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Comments
I always follow the rule that unless the intersection is clear and I can *see* it is clear before entering, I will stop and or slow down until I can verify. And, it is first come, first serve as I see no point in waiting to give another driver right-of-way if that driver has not even come to a stop at the intersection yet and is not a threat in terms of colliding with me should I go and that driver not stop/yield. In the event of a "tie," yield to the right, or if both drivers are equally "right" (i.e., across from one another), then a driver turning left yields to one going straight or turning right. Basically, the same as a 4-way stop, with stopping optional dependent upon traffic conditions. In no case go, of course, unless right-of-way is granted. I would rather write about my frustration with another driver's behavior here than have it etched on my epitaph. :P
As for funky "Oregon" intersections, there can be myriad reasons for unusual signage including sight-distance issues, hills (the downward flowing traffic is permitted to enter the intersection without stopping), or "main" road flow - the portion of the roads that go straight across are actually different roads, while the "intersecting" road is a continuation of one of the other branches. Sometimes it is difficult to say without contacting DOT to ask. However, some DsOT are more receptive to feedback and suggestions than others.... :P
Oh, and the page or two prior to 74 outlines roundabout usage - I found that very informative as I have never used a multi-lane roundabout and I am sure that coming upon one unprepared could be horribly confusing... I would have to use the left lane so I could spin around the intersection a few times to figure out which way to go! :sick: Anchorage has begun to install them preferentially over "conflict" intersections, but thus far I have not encountered one. In Fairbanks, we have a couple but they are single-lane. My favorite drivers in Fairbanks roundabouts are the ones that try to traverse them at 30 mph and then get up in arms with other drivers who enter the roundabout ahead of them going a more appropriate 15.
I would happen to bet that they also cut blind curves on these desolated roads too.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Haha, actually, many of them did. One time a fella (probably 19 or 20 at the time) cut a blind curve and smacked his sister head-on. They both made it out of the incident with just bumps and bruises, but both of their parents' cars were junked. :surprise:
My family lost our 1980 Subaru DL wagon in 1987 when a fella driving a large pickup took a left through a blind intersection without stopping (he had a stop sign at this particular curving T) at about 30 and hit my step-mom head on. She made it out with many bruises and a few cuts, but looking at the car one had to wonder how she even survived it.
However, there were still a couple of idiots.
The idiot of the night goes to the mindless trophy driving the white Lexus RX. 5 lane road (2 in each direction with a middle turn lane), 40mph. She was in the left lane, going about 28, yapping on her phone, being passed on the right by every car, without a care in the world. And to add insult to injury, she had her high beams on!
Second place goes to one of the fine local revenue enforcement officers. He pulled over some undoubtedly dangerous grandpa looking guy in a Jeep Cherokee. He pulled the guy over on a 4 lane road with no shoulders....right after a corner. So that created a nice traffic panic with the flashing lights and blocked lane. Couldn't he have directed the perp to the parking lot 2 blocks up the road?
Hmm.... ah. Here's an article about it.
Thats an awfully big bird. :P
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
BUT - we have lots of mini-roundabouts, where the crossroads or whatever has a white circle painted in the middle of it like a little traffic island, and signs that warn you it is a roundabout, so the rule there is the same as on a full size roundabout, ie in UK you give way to traffic already on the roundabout, ie coming from your right, (we go round clockwise as we drive on the left), while in Europe where they drive on the right, they rotate counterclockwise, so to give way to traffic on the roundabout you are giving way to traffic coming from your left.. It makes sense, but the transition for Brits abroad, or anybody else coming here, is probably the hardest bit of driving on the other side of the road, as it doesn't feel logical. The whole idea of allocating priority to traffic on roundabouts is to allow vehicles already on it to get clear, and to speed up the flow.
On a full size roundabout, if it works properly, and the volume of traffic is moderate, and 'balanced', ie it is about the same from several roads, then you can sort of merge together like a zip fastner, and it may not even be neccessary to drop below say 20 mph, even faster if it is really clear. However, when it is busy, or if one road always has the most flow, it is sometimes neccessary to include lights as well, to adjust the flow to suit.
