mondonico
Posts:158
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| 09/15/2014 02:09 PM |
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I live in CA and driving is part of my job. Every day all day I see people looking down in their lap doing something with their toys. As a public employee I have to be very careful how I act because my rule is everything I do is being filmed by someone, somewhere. But I would love to be able to yell at the fools. Best I can do is lay on the horn. So yes, I am for anyone who gets in the face of the fools who do these things. But be carefull the world is full of crazy and I mean crazy folks. I see them everyday also.
As for the NYT story. I'm sorry but that is just some over educated mumbo jumbo bullsheet. IMH yet ignorant and stupid opinion. It's nothing more than selfishness.
My late first wife had a way of telling people who were being fools that they were a fool, but in a loving way. One of my favorites; as we were at a stop light the passanger in the car in front of us thru out the window a large fast food bag and drink cup onto the street. Fast as "sheet" she jumped out of our car ran up and picked up all the trash and thru it back into the car and onto the lap of the fool. And in her loving way said something along the lines of I don't know if you realized that this fell out of your car. This was before cell phones and texting but I would of loved to see how she would of handled those. |
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79pmooney
Posts:3189
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| 09/15/2014 02:11 PM |
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Slightly OT but related. I got a kick out of seeing how lost folks at cycle Oregon were last week when we spent a week mostly far from any cell phone coverage. In past years with better coverage, their would be lines at the Community Cycling Center charging booth. (Their charging was solar powered so daytime only. It became a daily priority to arrange the day (and ride) so they could get their devices recharged. This year I think CCC had outside power (I never charged my phone; used it only as an alarm). The CCC lines were a lot smaller, but the general feeling of being lost was pervasive. Funny.
My CO electronics? One taillight and headlight (in case I made a night run into town; never happened), two headlamps and one tent light, all LED so "electronic" and my cellphone/alarm clock which made zero calls. And while riding? Nothing.
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Yo Mike
Posts:338
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| 09/15/2014 02:18 PM |
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If local / state laws forbid phone use while driving, NOT enforcing the law almost encourages breaking it.
Possible solution:
Set up a cop / camera at point A on a road, and photo document phone use by motorists. Cop at Point B stops miscreants, and immediately impounds vehicles, leaving cell phone users to call or text for a ride. |
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79pmooney
Posts:3189
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| 09/15/2014 02:18 PM |
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mondonico, great story! Sounds like she was a gem.
The story I heard as a kid was of one of my fore-bearers as a kid tossing a candy wrapper, his granddad driving on several miles, then stopping the car so the kid could go back and pick it up. Story worked. My siblings ans I never tossed anything out car windows, ever.
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 09/15/2014 02:24 PM |
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I have no problem with the technology; I can only face to face with people I work and live with; for friends and family over yonder, the technology is a great way to stay relatively well connected. Heck, in the old days wrote letters to my GF who lived in the US. Letters, remember those :-)
The problem with cars runs much deeper than the technology that we can't switch off. As a society we are hopelessly soft on the amount of casualties we are willing to accept in relation to car use. If that many people died from a virus, we'd have a widespread panic. If that many people died in a terrorist attack, we'd start a war. But with cars, we just shrug our shoulders (except when its cyclists I guess). Real accountability for "accidents" (which are seldom just that) is the only cure.
As I posted in the other thread, in BC there has been an approximate 5% rise in claims coincident with having all these gadgets in cars. I agree we need to get rid of them in cars (or have them switched off) but it would only solve 5% of the bigger problem.  |
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79pmooney
Posts:3189
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| 09/15/2014 02:35 PM |
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OC, 35,561 US auto deaths in 2012. Roughly 10% of those deaths were to people outside a vehicle (ie pedestrians, etc.) (Wikipedia) As I recall, we started two wars for approximately that number of deaths from terrorists.
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stinkyhelmet
Posts:94
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| 09/15/2014 03:42 PM |
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The behaviour is here to stay and car manufacturers know it.
Those of you that watch tv have by now seen the car advertisements showcasing their cars' ability to allow you to drive while dstracted....text, eat, put on makeup, look in the back seat.....doesn't matter what...and the car will stop for you or auto-correct if it detects something out there. They are saying it is ok to not pay attention and to continue to drive irresponsibly and the car will stop for you....yay!
Don't know why they want to set themselves up for the inevitable lawsuit. A driver buys one of these smart cars that supposedly will stop for you.......if needed. The drivier is texting and the car doesn't do as promised and they kill themselves and some others. The driver's relatives sue the car manufactuer....blah, blah, blah.
Glad I won't be around when all personal accountability and responsibility has entirely vanished from our society. |
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THE SKINNY
Posts:506
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| 09/15/2014 03:46 PM |
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| 1 death is a tragedy; 35,561 deaths is a statistic. who said that originally? |
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| How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. |
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SideBySide
Posts:444
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| 09/15/2014 03:53 PM |
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Posted By Mike Kingery on 09/15/2014 03:42 PM
Those of you that watch tv have by now seen the car advertisements showcasing their cars' ability to allow you to drive while dstracted....text, eat, put on makeup, look in the back seat.....doesn't matter what...and the car will stop for you or auto-correct if it detects something out there. They are saying it is ok to not pay attention and to continue to drive irresponsibly and the car will stop for you....yay!
I found myself yelling at the driver on TV saying you need to pay attention and learn to drive.
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huckleberry
Posts:824
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| 09/15/2014 03:59 PM |
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"Glad I won't be around when all personal accountability and responsibility has entirely vanished from our society." - Stinky
You plan on leaving today? |
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stinkyhelmet
Posts:94
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| 09/15/2014 04:23 PM |
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| sigh....already? I was expecting more of a social media uprising :-) |
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Spud
Posts:525
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| 09/16/2014 01:57 PM |
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| The don't text while driving? Some people get it. Most do not, because they ARE addicted. I just drove back to Tucson, from MA. It is frightning what I saw drivers doing while behind the wheel on that four day journey. We're talking tractor trailer drivers included. Too many variations of the law state to state. Here in AZ we have no law, because they say it falls under the destracted driver law, already in place. It's just F'd up. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 09/16/2014 02:17 PM |
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Here in AZ we have no law, because they say it falls under the destracted driver law, already in place.
That line of reasoning doesn't hold much sway with me....
1) Existing laws clearly aren't effective since people are texting and driving at will
2) No one is enforcing those existing laws as they pertain to texting (see #1 above)
3) There are plenty of examples of similar "redundant" laws on the books, where emphasis in one particular area is needed. |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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SideBySide
Posts:444
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| 09/16/2014 02:18 PM |
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| Any accident while texting or surfing should be assault with a deadly weapon. Any death should be Murder, it is reasonably expected. Send people to jail, and they'll stop quickly. |
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jacques_anquetil
Posts:245
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| 09/16/2014 03:09 PM |
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| mondonico, i like your late wife's approach. what can we do as cyclists, either by words or by actions, that will achieve the same effect: inform drivers about their actions without invoking anger or defensiveness? |
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