What is Mega Commuting?
According to the US Census Bureau it is driving more than 90 minutes and 50 miles one-way to work, (or whatever you do everyday.)
Well, now we have 586,805 of them.
Not to be confused with Extreme Commuting which is 90 minutes: 2,241,915 of these.
or
Long Distance Commuting which is 50 miles: 1,713,931 of these.
US Census Report
Quick estimate on fuel costs for a Long Distance chump:
$3.50 a gallon x (100 miles a day/25 MPG) = $14 Per Day
Approximately 250 working days a year X $14 per day = $3500 a year
For Mega Commuters, add 3 hours on to an 8 hour day. 11 hour day!
Damn!
The American Dream!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Traffic Deaths, Crash Testing, and Ted Nugent
You all know the "Nuge." He's the washed up rock and roller turned right-winger celeb of the era.
You may know in defense of gun ownership he recently compared gun deaths to traffic deaths and has been one of several gun defenders spouting off the seeming apples-to-oranges logic.
Here's a crappy USA Today link that attempts to bring it all together:
USA Today on Nuge's Gun Claims
The article opens with an 'interpretable' claim itself:
Wikipedia Traffic Deaths
A more or less constant yearly total in the 30-50 K range since the 1930s is not my idea of safe.
Also, there was a 5% increase in 2012, read here:
National Safety Council
We're not really getting anywhere.
Show me a reduction to less than 10K and I'll see real progress.
So Ted, the correct answer is that any gun and any car can be a weapon in the wrong hands.
And guns designed to kill people efficiently are more dangerous than say, a .22 caliber rifle.
High caliber weaponry is much harder to handle and control in most cases. I know. I've shot them.
Here's the funny thing though:
With the automobile-as-weapon, any idiot knows that in regards to crash testing, all the 'crumple zones,' and air bags in the industry don't mean shit when a large automobile hits a smaller one.
I know many fathers who buy their texting teenagers huge SUVs, (as big as a bathroom,) for safety.
As I've stated before, for the driver, current automobile safety technology has made them exponentially more controllable on the road than the deathtraps made in earlier eras, but the sheer size and power of these vehicles makes them devastating to what or who they may hit.
A safer car for its occupants is less safe for its target. It's an inverse relationship.
We value safe vehicles. Too bad we don't value safety for those that share the street with them.
You may know in defense of gun ownership he recently compared gun deaths to traffic deaths and has been one of several gun defenders spouting off the seeming apples-to-oranges logic.
Here's a crappy USA Today link that attempts to bring it all together:
USA Today on Nuge's Gun Claims
The article opens with an 'interpretable' claim itself:
"Deaths from traffic accidents have dropped dramatically over the last 10 years"Here's the ever-handy wiki of traffic deaths as a percentage of the population and the raw total to the left:
Wikipedia Traffic Deaths
A more or less constant yearly total in the 30-50 K range since the 1930s is not my idea of safe.
Also, there was a 5% increase in 2012, read here:
National Safety Council
We're not really getting anywhere.
Show me a reduction to less than 10K and I'll see real progress.
So Ted, the correct answer is that any gun and any car can be a weapon in the wrong hands.
And guns designed to kill people efficiently are more dangerous than say, a .22 caliber rifle.
High caliber weaponry is much harder to handle and control in most cases. I know. I've shot them.
Here's the funny thing though:
With the automobile-as-weapon, any idiot knows that in regards to crash testing, all the 'crumple zones,' and air bags in the industry don't mean shit when a large automobile hits a smaller one.
I know many fathers who buy their texting teenagers huge SUVs, (as big as a bathroom,) for safety.
As I've stated before, for the driver, current automobile safety technology has made them exponentially more controllable on the road than the deathtraps made in earlier eras, but the sheer size and power of these vehicles makes them devastating to what or who they may hit.
A safer car for its occupants is less safe for its target. It's an inverse relationship.
We value safe vehicles. Too bad we don't value safety for those that share the street with them.
