his page collects random musings on cars, driving, and the weird things that can happen in relation to them.

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June 24, 2003

From part of a longer update about the dangerous nature of SUVs in general. 

On a more personal level, I've nearly been hit by other vehicles on the road maybe half a dozen times in the last 5 years, and all but one were SUVs.  The main problem is that they have huge blind spots to both sides and careless drivers, so if you are in a small sports car (like mine) you have to pretty much assume the Escalade next to you or in front of you has no idea you are there, and also assume that it's likely to change lanes at any time, without signaling.  I have avoided 4 sure accidents with SUVs in recent years, and every single time I literally dodged or swerved or braked to get out of the way of the behemoth.  And in only one case was I doing something speedy or sneaky that might have reasonable caused an average driver to not know I was there.  The other three I was just driving along at a reasonable speed, and the SUV suddenly decided to drive right where I had been, out of the ignorance of the driver.

The thing I can't answer is what would have happened if I hadn't been so alert and dodged them.  In three of the four of the examples I'm talking about here, we were moving at freeway speed, 70MPH or so.  And in all three of them I was slightly behind and to the side of the SUV.  So the truck would have hit me with their rear tire around the middle of my car, and likely the driver would have freaked out at the impact and jerked the wheel back the other way.  I'd think that it's a pretty safe bet at least one of the three would have over-corrected in their swerve and rolled over, eh?  And as we know from the above auto safety studies, SUVs tend to kill their occupants when they roll over, though I'd be more worried about me, and the other innocent people on the freeway who were suddenly trying to dodge a 3 ton SUV that was swerving sideways across the road, or rolling over in the middle of a four or five lane freeway.

To be honest, one of the three I didn't dodge, I was just merging to my left from a two lane exit ramp, and as I went over a lane I looked to the right and saw the SUV that was ahead of me and to my right had moved into the spot I'd just vacated maybe 1 second after I had.  If I'd had a passenger she could have reached out and knocked on the side door of the SUV.  And there's no way the SUV driver saw me and moved over once I did, they were way too close and fast for that.

The fourth incident occurred on city streets going about 35.  I was in the right lane and the SUV was ahead of me on the left.  A car in the SUVs lane slowed to turn left and the SUV swerved out from behind it without a glance and into my lane, and if I hadn't braked instantly, they would have run their rear tire into my front end and probably forced me right over into the parked cars to my immediate right.

That one is somewhat satisfying, since that one is the only time the SUV driver actually realized what they'd done, due to my screeching tires and honking horn, and half a mile later when I was ahead of him at a traffic light, he was making big apologetic arm gestures.  All of the other ones on the freeway remained entirely oblivious to the close call and potential fatal accident I'd just kept them out of.

My favorite of those was the woman in an SUV who was in the second from the right lane of a two lane exit.  She was doing about 60 and I was on her left, just before the exit, and doing about 75.  I couldn't easily get ahead of her, so I slowed a bit and got behind her, and then went over one more to the right, and began to accelerate to pass her.  Just as I got up next to her; she for no reason, with no signal, basically veered into the right lane, as if she thought in some way her car could merge into mine, amoeba-like.  I saw her coming and actually moved over to the shoulder, which was fortunately wide enough for that, a second or so before she would have crashed into me sideways.

After I braked and got behind her and traded an amazed look and a shrug with a driver to my left, who had been behind the SUV and seen the whole thing, I moved up behind the SUV, passing the other guy, and then passed the SUV on the left. Taking a look over, I could see a blond secretarial-looking woman, of course on a cell phone, and totally oblivious to me dodging her by swerving onto the fricking shoulder.

That one I just laughed off and laughed for a few more days, just thinking, "Typical SUV driver." every hour or two, and chuckling about it.  Might as well curse a dog for barking as an SUV for driving poorly, IMHO.

And before anyone gets all huffy, I realize that some SUV drivers are good drivers, and not all are reckless and clueless.  Those are the other SUVs out there, not yours.  You are an excellent driver, very safe, and you've never almost run over a smaller car that you didn't see in your cursory glance in your blindspotted sideview mirror.

May 31, 2003

I managed to lock my keys in my car at work Friday Night.  Never much fun, but at least I realized it before returning with a pack of wolves on my heels.  As a matter of fact, I realized it about 3 seconds after I swung the car door closed, but since real life is still sadly lacking in an "undo" option I could only press my forehead woefully to the glass, gazing down at the shiny keys in the center coin dish.

I was late for work as always, and somehow while trying to grab my work shirt, hat, badge, money, water bottle, granola bar, and put on The Club and remove the detachable face from my stereo, I managed to stick the keys in the coin dish, rather than into my pocket as I had planned.  Not that this veritable waterfall of excuses brought me any closer to being able to get my damn keys out.  And since I was already late for work, there was nothing to do but trot off towards the employee entrance, misgivings heavy in my heart.

