Monday afternoon.

With my luck it'll be the wrong part, a bad part, or there'll be something else that was wrong as well as the fan and the circuit board powering it. No, I'm not negative much.

I can relate to your frustration. Our 2 yr old Whirlpool French door started making a horrible racket. Seems it wasn't defrosting, ice formed and the fan was slapping against the ice that had formed. The tech diagnosed it in less than 5 min, new circuit board ordered. It took over a month to get it repaired. Thankfully our 15 year old Whirlpool side by side that the new one replaced was working fine in the garage. To boot, my parents bought a similar Whirlpool French door frig. In about a year, it also required a circuit board. Electronics, sheesh.

andres3

tjc78 said:

venture said:

fintail said:

There was a distracted driver-related fatality at an intersection near me last year, so the city reacted and made the intersection no right on red, along with changing the light sequence. Much of it is moot, as I see right on red at the intersection daily - literally zero enforcement. Still chasing that speed bogeyman and little else. I feel very protected.

I like normal blinking yellow turn arrows - my city moved to them at many intersections several years ago. They help with congestion. But a few had to be rolled back to normal sequencing, as the diverse and incompetent driving skill in the area couldn't figure it out, and there were several cases of "drivers" breezing through a blinking yellow turn arrow and striking the oncoming car which had right of way. Dumbing down a notch, that's how we roll.

That green-red-yellow thing sounds very non-intuitive, and I would love to see one of the "engineers" justify it, especially from an end user standpoint.

xwesx said:

We have a few intersections where there are signs saying "no U-turn" or "no right on red" or some such. Usually the no rights are on those intersections with terrible visibility or those with multiple right turn lanes. For some reason, people forget that part in driver manual that traveling through an intersection on red is allowable only when not crossing a lane of travel and unless otherwise posted. In other words, left on red from a one-way street to another is okay, just as right on red is okay. However, right on red from the second of two right lanes (counting toward the left, or center, of the road) is not okay.

While they usually get away with such shenanigans (and, it is fairly rampant), sometimes the police monitor those locations to educate drivers on the correct use of these intersections.

We also have these odd left turn signals that were recently installed all over the area. For intersections with dedicated left signal ROW, they will turn green with the other lights red. Then, instead of turning flashing yellow, they go from solid yellow to red for about three seconds before going back to flashing yellow. In the meantime, the "go straight" lights turn to green when the arrows turn to red. It's really odd - the answer to a question nobody asked.

I treat them like I always have (e.g., yield on green), but it wouldn't surprise me if I was pulled over at some point for "running a red light" during that brief three-second interval when the light is that color.

Typical (over)reaction.

There was a project here quite a few years ago where a 2 lane road was modified to a 4 lane with center left turn lanes. They lowered the speed limit from 50 mph to 40 mph.

I told the project manager there was not enough sight distance and there may be an accident because of it. Well...a guy was speeding at, what they figured, around 75 mph, hit a car full of college kids who were making a left turn and killed one of them. Instead of attempting to fix the sight problem they lowered the speed limit to 35 mph.

The speed was certainly excessive, but isn't the person who made the left turn at fault? As far as I know you can't impede someone's travel lane.

In this case the speed made the accident worse, but didn't cause it.

Agreed. Left turns are dangerous. Should be treated absolutely at fault similar to rear-enders and "backing up" as much as I hate to admit that last one given I experienced an outlier.

andres3

xwesx said:

tjc78 said:

The speed was certainly excessive, but isn't the person who made the left turn at fault? As far as I know you can't impede someone's travel lane.

In this case the speed made the accident worse, but didn't cause it.

Not at all. If the driver was in excess of the posted speed like that, and there is limited sight distance, there would be no way for the left turner to have yielded to another vehicle that did not exist within that driver's "threat radius."

I have seen several times, including once with my grandparents, where the person making the left turn was not found at fault in such a situation due to excessive speed on the part of the person going straight. The tricky thing in that situation is to have witnesses, as well as insisting on an collision investigation. Physics does not lie.

How long does it take to complete a left turn? Part of the problem is hesitation and dawdling I'm sure.

andres3

snakeweasel said:

andres3 said:

I got another ticket. It wasn't speed related which will irk @snakeweasel as he claimed I never talked about non-speeding related citations on Edmunds.

Nope doesn't irk me the key word there is talked which is past tense. At the time I said that I could not recollect a time you talked about getting a ticket that wasn't speed related. I then invited you you to show me where you did, you have yet to do so. 

You didn't irk me, you validated me.

When the exact thing you falsely claim never happens happens shortly after you claim it, and you think that makes your credibility go up, well, whatever helps you sleep at night

Unless you have a conspiracy theory that I purposely got a non-speeding related citation just to prove you wrong. That would be an expensive and time consuming proposition. Almost as time consuming as searching out years old posts.

explorerx4

Charging up the scroll wheel. It had a break for a few days.

venture

xwesx said:

venture said:

Typical (over)reaction.

There was a project here quite a few years ago where a 2 lane road was modified to a 4 lane with center left turn lanes. They lowered the speed limit from 50 mph to 40 mph.