Attack The Tool
In a measure sure to be drooled over by our gas guzzling, increasingly aggravated and violent driver class, the State of Ohio prepares to attack speed and red light cameras:
WKYC Populist Journalism
The Congressman intends to force the city to 'prove' safety has increased because of Traffic Cameras.
What a joke.
No police force can prove any safety measures in any other way than a comparison to the absence of it over time.
Shall we stop arresting people for assault to see if assault decreases, increases, or remains the same in 10 years?
The problem is speeding.
Unless the opponents can prove that an inordinate number are being falsely ticketed there is no reason to pull speed cameras other than the outrageous fees Xerox is charging.
A real improvement would be to use traffic monitors in concert with real live cops.
UPDATE:
Battle in my regressive state of Ohio heating up:
It's Official
UPDATE 2:
Please sign this petition at the Ohio Traffic Safety Coalition:
Petition for Safety
WKYC Populist Journalism
The Congressman intends to force the city to 'prove' safety has increased because of Traffic Cameras.
What a joke.
No police force can prove any safety measures in any other way than a comparison to the absence of it over time.
Shall we stop arresting people for assault to see if assault decreases, increases, or remains the same in 10 years?
The problem is speeding.
Unless the opponents can prove that an inordinate number are being falsely ticketed there is no reason to pull speed cameras other than the outrageous fees Xerox is charging.
A real improvement would be to use traffic monitors in concert with real live cops.
UPDATE:
Battle in my regressive state of Ohio heating up:
It's Official
UPDATE 2:
Please sign this petition at the Ohio Traffic Safety Coalition:
Petition for Safety
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Six Lanes of Bullshit
I've been driving my car too much lately.
I perform in theater here and there, and need to travel between my centrally-located home east to Cleveland Hts and/or west to Lakewood, often within a half hour as my schedule dictates.
On my recent east-bound trips I travel the Carnegie gauntlet, which along with Chester, is the street everybody uses to hurtle through the decimated east side of Cleveland up to the Heights communities.
One of my contentions is that you don't need to accomodate high flow-rate automobile access for a healthy retail economy.
The high volume of traffic on these streets doesn't seem to be doing any businesses there any good. In fact, any businesses that do thrive, such as my optometrist have long since sealed off their street-side doors in favor of a rear parking lot.
Walking along these streets is quite unpleasant and unsafe since they've been widened as much as possible for automobile traffic at the expense of the sidewalk.
These streets have become the de-facto freeways ever since the Heights communities bravely stopped the extension of I-490 in the 1960s, which would have torn Shaker Heights in half.
A good history of the battle is documented here:
Bad Freeways
They're at it again, promoting the "Opportunity Corridor" as some sort of high traffic rate economic engine:
Six lanes of "Economic Opportunity"
How can they not see the affect high traffic rates have had on Carnegie and Chester Avenues?
Chester Ave is a particular disaster: a wide R.O.W. in a residential area, yet no consideration of Bicycles or pedestrians whatsoever.
Between Chester and Carnegie sits Euclid Ave.
This road was recently redesigned, in my opinion, brilliantly. It's 25 MPH, with one lane for automobiles, one lane for buses, and a consistent bike lane.
The bike lane had to be fought for of course, and ends too soon, before it reaches downtown from the east at around E 22.
Guess which road is experiencing commercial re-birth?
The 25 MPH, restricted flow one: Euclid Ave.
An acceptable exchange regarding the Opportunity Corridor is if they henceforth reduce speeds on Carnegie and Chester and build Chester Avenue into the marvelous boulevard it should be.
I perform in theater here and there, and need to travel between my centrally-located home east to Cleveland Hts and/or west to Lakewood, often within a half hour as my schedule dictates.
On my recent east-bound trips I travel the Carnegie gauntlet, which along with Chester, is the street everybody uses to hurtle through the decimated east side of Cleveland up to the Heights communities.
