Re: especially the car he was driving

Post #221,836 by Nightowl 8/31/05 12:05:22 PM Reply	Re: especially the car he was driving see a flasher in your peripheral vision or mirror and stomp the gas, the ambulance would have a hard time matching speeds and you could look for a spot to get out of its way. One very annoying thing, if you see an emergency vehicle get out of the way, it could be your loved one they are trying to save.I dont care if your light is green, wait. I explained it better in the other post. Ambulance was on a slanted off-ramp, Dad was on the outer road. Ambulance failed to hit siren, flashing lights weren't seen till it was right smack behind Dad. They took full responsibility. Brenda "Excel is to math what a Microwave Oven is to cooking!"
Post #221,855 by pwhysall 8/31/05 12:48:48 PM Reply	Feh. If it was on flashers it was visible from miles away. Pops didn't check the sliproad as he passed it. They may have taken responsibility, but the old giffer was still at fault. A = Anticipation (i.e. silly shit happens around sliproads, so Be Prepared) Peter [link\|http://www.ubuntulinux.org\|Ubuntu Linux] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
Post #221,863 by Nightowl 8/31/05 1:01:38 PM Reply	I beg to differ On this particular off-ramp, the person trying to bypass it on the outer road can't even see a vehicle coming down it until it's at the very top of the off-ramp. Blame whoever you want, but I've seen the intersection and I know you can't see anything behind you for more than the length of the on-ramp. Brenda "Excel is to math what a Microwave Oven is to cooking!"
Post #221,867 by drewk 8/31/05 1:03:24 PM Reply	You didn't drive much when you were here, did you? We have lots of on and off ramps with no visibility at all of merging traffic until it's way too damn late to change your mind. There are some on ramps I won't take in rush hour unless I'm driving something with really good 0-70 peformance. So no, just because they had the lights on doesn't mean he could see it. === Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link\|http://DocHope.com\|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link\|http://DocHope.com\|http://DocHope.com]
Post #221,924 by pwhysall 8/31/05 4:02:06 PM 8/31/05 4:03:50 PM Reply	So? He didn't have to be in the merging lane. That's the A in COAST: Anticipation. Peter [link\|http://www.ubuntulinux.org\|Ubuntu Linux] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes! Edited by pwhysall Aug. 31, 2005, 04:03:50 PM EDT Expand All History
Post #221,977 by admin 8/31/05 5:41:43 PM Reply	You've never driven the Southfield Freeway, either. Sometimes, you just don't have that choice... get boxed in by a couple of semis on a road with merge lanes about 30 yards long and you'll see what I mean. Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #221,992 by Nightowl 8/31/05 6:10:11 PM Reply	So? He didn't have to be in the merging lane. There was no merging lane, it was a two lane road. Brenda "Excel is to math what a Microwave Oven is to cooking!"
Post #222,132 by pwhysall 9/1/05 1:34:39 AM Reply	I mean a different thing, it seems. To me, "merging lane" is the running lane that the sliproad feeds into. You can get out of that by moving to the right (left, in USia). Peter [link\|http://www.ubuntulinux.org\|Ubuntu Linux] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
Post #222,136 by Nightowl 9/1/05 3:14:38 AM 9/1/05 3:16:27 AM Reply	Re: I mean a different thing, it seems. To me, "merging lane" is the running lane that the sliproad feeds into. You can get out of that by moving to the right (left, in USia). Hmm if the sliproad is the exit ramp, and the running lane is the road that bypasses it, it doesn't widen into three lanes until well far ahead, so essentially, the off-ramp brings you into the one single lane the cars are in on the bypassing road. Hence the yield signs and the stopping to check behind you before going on past the highway offramp. Normal cars at normal speed, once they are seen at the top of the ramp, you can get beyond. Ambulances and emergency vehicles, aren't traveling at normal speed and are there before you know it. It's been addressed a few times at that particular intersection here, which is by the hospital. And sometimes there just is NOWHERE to go when an Emergency vehicle is approaching. The other day I was in a very long turn lane (with curbs on both sides and a concrete island alongside me), that was for veering off one main road to another smaller two lane road. However, it started as a one lane road for several car lengths before widening. A Fire emergency vehicle suddenly appeared behind me. I tried to pull over, but there was simply no where to go, and it was obvious the truck wouldn't fit past my huge car in that concrete curbed lane... so I had to stomp the gas and speed up ahead of him, and then slip off to the dirt shoulder (which is normally illegal), to give him any room to pass. We do our best, but there isn't always time or room to get out of the way. Brenda "Excel is to math what a Microwave Oven is to cooking!" Edited by Nightowl Sept. 1, 2005, 03:16:27 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #222,144 by pwhysall 9/1/05 5:01:14 AM Reply	Shiny things. Look in them occasionally. Was the fire engine teleported in behind you? Or did you, like most drivers (including me) not look in your mirrors regularly enough (every 4-7 seconds)? People who have things "suddenly appear" behind them cause a lot of SMIDSY* accidents involving bikes. Having witnessed the regular