To come back to your point about things like a T junction, in the absence of anything else, the straight road would always have priority here over traffic joining from a side road.
Imagine their offspring.
:surprise:
Indeed. I have a friend who works "literally across the street" from there and he said he had walked under where the crane was lying only an hour before it happened. There is not a lot of room for error in cities. I have to wonder what happened to that crane to bring it down like that. It seems phenomenal that a catastrophic failure could have happened with such little warning - especially when it was not under load. The owning company says it inspects its fleet daily, so maybe a stress fracture that went unnoticed? Hmmm.
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Anyway, my wife says I am inconsiderate because I use my driving lights in my neighborhood, even though the road is deserted and the lights do not face toward any dwellings. Is this inconsiderate?
On the driving light theme, I saw a big Chevy truck this morning at about 5:45am that had no headlights on, just parking lights and super bright driving lights. I don't know if it was someone really being inconsiderate, or just a dumb redneck.
Reminds me of a time when I was a teenager, driving the old Tempo, when I was stuck in traffic from an open drawbridge. I heard a big thud from the passenger side, looked over...and a dog was staggering away. Apparently it ran head-long right into the back door of the car! It seemed to walk away OK, if not a little slow-ish.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
I still recall being in shock that a dog hit me... I wasn't even moving.
Hilarious. And reminds one of the old question, what's a dog gonna do if it actually catches that squirrel it's chasing? Not all of them are intent on tearing their prey apart. My family's dog was once chasing a squirrel that tripped and fell. Dog looked confused, waited for squirrel to get up, then continued chase.
So maybe the dog was expecting your car to run away, and didn't think through any further than that
cheers
The first time I drove my van to Alaska I was "greeted" by a moose about 75 miles out of Anchorage. I was on the Glenn Highway outside of Palmer, negotiating this incredibly twisty portion of highway that had steep cliffs on one side and drops on the other. Seemingly out of nowhere, this cow moose "lands" on the roadway smack in the middle of my lane. We hit the brakes but could not reasonably swerve since there was nothing but a rock face to the right and an oncoming Nissan 240 to the left (which would have been obliterated by my old '69 van). As it was, we were going to hit this moose. 30... 20.... (feet, mph, take your pick!) The moose looked at us and then decided to scamper across the road. The Nissan had seen the moose and was able to slow enough that the moose crossed in front without incident, but I swear we missed that thing by no more than 10-15 feet and maybe 1 second.
My other close encounter with a moose (in a vehicle) was in my '69 C20, mid winter. It was about 0500 with just me and the moose on the road. Thankfully, there was street lighting up ahead where the moose started his crossing so I was able to see him early on. He was just meandering along the road, so at first I just slowed to guage his trajectory (from about 50 to 25-30) and estimated that he was not a threat. Well, then something (maybe me) spooked him and he bolted across the road literally right in front of me. I swerved to the right shoulder and slowed as quickly as that old anvil would slow, but the moose was still going to hit me at the door/windshield (its head was over my hood!) when suddenly it turned left, ran along side me for about 50 feet at the same speed I was going, turned and looked right at me for a moment, then darted left and was gone.
You know, the worst part about moose crossing the roads in the winter is that the roads are so slippery. The young especially have a hard time with it and tend to fall quite a bit. Other than that, moose tend to be very matter-of-fact about crossing and they rarely change their mind about direction. Deer, on the other hand....! :surprise:
As for foot encounters, I managed to walk to within 10 feet of a moose when I lived on campus at UAF. It was about -35F and I was walking, face down and hood up, to the cafeteria. I hear someone yell, "Yo!," and looked up out of habit. In front of me is a larger-than-life cow moose who is also just walking along, head down. I stop. She stops. We looked at each other for about 0.0000005 seconds or long enough for me to make a very purposeful about-face and take a different path. She kept on her previous course.
I don't have firsthand experience with moose, and that's probably a good thing.
My closest run-in with a deer was, amusingly, one time when I was riding my bike. It jumped out in front of me, and I had to brake pretty hard to avoid hitting it. Given that I was on a bike, and going pretty slow, I don't think much harm/damage would have been done to either party (maybe hurt the deer's pride if there is such a thing), but still it makes for a great story.