One of my contentions is that you don't need to accomodate high flow-rate automobile access for a healthy retail economy.
The high volume of traffic on these streets doesn't seem to be doing any businesses there any good. In fact, any businesses that do thrive, such as my optometrist have long since sealed off their street-side doors in favor of a rear parking lot.
Walking along these streets is quite unpleasant and unsafe since they've been widened as much as possible for automobile traffic at the expense of the sidewalk.
These streets have become the de-facto freeways ever since the Heights communities bravely stopped the extension of I-490 in the 1960s, which would have torn Shaker Heights in half.
A good history of the battle is documented here:
Bad Freeways
They're at it again, promoting the "Opportunity Corridor" as some sort of high traffic rate economic engine:
Six lanes of "Economic Opportunity"
How can they not see the affect high traffic rates have had on Carnegie and Chester Avenues?
Chester Ave is a particular disaster: a wide R.O.W. in a residential area, yet no consideration of Bicycles or pedestrians whatsoever.
Between Chester and Carnegie sits Euclid Ave.
This road was recently redesigned, in my opinion, brilliantly. It's 25 MPH, with one lane for automobiles, one lane for buses, and a consistent bike lane.
The bike lane had to be fought for of course, and ends too soon, before it reaches downtown from the east at around E 22.
Guess which road is experiencing commercial re-birth?
The 25 MPH, restricted flow one: Euclid Ave.
An acceptable exchange regarding the Opportunity Corridor is if they henceforth reduce speeds on Carnegie and Chester and build Chester Avenue into the marvelous boulevard it should be.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Speeders Hate Being Caught!
Yes that's about all you can conclude about our city's speed camera program.
That and how poorly it's run: like many other things in the city.
This piece of video 'journalism' is all over the map, primarily using tried and true sensationalism to enflame drivers' expected anti-camera rage.
(Having repeat offender Zack Reed as the Council spokesman is a bizzare joke.)
Cleveland Councilman Zack Reed arrested this morning in DUI traffic stop:
http://bit.ly/XTPfeY
Speed Cameras Suck!
If you actually listen to the report you discover that the problem isn't with speed cameras, it's with the administration of the program. And yes, Xerox is ripping us off horribly.
Here's the facts folks:
Cameras don't speed, they don't even drive. Stop blaming a camera for your transgression.
Cameras also don't issue tickets. Police officers and Police department staff does, (or doesn't as the case seems to be.)
Cameras don't make streets safer. Enforcement of driving rules makes streets safer. Cameras can help.
Cameras are giving the police department more work. Nobody likes more work.
Speeding is against the law and kills people and other living things. Don't do it.
That and how poorly it's run: like many other things in the city.
This piece of video 'journalism' is all over the map, primarily using tried and true sensationalism to enflame drivers' expected anti-camera rage.
(Having repeat offender Zack Reed as the Council spokesman is a bizzare joke.)
Cleveland Councilman Zack Reed arrested this morning in DUI traffic stop:
http://bit.ly/XTPfeY
Speed Cameras Suck!
If you actually listen to the report you discover that the problem isn't with speed cameras, it's with the administration of the program. And yes, Xerox is ripping us off horribly.
Here's the facts folks:
Cameras don't speed, they don't even drive. Stop blaming a camera for your transgression.
Cameras also don't issue tickets. Police officers and Police department staff does, (or doesn't as the case seems to be.)
Cameras don't make streets safer. Enforcement of driving rules makes streets safer. Cameras can help.
Cameras are giving the police department more work. Nobody likes more work.
Speeding is against the law and kills people and other living things. Don't do it.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Dead Squirrel, Dead Inside and Out
On my ride home in a brisk Cleveland winter morn, I bore witness as a car nailed a squirrel.
This particular car, probably rocking some tunes, texting, or finishing some bathroom touchups didn't even slow down and (I assume) wasn't even aware.
"Sad, but it happens all the time," you may say. Dumb squirrel. I'm quite fond of critters, not insane or anything but the issue's more than just one more rodent pizza.