near-misses at one of the roundabouts en-route to work, I'm very careful about bikes. Your wing mirrors are your friends. Mind you, some bikers don't help themselves; I saw a spectacularly bad piece of riding this morning. I was approaching a roundabout, saw it to be clear, and joined it. As I passed the entry on my left, a scooter attempted to cut me up+. Yes. A vehicle capable of a stonking 35MPH attempted to carve up a car that was already doing 35. I saw him in plenty of time and made an annoying but not dangerous move to the right (this inconvenienced but did not endanger the car behind me and to my right, which was turning right) and gave Mr Teenage Halfwit a good blast of my horn, because he either didn't know or didn't care that I was there. * SMIDSY: Sorry Mate I Didn't See You. A common excuse used by car drivers for splattering bikers all over the asphalt. + On UK roundabouts, you yield to traffic on the roundabout and to the right (remember, we drive on the correct side of the road). Traffic on the roundabout does not yield to traffic joining the roundabout unless there are traffic lights. It's the principle of "hard to join but easy to leave" which makes them safer. Peter [link\|http://www.ubuntulinux.org\|Ubuntu Linux] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
Post #222,169 by drewk 9/1/05 10:11:40 AM Reply	That's what I'm telling you There are on some ramps here that are so bad, with merge lanes so short, that you can have things appear right behind you. === Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link\|http://DocHope.com\|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link\|http://DocHope.com\|http://DocHope.com]
Post #222,207 by Nightowl 9/1/05 12:42:33 PM 9/1/05 12:44:21 PM Reply	Exactly And worse even, was the fact that the Fire Station was RIGHT behind me (around the corner to the left), so that I heard the siren while entering the long curbed turn lane (more like a huge Y road), and glanced back to see it turning behind me. I got out of the way, I just had to move forward, I couldn't go sideways, no where to go there. Brenda Edit: Peter, I'm not saying I NEVER am at fault. Of course I am, everyone is sometimes, we're only human. But in this case, he was out of the station and behind me just as I entered the Y-road and there was virtually no time or warning. "Excel is to math what a Microwave Oven is to cooking!" Edited by Nightowl Sept. 1, 2005, 12:44:21 PM EDT Expand All History
Post #222,230 by folkert 9/1/05 1:56:54 PM Reply	Some of the worst one I know about... Were within 3 or 4 miles of Beeps House. Let alone, New York... where you best have a car that can go from 0-50 in a heart bea and 50-0 in less than a heart beat. That's just to get out of your driveway/alley/service road. Trust me when I say you just ain't seen aggressive driving until you are right in Jamacia, Queens in New York on the main drag in Queens. -- [link\|mailto:greg@gregfolkert.net\|greg], [link\|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry\|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] @ *i_wethey* [image\|http://www.danasoft.com/vipersig.jpg\|\|\|\|]
Post #222,232 by drewk 9/1/05 2:04:39 PM Reply	I'm thinking PA Tunrpike Some of them have the 5-foot barriers between the lanes, which you can't see over unless you're in a semi, and merge lanes sometimes about two car lengths. === Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link\|http://DocHope.com\|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link\|http://DocHope.com\|http://DocHope.com]
Post #222,236 by broomberg 9/1/05 2:10:12 PM Reply	Buncha wimps Just call it accelerated evolution. Darwin in action. Driver incapable of handling the situation, you die. And there is a good chance your kids die with you, which means your genes won't spread any further.
Post #222,330 by jb4 9/1/05 6:33:59 PM Reply	Might just be Darwin in action... ...Because it sure wasn't intelligent design.... jb4 shrub●bish (Am., from shrub* + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf.* BULLSHIT
Post #222,363 by ben_tilly 9/1/05 9:08:22 PM Reply	There are multiple evolved strategies for this problem The one that I've evolved to use is called "avoidance". Cheers, Ben I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
Post #222,419 by Ashton 9/2/05 7:00:18 AM Reply	Hmmm - spent a couple summers at 119-14 Union Tpke in Queens. BMT, IRT, IND.. too young to have a car; didn't realize that the traffic zooming near the sidewalk I learned to skate on {Ouch!} was destined for such infamy! Would skate to Forest Hills (didn't know about 'tennis' either) for a movie {sniff}. (in early '90s, enroute Boston RT to Miami - I drove past that Tpke, had a few seconds to glance: yup that brownish building stood!) Time.. wounder of all heels.
Post #222,366 by static 9/1/05 9:21:08 PM Reply	Bikers in all-black on black cycles should be banned. Some years ago I came out of a side-street near where I worked onto a not-busy connecting road, both fairly flat and quite straight. Checked both ways before turning left, went round the corner to find a motor-cyclist skite past. I know never saw anything before I turned - the only explanation was that he was almost impossible to see because he was in 100% black leathers. And I bet he was wondering how I didn't see him, too. Wade. d-_-b
Post #222,123 by ben_tilly 9/1/05 12:35:42 AM Reply	That depends on area On ramps in Los Angeles tend to be fairly sane. Cheers, Ben I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)

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