My car isn't real likely to be stolen at any point (since it's not valuable or a real popular model) and I knew the odds of anyone peering into it closely enough to notice the keys in the coin dish were pretty low.  At least anyone who wasn't going to steal it anyway.  But I worried nevertheless.

I have spare car keys of course, but they sleep in a drawer in my kitchen, and since the rats have yet to achieve flight capabilities, much less the ability to answer the phone or break out of their cage or figure out the way from my apartment to the stadium parking lot, and there are no more sentient life forms in my apartment, the spares were well out of reach.  Not to mention that my door keys were locked in the car also, so I couldn't have gotten into my apartment even if I could have flown there, rat-like.

If I had locked myself out somewhere else, I would probably have called my mom or dad to see if either of them could have driven to my apartment and gotten the key and brought it to me, since they both have spare apartment keys, though not spare car keys.

However since I was at the stadium I was in luck, since the AAA club operates a free service there after games.  They'll do battery jumps and help you with lock outs and other such minor stuff, so when I finished working around the 8th inning I hurried over to Customer Service, removing my badge and work hat so they'd think I was an actual customer, and made the request. They called up the Triple-A guy on the walkie talkie, and since it was a small crowd and not that late, he drove up in just a few minutes, and then took me over to my car.

The first thing I always wonder about them (cops, tow truck drivers, etc) breaking into your car for you is just how much proof they require, in advance, that it's actually your car.  Sometimes they'll make you really prove it by showing them the registration and making sure that it matches your driver's license photo. Or else they'll make you give them your license plate number in advance, or describe something in the car.  This is a lot less secure, since after all, you'd be sure to note those if you were scouting out a car to steal anyway.

The guy at work Friday night seemed to operate on the honor system method, where he required zero proof of anything, since after all, what possible reason could I have to want to break into a car if it wasn't my car? *cough*

Now possibly since my car is a relatively inexpensive little Saturn sports coupe and the keys were lying right inside it, as promised, he believed me.  And if it had been a new Lexus or something expensive, he'd have been more suspicious.  But I don't really think so, since he seemed quite oblivious to the prospect of anything illegal going on. He did note the license plate, but that's not going to do anyone any good other than give the rightful owner something to curse about if I had been a thief.

As always when a tow truck guy breaks into your car, it's depressing how easy it is.  It wasn't quite as depressing as usual this time, since he tried for a minute with a splitter and a slim jim on the passenger side, and couldn't get the lock.  He kept catching the door handle bar, but wasn't gaining entrance that way.

However once I pointed out that I'd left the driver's side window open a crack, he got another tool out, a sort of double-thick coat hanger thingie with a hook on the end, and with that he was able to reach in and pop the lock open manually from the inside in about 10 seconds.  I'm sure he could have hotwired the car in 30 seconds on top of that, or just done it the hard way with a screwdriver.

They didn't call that car theft movie "Gone in Sixty Seconds" for nothing, you know; it really is that easy to steal a car under most circumstances.  I have a Club on my steering wheel, but those aren't too hard to beat either.  The real key seems to be to have a kill switch that's hard to find, a kill switch timer on your ignition (as my car has), or to drive a crappy car no one will ever steal.

I don't mention car alarms here since I don't think they have any effect.  Everyone hates the sound of them so much and they so often go off for no reason that by now they are completely ignored.  Everyone would just assume it was malfunctioning or someone was borrowing a friend's car and couldn't remember how to shut the damn thing off, and that's assuming they weren't like me.  Me? I hate noisy car alarms with such a passion that I would be in full support of legislation allowing any offended party to beat a car with a baseball bat if the alarm went off for more than 20 seconds at any time.  Or I would at least laugh and giggle at the prospect of a car with one being stolen.

But then again, I feel pretty much the same way about screaming babies, so it might have more to do with my lack of tolerance for loud, annoying sounds than it has anything to do with car alarms, per se.

January 29, 2003

One thing that always strikes me odd about driving is how cars with relatively low-powered engines can maintain their speed, but not accelerate.

My case in point is my car, a Saturn SL2 sports coupe.  Looks sorta sporty, accelerates okay, but has no top speed.  I can not get it over 100 on the flat, and past 70 it accelerates very slowly.  I don't know the horse power or engine specs, and I'm not going to look them up now.  That sort of thing only interests me when it's time to compare a Ferrari to a Lamborghini, for example.  Buy a big ticket or stay home.