I told the project manager there was not enough sight distance and there may be an accident because of it. Well...a guy was speeding at, what they figured, around 75 mph, hit a car full of college kids who were making a left turn and killed one of them. Instead of attempting to fix the sight problem they lowered the speed limit to 35 mph.

Yes, because the guy that caused the crash would have only been driving 65-70 if the speed limit had been lower! Hahahaha. I can imagine these meetings now:

"Sir, improving the sight distance on the road is the best thing we can do to avoid something like this."
"We just finished the road! How much would that sort of change cost?"
"About as much as the modification did in the first place. We'll need $25M and a year to complete it."
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING NOW! SOMEONE JUST DIED, AND NOBODY IS EVEN GOING TO REMEMBER IT IN A YEAR!"
"Well, we could reduce the speed limit, but it won't prevent this type of thing happening again."
"How much will that cost?"
"$500. We could have it done tomorrow."
"Now that's what I'm talking about! Make it happen."

That's probably exactly what happened. It's also one of the reasons I'm doing grounds keeping now instead of engineering.

venture

tjc78 said:

venture said:

fintail said:

There was a distracted driver-related fatality at an intersection near me last year, so the city reacted and made the intersection no right on red, along with changing the light sequence. Much of it is moot, as I see right on red at the intersection daily - literally zero enforcement. Still chasing that speed bogeyman and little else. I feel very protected.

I like normal blinking yellow turn arrows - my city moved to them at many intersections several years ago. They help with congestion. But a few had to be rolled back to normal sequencing, as the diverse and incompetent driving skill in the area couldn't figure it out, and there were several cases of "drivers" breezing through a blinking yellow turn arrow and striking the oncoming car which had right of way. Dumbing down a notch, that's how we roll.

That green-red-yellow thing sounds very non-intuitive, and I would love to see one of the "engineers" justify it, especially from an end user standpoint.

xwesx said:

We have a few intersections where there are signs saying "no U-turn" or "no right on red" or some such. Usually the no rights are on those intersections with terrible visibility or those with multiple right turn lanes. For some reason, people forget that part in driver manual that traveling through an intersection on red is allowable only when not crossing a lane of travel and unless otherwise posted. In other words, left on red from a one-way street to another is okay, just as right on red is okay. However, right on red from the second of two right lanes (counting toward the left, or center, of the road) is not okay.

While they usually get away with such shenanigans (and, it is fairly rampant), sometimes the police monitor those locations to educate drivers on the correct use of these intersections.

We also have these odd left turn signals that were recently installed all over the area. For intersections with dedicated left signal ROW, they will turn green with the other lights red. Then, instead of turning flashing yellow, they go from solid yellow to red for about three seconds before going back to flashing yellow. In the meantime, the "go straight" lights turn to green when the arrows turn to red. It's really odd - the answer to a question nobody asked.

I treat them like I always have (e.g., yield on green), but it wouldn't surprise me if I was pulled over at some point for "running a red light" during that brief three-second interval when the light is that color.

Typical (over)reaction.

There was a project here quite a few years ago where a 2 lane road was modified to a 4 lane with center left turn lanes. They lowered the speed limit from 50 mph to 40 mph.

I told the project manager there was not enough sight distance and there may be an accident because of it. Well...a guy was speeding at, what they figured, around 75 mph, hit a car full of college kids who were making a left turn and killed one of them. Instead of attempting to fix the sight problem they lowered the speed limit to 35 mph.

The speed was certainly excessive, but isn't the person who made the left turn at fault? As far as I know you can't impede someone's travel lane.

In this case the speed made the accident worse, but didn't cause it.

With the insufficient sight distance, the ones turning left couldn't see the approaching car. There was enough blame to go around though.

venture

explorerx4 said:

@venture,
Hope you have better luck than I did with 'The Coolest Cooler'.
At least I actually got one, although I had to pay a lot more that the original 'kickstarter' price.
It was supposed to be a Christmas present. That xmas went by, so I thought, ok Birthday.
That went by, but did get it in time for the next xmas.
Was kind of like the 35k Tesla.

Man! Don't break my bubble.

Yeah. I'm aware.

henryn

imidazol97 said:

@ab348
With the right combination of computer software, typically available free, you could copy each of the disks to the computer and then rewrite it to a DVD of your own which removes the region coding.

A few years back, before I returned to work, I played around quite a bit with DVD movies. As long as it's not copy protected, it is fairly easy to copy to your hard drive, and then change the region coding. If it's copy protected, that is a different story.

And even if you do remove the region coding, you still have the problem of NTSC vs PAL. Your DVD player and TV may handle PAL -- and then again, maybe not.

driver100

imidazol97 said:

@ab348
With the right combination of computer software, typically available free, you could copy each of the disks to the computer and then rewrite it to a DVD of your own which removes the region coding.

Clever!

stickguy

this is the first that I heard of region coding

driver100

imidazol97 said:

More bad news in Mudville.

Got call from appliance repair company. Said part didn't come in today.
With my luck it'll be the wrong part, a bad part, or there'll be something else that was wrong as well as the fan and the circuit board powering it. No, I'm not negative much.

This is one of those downward spiraling stories. Hope it gets turned around by Monday. We should take bets.