I believe its covered under comprehensive as an act of nature. That's what Geico did for my mom when she hit a moose a couple years ago with her Subaru. Did $9500 worth of damage to her 2002 Legacy, thankfully my mom wasn't hurt other than being cold and some scratches. Happened at 2:30 in the morning, it was 40 below zero and not ONE person stopped to help her, they would slow down, look, and drive off.....this includes truck drivers.
Her car was able to be driven more or less, no windshield in it though. She drove for 30 minutes until she found someone to help her, she had no cell service where she was at. They called me and I tore out of the house, by the time I got there she was in shock. I took care of the insurance stuff, the wrecker, and got her to the ER. I shudder to think what would have happened if the car hadn't been driveable.
As for foot encounters, I managed to walk to within 10 feet of a moose when I lived on campus at UAF.
We have a moose that hangs around our house, has for the past 10+ years. She trusts us and I've been within 3-4 feet of her. She showed up the other night just as I was trying to change a blanket on our new young quarter horse mare. Poor horse about turned inside out and here I was trying to put a blanket over her head! Nothing much I could do but hang on, hubby was in the house, it was just me and my son and he couldn't get to the house. The moose was just on the other side of the corral.
Finally hubby came out to see what was taking so long and helped me finish blanketing the mare. By this time Mable (as this moose is called and yes she knows her name) was in the garden completely unconcerned about the trouble she was causing. She's a cool old moose, she's been known to walk up behind us in the summer while we were target practicing with our bows, lol.
Haha .. does she purr and rub her face against your knee?
Even Saturday as me and the misses were going to the show we saw a coyote run across the street. Saw one in my back yard a few weeks ago.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Incredible! The problem most of the time is that people need a little prodding to help - they have uncertainties, schedules, etc. When it is cold and I have vehicle problems, I do not leave help to chance. I just get out of the car and wave the next driver down. I figure if the person does not stop and runs me over, no big deal as I would have frozen anyway. :P
Seriously, though, I always stop when it looks like someone is in trouble. 7 of 10 times they will say that everything is under control, someone is on the way, they just pulled over to talk on the phone, etc., etc. but I would rather not leave it to chance. Winter is a brutal time of year if it comes down to just you and nature - especially if you are 10-40+ miles from the nearest building in the wee hours of the morning. I have provided transportation to people 50 or more miles out of my way before just to see them on the right foot - my time is just not so precious that I cannot give some of it when needed.
On the flip side, my Subaru broke down about 1.5 miles from my house a few years ago and it was -42. My wife (she was pregnant at the time) said, "What are we going to do?! We'll freeze! Do you think we can make it to that house up there?" I replied that sure, we could, but why not just go home? I walked across the road (to the side where traffic was headed toward our house) and flagged down the next truck. The man stopped, but they were on their way to Chena Hot Springs for some R&R and felt very pressed for time. I finally convinced him that our house really was only a mile up the road and even had him drop us a quarter-mile from the house to save him some time. I sure hope he made it to the swimming pool on time! :mad: But, I was grateful for his (reluctant) willingness to help.
She was in shock, didn't know what to do, she said she was crying because nobody stopped. She was so worried about the moose that she stayed by its side until it died. She was incoherent when I got to her, she was crying and babbling, just couldn't make sense of what happened. She ended up banging on the door of a house, when the lady answered (she knew my mom) all my mom could say is *I want my daughter*. So the lady looked up my phone number and called me, NOT the phone call anyone wants at 2:30 in the morning!!
You probably know the area it happened, it was about mile 315 on the parks hwy, not far from the reindeer/tree farm. It was the reindeer/tree farm that she ended up at. I drove the car back up the driveway to meet the wrecker, had to pull the windshield out of the car just to be able to turn the steering wheel. I have NO idea how my mom drove that car like it was.
I try to always stop if someone is broke down, especially if its cold. I've gone out of my way more than once. When the transmission went out in hubby's 01 Dodge about 30 miles from Fairbanks in April of 2002 I stood around with the hood up on the truck and counted 35 cars that passed by me. Finally a guy stopped and gave me a ride into Fairbanks, thankfully it wasn't cold out, although the truck would run for heat, just not go.