Anyway, the odd thing about my car is that on a steep hill, such as the one you encounter on 52 West, coming from Santee, heading towards Tierrasanta, I can maintain a much faster speed than I can accelerate to.  52W is pretty uncrowded there, most of the time, and there are three lanes going up the long hill, so I can usually open it up to 85 or 90 (52 is a very fast freeway, once you are out of the La Jolla area) before I get to the hill.  And if I keep the pedal down, I can maintain any speed short of about 92 all the way up the hill.

However, if I have to slow down at some point going up the hill, due to other cars being in the way, I'm doomed.  I can not accelerate past about 74 going up the hill no matter what.  The same holds if I can't get a run at the hill.  If I'm going some dreadfully slow (and legal) speed like 65 MPH at the bottom of the hill, I can ever-so-slowly accelerate on my way up, but I'll never get past say 72 or 74, and I'll reach about 70 almost immediately, and then gain about .5 MPH per half mile.

What puzzles me is how my car can go 20 MPH faster if it's going that fast to begin with, and maintain it indefinitely, while it can't accelerate towards anything approaching that speed if I don't have it going in.  The same holds true on the flat; if I get up to 110 or 120 I can maintain that easily, but if I'm going 80 and floor it, I won't get past 95.  Ever.  This is less-easily tested however, since I don't trust my tires past about 105 so won't stay over 100 for long.  Not to mention the fact that cops aren't real sympathetic to your engine physics tests if they bag you going triple digit MPH.

What I would expect, but that the observational data does not bear out, is that my car would achieve entropy eventually.  A really long hill of a steady grade would slowly bleed speed away if I were going 95 to start with, and I'd end up at 75, and the same thing if I were going 50 to start with; I'd steadily gain to 70 and then very slowly to 75, where I'd top off.

Why this doesn't happen is beyond my cleverness with engines and horsepower and centrifugal force.

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Re: my comments yesterday on top automobile speed and hills, a reader wrote in to explain his interpretation of the physics of the phenomena.  Here's Caaroid.

Cars: F=m*a where F is the force (horsepower your car has), m is the Mass of the car and a is the acceleration. Given the limiting factors of F and m, I believe it is simple enough to see why it is hard to accelerate (impossible after a point) and yet easy to maintain speed (you only have to negate the "negative" acceleration coming from friction and maybe going uphill).

January 7, 2003

Car crash.

Unrelated to the above image/information, comes this tale of woe.

I live right next to a rather busy street.  Two lanes going each way, about 3/10ths of a mile from a busy freeway interchange.  I have no figures, but I'd say that many thousands of cars travel up and down the street next to my bedroom window every day.

Fortunately I'm on the second/top floor of the apt complex, and there is a steep hill up from the street, so I'm probably 35 feet above street level.  High enough that the noise isn't that bad, though they stupidly made the outside of the building arched above the narrow bathroom windows.  So there's this 4 or 5 foot overhang, which serves as a perfect sound funnel, pulling the street noise in very well.

There is a cross street with a perpetually-red traffic light to the right, out my bedroom window, about 30 yards.  I can't quite see it through my bathroom or bedroom window, since there is a big tree to the right.

Since I've lived here, about 4.5 years, I've heard at least 15 car crashes out my bedroom window.  Three or four times it's been to the left where the driveway from my apartment exits, and points directly towards the exit driveway of a Denny's across the street.  Cars coming down or doing up the street are often screaming along at 50 or 60 MPH, despite the speed limit being 35, and the traffic light at the bottom of the hill so frequently being red.  There is also a lot of traffic, usually backed up the hill well past my apartment driveway from about 4-6pm every night, as people wait to get onto the two freeways that join just down the road.  The road is not very wide either, with just enough space in the middle for a left turn lane going into Denny's and one the other way into my apartment driveway.  But there's not enough space to pull out into the middle of the street and wait for it to be clear to get to the other lane

As a consequence, people trying to turn left from my apartment or from Denny's across the street must look both ways, and then frequently floor it to scoot across and into the other lane before another clump of 20 cars comes down/up the hill.

As I said, I've heard at least 15 crashes.  And I mean heard, as in screeching of tires and loud impact sounds.  I'm sure there have been dozens and dozens more that were of the fender bender type, inaudible to my ear, as well as many more when I wasn't home or was asleep.

I don't usually go out and look, unless there are excessive sirens and the street seems to be entirely blocked off. Which happens once in a while.  I've seen several cars upside down on the hillside in front of my apartment, and once a pick up truck upside down and actually leaning against the front wall of Denny's, right across the street.

The best accident to date happened Saturday.

I was in bed, preparing to go to sleep, at around 9am.  I had the blinds closed and the light on, since I was reading, trying to get tired enough to sleep.  I've been having issues not staying up 20 hours or more every day of late.

