a musing julius…

my parents were in town to visit the north american international auto show this weekend (and celebrate my birthday) and we had a great weekend…but one of our main talking points we had all weekend was the american economy, gas prices, and america’s addiction to foreign oil.

i’ve already shared my thoughts on e85 and americas love of anything cheaper than gas (even though ethanol is more expensive.) but here we are, 2008 and despite $3.05 for a gallon of gasoline, we still do not care. here’s a great example of our future:

zero people looking at our future. learning about what could potentially power their vehicle in 20 years. while i didn’t take pictures of it, similar scenes were found around every single alternative energy or advanced fuel hybrid vehicle at the show. while this mazda5 probably isn’t a great example, a new tahoe hybrid (i happen to think the tahoe is one of the sharpest looking vehicles on the road) had zero people around it. lines formed around gas guzzling trucks, sports cars and luxury vehicles. handfuls gathered around a chevy volt. crowds waited to sit in the pontiac g8. (i’m angry its cheaper and has more horsepower than my car…thanks exchange rates…)

anyway…it just shocked me, that no one really cares about these cars. in fact, chrysler’s own research indicates that people will not demand alternative vehicle drive trains until gas reaches $13. man, i hope it doesn’t get that high.

dear MDOT,

it appears that my previous note to other drivers has fell on deaf ears. while i will not hold you responsible for those atrocities, i will hold you responsible for the horrendous snow i drove inon from miles 1-167 on i-94 in the state of michigan.

see MDOT, i’m from illinois, the land of IDOT, perhaps one of the greatest departments of transportation in the contiguous 48 states. i left chicago at 8am eastern time, and prior to leaving, it was well know a large snowstorm was coming to chicago and western michigan. everyone knew it was coming.

as i merged onto i-94 in the greater chicagoland area, i was happy to see salt and plow trucks on the shoulder, every 5 miles. just waiting. see, the snow hadn’t started yet, but they knew it was coming, just like you did. when it started to come down as i approached the indiana border, salt trucks were already working at the border. preparedness. they were just waiting.

so i thought, maybe, just maybe, MDOT will cover my ass when i needed to get my car through this snowstorm. imagine my surprise when i crossed the border into michigan (as the indiana DOT salt truck making a michigan left uturn before the border) and saw snow, just sitting on the roadway. i went from driving 75 on a wet roadway, to driving 35 on a snowy roadway.

from miles 1-167, i travelled an average of 45 mph, in the center. no, not the center lane, just the center. there were no lanes. you could not see any lanes, so people just drove wherever. my dad called me multiple times as i drove through your fine state, notifying me that i’d be driving “through the worst parts” between miles 60 and 80. see, my dad is a pilot, but his weather comes streaming live from reflective radar to his phone. i have to believe you have similar technology to identify where storms will be doing most of their damage. so tell me, why was it, that i saw just one MDOT salt truck over that 167 mile stretch, while over just a 40 mile stretch in chicago, i saw no less than 8 IDOT trucks.

listen, we know when snow is gonna hit…at least most of the time. put a couple of trucks out there…maybe if you threw salt on the road instead of gravel, you wouldn’t have had to deal with the two semis that collided and jackknifed at exit 130, creating a 12 mile parking lot back to jackson, mi.

thank gosh it was westbound…because i’d be pissed if it was eastbound. so next time, park a couple trucks out on the roads before a snow storm. i promise they’ll come to good use.

thanks,
julius

as i prepare for my 5 hour drive to chicago from detroit this morning, i’m reminded of the most egregious driving practices that grace our fine country.

driving in the left hand lane: I-94 is the quickest way from me to get from Detroit to Chicago. Many of the stretches, particularly after Ann Arbor, are two lanes in a single direction of travel. My most frequent thought while driving here is, “GET OUT OF THE LEFT LANE!” see, driving right, passing left is the law in most states. for some reason, michigan doesn’t thinks this merits being a well-defined law. transportation models consistently show that slower drivers travelling in the left lane consistently cause congestion. from driverightpassleft.com: “it has been proven in other countries that this rule of the road [drive right, pass left. or drive left, pass right in james bond land] can be implemented to allow higher vehicle speeds. also solid evidence shows that per capita, their highway deaths are amongst the lowest in the western world.” please, if you’re in the left lane, and someone is behind you, move over to the right lane, and stay there. people would like to pass you. it’s safer for everyone if they pass on the left.

driving with your high beams on: this is just idiotic. <start automotive lighting lesson> all automotive headlights are governed by the SAE and the USDOT. in america, we drive on the right side of the road…and as such, all of our automotive low beam headlights are biased to shine down and to the right. yes, your lights (standard passenger cars) are actually aimed 1.5 degrees down, 2.5 degrees to the right to illuminate road signs, and keep drivers in front of you from being blinded by glare. suv’s and trucks have a larger downward bias based on the height of the vehicle. either way, regardless of vehicle height, your low beams should provide approximately 350 feet of light in front of your vehicle. your high beams, only provide about 100 extra feet. they are not only brighter, but aren’t biased (as much) to point down and right. they point straight out. so you think that’s better because you can see further down the road, when in fact, reducing your speed by 5 mph (from 80 to 75 mph) will give your low beams the same relative sight distance as driving with your high beams at the higher speed. you should only use high beams if there are no vehicles in front of you. but you, believing you can’t see anything with your low beams are blinding the drivers in front of you (pun intended.) if you can see a car anywhere in front of you, turn off your high beams.

talking on your cell phone: this is annoying and dangerous if you’re not on a hands free device, like SYNC or a bluetooth headset. i purchased a handsfree device not long ago…but either way, you’re still probably not paying attention to the road. i’m guilty of this as much as the next person, so i try not to talk while i’m in the vehicle when i can. sometimes you just gotta do it…but if you’re going to, make sure both hands are free to…oh, i don’t know…drive the vehicle?

anyone else have an idea they want to share? i’ll be happy to post up some of your biggest driving pet peeves.