Keep right except to pass. :sick:
You try to give people the benefit of the doubt, and ... grr ... :sick:
Not a day goes by that I don't deal with this phenomenon. Yes. KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS! For goodness sakes.
Yes I was tempted to slam on my brakes a time or two.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
And on a car note, the guy who was killed was apparently a fellow car nut, and had a modified Nogaro blue (I think that was the color name) Audi S4 he liked to take to the track and tinker with. I didn't know him and have no memory of seeing the car on my street, but that still makes it kind of hit home.
I also got behind a rental HHR at the 90/5 junction merging onto 5 at about 25mph...no joke. Luckily it was a 2 lane ramp so I could safely and quickly go around.
My wife is from the Phillipines and she says no one there pulls over for lights and/or siren.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
People here forgot how to drive in the rain, thought it was ice, and started going half the limit.
I saw the same car sitting on a main feeder road near home in a Swifty Gas station at the pump-it-yourself lines. The black car looked out of place among the people seeking economy gas at the station which _I believe_ has below quality fuel. Price was $2.08 and the other 99% of stations had raised their price for the holiday pretravel to $2.29 or nearly that price in a couple of cases.
It seems ironic to take such a quality car and feed it low quality fuel to save a few pennies or couple of dollars at most.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I've also heard the car referred to as a "banana."
The car is slick. It looks out of place at the station. In this area I consider the gas the junk fuel, like reject lots. Ohio has no checks on quality of fuel at stations so allegedly we get the fuel they can't sell in other states. This is the bottom of the barrel station: the attendant has to turn on the pump for each car even if you're using a credit card. It serves a different crowd than the typical station.
After fighting inconsiderate drivers out of downtown Cincy on the alternate interstate, because a wreck has savaged I75 NB at the edge of downtown, through stop and go and then heavy, irritated commuters and travelers mixed on I75, that was a bit of humor.
I'm surprised there weren't more wrecks. People were nasty today. Too many cars for the highway in places with the travelers getting an early start on Thanksgiving.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I've never seen anything that shows that gasoline is just gasoline.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
the dirty little secret is that its all pretty much the same. It all goes in the same pipeline and who knows who refined what "joes gas station" pulled out at the end.
Basically a gallon of gas might be refined by Shell and put in the pipeline. That gallon of gas goes through the pipeline and is taken out by BPAmaco who will ship it to Joes service center. Now what Joe will do once its in his tanks ins another story.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
The 2 or 3 double-sided pumps are one for self serve. The other one or two are next to the little building. The attendant is outside; the building is locked I believe. The attendants turn on the pumps. They pump the gas for you at the "we pump" and charge 2-3 cents per gallon more at those pumps. They don't do windows. I believe they check oil so they can sell quarts. The attendants have a box for selling cigarettes out of also--I don't buy so I don't pay much attention.
They are a station in the "poorer" parts of towns and cater accordingly. Their motto is "The workingman's friend."
As for gas quality I have only what I've been told through the years. It may all come from a pipeline but there are differences in quality and blend appropriateness for the climate at the time. The additives vary, the timeliness of blend, the quality vary in my opinion. This company doesn't have the reputation for having the proper blend for each change of season and one person's comment was they buy odd lots.
The auditor's office has wanted to test gas sold in our county for more than a decade. The Columbus county auditor does testing, even state law doesn't expressly address doing it. This was an issue in the recent election in this county for a change of auditor.
Although I have an ability to understand the topic of gasoline blends, additives, and marketing, I don't have proof other than people's (office holders) having told me on the phone and in public television interviews (and radio) that Ohio doesn't test and we get some of the problem batches sold here.
Please don't anyone respond that I have to "prove" any of this. Happy Thanksgiving.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I also find it even more amusing that the mindset of buying cheap gas would "enable" someone to buy a 70-100K+ car. The provincial little worlds that exist out there...maybe in Cowlitz county, I guess.
Would a Standard Oil VP count?
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
They solved that problem here by either requiring paying by credit card or prepaying.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D