So, well, now the bold print:
Our culture, in its relentless drive for comfort and convenience has lost a necessary connection to the outside as a matter of daily routine.
Ditching the car for a bicycle or hoofing it on foot can invigorate us with the reality that is weather, (woah...) and the sights and sounds of the outside: the squirrels, the cats, dogs, deer, other human beings, ya know? (You'll also discover the sounds of the automobile to be the most unpleasant ones of all.)
You really come to appreciate a good hat, scarf, gloves, stuff a friend may knit or sell in a local craft market. Like Mom said, dress appropriate and you can stay outside all day, almost a kid again!
Food tastes better after being outside, rather than stuffing it in your face one hand on the wheel.
Try it sometime, while coincidentally saving some gas money.
Get Weatherenergized!
This particular car, probably rocking some tunes, texting, or finishing some bathroom touchups didn't even slow down and (I assume) wasn't even aware.
"Sad, but it happens all the time," you may say. Dumb squirrel. I'm quite fond of critters, not insane or anything but the issue's more than just one more rodent pizza.
So, well, now the bold print:
Our culture, in its relentless drive for comfort and convenience has lost a necessary connection to the outside as a matter of daily routine.
Ditching the car for a bicycle or hoofing it on foot can invigorate us with the reality that is weather, (woah...) and the sights and sounds of the outside: the squirrels, the cats, dogs, deer, other human beings, ya know? (You'll also discover the sounds of the automobile to be the most unpleasant ones of all.)
You really come to appreciate a good hat, scarf, gloves, stuff a friend may knit or sell in a local craft market. Like Mom said, dress appropriate and you can stay outside all day, almost a kid again!
Food tastes better after being outside, rather than stuffing it in your face one hand on the wheel.
Try it sometime, while coincidentally saving some gas money.
Get Weatherenergized!
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Induced Demand
The concept of "Induced Demand" is often described in physical, mathematical terms, for example: a wider highway rapidly fills to an extent that it needs to be widened again.
While this is true, I also believe the the more psychological characteristics of "fulfilling capacity" and related pressures of social acceptance are the greatest drivers of MVH.
In our world, we are expected to be able to travel ever greater distances in a short period of time simply because the technology exists to do so, and to do it in style.
This is conformist pressure just as powerful as pop culture and mass marketing. Not only how quickly we get from here to there, but also how impressively we travel that distance is one of a few, top ranked ways society has come to judge us and classify our status.
I'm reminded of a bar conversation I had with a 'dating expert' who related a date she had with a mutual acquaintance of ours, (oh so gossipy!)
She took great pleasure in describing the "piece of shit" that the person drove up to her home and how ridiculous it was that she should get in such a vehicle.
It wasn't a mean-spirited jibe, but more a way to present this assumed universally agreed principle for the purpose of a humorous conversation: which makes it even more relevant to my point!
I wonder what a date would say to me if I suggested we meet at the Rapid station downtown?
While this is true, I also believe the the more psychological characteristics of "fulfilling capacity" and related pressures of social acceptance are the greatest drivers of MVH.
In our world, we are expected to be able to travel ever greater distances in a short period of time simply because the technology exists to do so, and to do it in style.
This is conformist pressure just as powerful as pop culture and mass marketing. Not only how quickly we get from here to there, but also how impressively we travel that distance is one of a few, top ranked ways society has come to judge us and classify our status.
I'm reminded of a bar conversation I had with a 'dating expert' who related a date she had with a mutual acquaintance of ours, (oh so gossipy!)
She took great pleasure in describing the "piece of shit" that the person drove up to her home and how ridiculous it was that she should get in such a vehicle.
It wasn't a mean-spirited jibe, but more a way to present this assumed universally agreed principle for the purpose of a humorous conversation: which makes it even more relevant to my point!
I wonder what a date would say to me if I suggested we meet at the Rapid station downtown?
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