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Not that there are a lot of places you can drive in Alaska. Get outside of Anchorage and Fairbanks and its pretty much just one road.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Absolutely. Moreover, if you are in a place like Los Angeles, you will have to carry county level maps to find your way. How many counties are there? How many do I have to carry? And, like you said, maps will not tell you where
the nearest Sushi place is!
On topic:
I got honked by a guy making a U turn on a one lane (each way) street. He was facing north and was turning south(U turn) on a green protected left arrow. I was facing east and was turning south (right turn) also on a green right arrow. The kicker is that there is a sign clearly stating "U turn must yield"! Anyway, he threw up his hands and laid on the horn. Like it is my fault!
When you said your grocery store is 85 miles away from home, I have to say I just don't understand why you would live so far away from civilization. Especially, since your daughter has medical problems (I too hope they find a cure for CF; our hearts go our to her).
I guess if something did come up, you could take the Travel Trailer with you to camp in while you are in town.
M156
Hahah.... it does not take much to get a long way from "civilization" around here! And, there is a difference between the "grocery store" and the "place down the road where I can go to get a few groceries but pay astronomical prices!" With today's transportation, there are not many perks to "civilization," at least not for those of us who are civil. :P
What's this?? Another Alaskan???? Holy cow, that's cool!!
I tried the civilization thing in Texas, didn't like it. I prefer to live in the middle of nowhere, don't have to be civil if I don't wanna.
When you said your grocery store is 85 miles away from home, I have to say I just don't understand why you would live so far away from civilization. Especially, since your daughter has medical problems (I too hope they find a cure for CF; our hearts go our to her).
I guess if something did come up, you could take the Travel Trailer with you to camp in while you are in town.
When she's in the hospital in Anchorage her Medicaid pays for my room and food so its no biggie. Prior to Medicaid I just camped out in her room, have an air mattress, just made do, wasn't that hard.
I don't like living in town, I don't mind the drive usually. I get her meds once a month, she sees her dr in Anchorage once every 3 months. We have a pretty good system down. I think she's better off living out of a city, less polution, less people (people=germs), stuff like that.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
james
In my town, I'm 10 minutes from everything which you can get used to right quick. The miles stay off my car which helps the value stay up a little bit more. My E430 is a 2000 and only has 32,750 miles...I bet I don't put another 1,000 miles on that one by the end of the year. In my new Land Rover, I use it more for highway and cross country driving. I will probably put about 10-12K a year on that one.
Mark156
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
It's like putting on my seatbelt, I just do it and don't think about it.
M156
We have lights around here like that but our traffic engineers set them up as no u-turn in that instance. I would hate to see one guy hold up a left-turn arrow for a u-turn while he waits for cars in your position.
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060415/AUTO03/604150408/- 1148/AUTO01
A little road rage, eh ?
Rocky
I think portions of the fault here lies on all parties.
I was surprised, though, to actually encounter a "Prius traffic jam" the other day! I didn't think it really could be an issue, but here is a fella driving an un-plated (new) Prius on a 55mph road at about 48. He is in the right lane, but is approaching a light where there are stopped vehicles in the right lane. So, he moves to the left in front of other left lane traffic and bottlenecks that lane. Of course, before he can get back over into the right lane, the stopped car at the light has caught back up and is driving slightly faster than him. So, a 1/2 mile down the road, this fella finally decides he has the space to get right. Well, now there is a highly used right exit lane that 2/3s of the vehicles are going to take, so he has a funeral procession behind him by the time he gets to the exit... but of course he does not turn off there. Some vehicles have since passed him in the left lane, but then he merges left again to make room for people merging in on the other end of that interchange and bottles up traffic again... then I turned off. Ironically, 45 minutes later when I was on my way home, I came across this same guy once again driving 48. What was it about 48 that was so key? :confuse:
Hahah... I thought it was so funny just to witness it that I could not even be annoyed with him that time.
Hey all you hyper milers, if you want to go slow and save gas get a bicycle.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Maybe his speedo was off and thought he was going 50.
Today I was taking the same city-road path as the C-class in front of me that accelerated like a bat out of the glacial age. Not good for my clutch when I have to go from 0-5 in 10 seconds. And yes, she was on the phone.
Excellent point! It works pretty well for most two lane roads around here-the U turner gets on the left lane and the right turner gets on the right. This particular road is one lane and causes most problems. Most people automatically assume it is OK to do a U turn since they have a protected left.
Does it not feel wonderful after being freed from paper maps/mapquest etc.? Today I was in an unfamiliar area and it was raining so hard, I could not even read street names, not to mention the fact that some of the streets do not even have names posted. A map would have been useless!
This morning I got behind a 90s Civic at a light...he accelerated like he was chained to a house til he hit about 30, then he took off like some massive turbo boost kicked in. What the hell?
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Ding ding ding...using the phone attachement for her head!!! I honked, yelled to get off the bleepin phone and got a stupid bovine look. I also just about took off her left rear quarter panel swerving back to the right lane.
I swear people have gotten VERY stupid over the last 5-10 years that cell phones have really taken off.
Regards,
Kyle
On the way down, I was in the left lane on I83, passing a line of trucks and cars, when a woman on a cell phone in a Benz C-class comes blasting up RIGHT on my tail. I get semi-concerned when I can't see the grille of the car behind me... especially at 65 mph! So I moved over as soon as I completed the pass, and she blasts on by in a huff. About 5 minutes later, I come upon a state trooper who has her pulled over... YES!!
On the return trip, things were relatively uneventful until I came up on a medium sized truck with a dump bed carrying what looked like construction site materials. I move into the left lane to pass, and a full 4x8 sheet of plywood suddenly lifts up out of the bed and flips up into the air. Needless to say, Mom was a bit concerned in the passenger seat! My big concern wasn't the plywood landing on me, I could see that I was going to be ble to avoid that. I was worried that the sheet would land on an edge and take a weird bounce that I couldn't avoid. Fortunately i was really the only one on the road coming up on the truck, and the plywood landed falt and started to slide ina straight line so I was able to manuever around it.
My little bit of excitement for the day!
Some highlights (or lowlights):
-- a whopping 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes come within three seconds of some form of driver distraction
-- drowsiness is a much greater contributor to driver distraction than previously thought: it was a factor in 22% of the crashes/near misses in this study
-- 18-20 year olds are 4 times more likely to crash than 35+ year olds
More HERE
:sick:
Nothing sweeter than that . . . I used to half-seriously hope for tailgaters/weavers/near-side-swipers to end up on their roofs a little way down the road, but then that actually happened to an aggressive lane-changer who had almost clipped me, and the blood and gore and waiting for the cops/ambulances to arrive made me rethink my position.
I know how you feel; but I now agree, a whopping reckless driving ticket should suffice in making me feel better, because that is what's important, right? :P
That's when I toot at the person and the trooper as if I am the speeder's best friend. And make a big circle showing approval with my fingers and thumb!!!!
>and a full 4x8 sheet of plywood suddenly lifts up out of the bed and flips up into the air
Had that happen with a sheet of ice off the top of a minivan that the driver didn't clean off (female). Insurance company wasn't interested in the license and driver ID to collect from them--I made a state police report. I thought you had to clean your car before you drive it.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
on a one lane uphill, was behind a welder truck (pickup front, dually rear). it was loud but slow. road expanded to 2 lanes for a bit then back to 1. i stopped behind it, but then decided to pull up even with it at a light(2 lanes).
as soon as i pull up, the truck starts edging forward a bit at a time. then it just blows through the red light.
i sat there for at least another 10 seconds. in the mean time, a red honda insight takes the place of the truck. then it tries to take me off the line! strange!
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=110144
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=110145
On the topic of motorcycles, though, this past week brought out the bikers in earnest as the roads were finally dry enough to permit travel to most locations. No sooner did I start seeing them on the roads than I saw one driving down a 45mph drag at about 60+ on Saturday and blow between a pair of vehicles along the dotted lane divider. :sick:
Ironically, we had a 4+" snowfall on Saturday night that kept the roads relatively clear of bikes yesterday!
All well and good if it actually made a difference, but you and I both know it does not. Oh, sure, for a week or two people may consider it in passing, but as surely as the person itself passed so will the lesson. :sick:
Usually it's just a lapse in concentration or a bad day. If we were all killed for one bad moment of driving we'd end up without people...
But in the intersections around here, traffic turning left goes first!
This morning the Tahoe looked like he wanted to get onto an onramp ahead of those of us in the right lane. He was inching, revving slightly, the usual. Then cross-traffic goes red and he leaps! He gets half a car length into the intersection before realizing it's still red, and he has to brake and back up for traffic turning in front of him. I think he was still in reverse when the light did turn green, and we all went on our merry way and left him sitting back there...
What's a street car? Ask your Grandpa.
But in this case it's good to age yourself. For some reason, it's cool for adults (and car execs) to talk about street racing in the past, but just try doing it now... You get the worst case of "do as I say not as I do" EVER.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,