Anyway, I heard a familiar screech, and then a thump-a-duh thump-a-duh thump-a-duh like a big plastic box falling down a flight of stairs. It seemed to be nearly below my bedroom window, and a few seconds later there was a huge crunching noise and then blackness descended.

I realized at once that someone had crashed into some sort power box, and cut the power to the apartment complex, and it struck me as hysterically funny, for some reason.  Sitting there in bed, in the dark, with a book in my hands.

I was wide awake at that point, so I got up and looked out the bedroom window, but aside from some sprayed safety glass and several cars pulled over to the side of the street, I couldn't see anything.  I threw on some pants and went outside, and a crappy blue compact car was sideways in the street, way down by the intersection, and there were pieces of torn shrubbery and bushes all down the side of the road, all over the sidewalk.  Picking my way through the dog shit next to the apartment building (everyone with a dog seems to use the same place to "walk" it) I hopped down the footpath on the embankment, and yep, one of those big green metal boxes was substantially dented, not far from where the car had come to a halt.

There was already a police car there, and as I watched another one came roaring up the hill and parked across the street, blocking it off entirely.  Cars had to just turn around there, or cut through Denny's.

I could not see any other cars with any damage, just ones that had stopped behind the wrecked one, so as far as I could tell they had somehow lost control spun, flipped, rolled over at least two or three times, bounced off the green power box, and then spun back into the street, and landed on their wheels.  Nice driving there, Mr. Andretti.

Having seen my fill, I went back inside and sat in the bright living room to read for an hour.  I was finally feeling tired them, and went into the bedroom to lie down.  As I got there it suddenly occurred to me that I could have just opened the bedroom window and gotten plenty of light to read while in bed.  I just hadn't thought of it at the time, since I had closed up the window and made it dark, and that meant it was time for sleepy-bye, and not wakie-poo.  The window would not see light again before I awoke that afternoon.  At least that was the plan.

I got into bed and settled down, relaxing, breathing deeply, trying to put myself to sleep.  I wasn't that tired, but it was working, and just as I was drifting off... the light came on and the radio started blaring.

That woke me up completely, with another laugh, and I lay there and read another 200 pages, finishing off the stupid novel and wrecking my sleeping cycle yet again.

Life near a busy street is always fun.  Or possibly always sucks.  I'm not sure which.  I need one of those "spill beer off of it" balconies like the slum quarter houses have in New Orleans.  I'd have a nice view of the wrecking zone below, and hot chicks would come over to flash people below, and throw plastic beads around.

Ahh, the improvements one could make in life with money.

January 7, 2003

Dumb ass of the day.

BURBANK, Calif. - A Metrolink train carrying morning commuters smashed into a truck at a railroad crossing Monday, upending two passenger rail cars, killing a person and injuring 20. The victim was in the truck, which burst into flames.

The truck drove onto the tracks at a crossing where the gates were down and the signal lights were flashing, witness Greg Peale told KABC-TV. Investigators had no immediate comment. In addition to the one fatality, 20 people were injured, said police Sgt. Craig Ratliff, who described the injured as "walking wounded."

The train derailed and two of the cars tipped over sideways, so you know virtually everyone on the train must have at least severe bumps and bruises, and it's lucky no one in the two cars that fell over sideways broke their neck.  Picture your house suddenly going 50 MPH and then falling over sideways?  That's about what it's like to be in a train that derails.

It must run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, they have to get tow trucks to turn the cars back over, make repairs to the track, reschedule trains all day, etc.  All because of one idiot.  Lucky he died, or they'd have killed him.

January 6, 2003

Old people driving make me so nervous, since they just get befuddled, and don't concentrate on what they are doing. Not to mention how they take on and off ramps at about 30, and are lucky to get up over 55 on the highway. Here's a typical example.

A car jumped a parking-lot curb and smashed through the front windows of a clothing store Tuesday, narrowly missing a cashier and some customers. The driver and those in the store escaped injury in the wreck, which police deemed accidental. The 11 a.m. crash happened at Old Navy, 3369 E. Foothill Blvd.

"Here's where the cash register used to be,' said Capt. Larry Smith of the Pasadena Fire Department, surveying shattered glass and skid marks left by a 1994 Mercury Grand Marquis.

The driver was a 70 y/o female, trying to park in a handicapped spot, and she stepped on the gas instead of the brake, and was scared when the car started to go so she stomped on the pedal even harder, making the car go faster.  It's just lucky that she didn't run over anyone, and that the store was not open yet, so no one but some employees were inside.

I think old people should have to drive stick shifts.  You are forced to pay much more attention in one of those, especially when parking since you have to toggle the clutch and brake together, depending on your speed and if you're parking on a hill or not.  Plus if you forget which pedal you're using, you'll almost certainly just lurch forward or back and stall out.

And yes, I'm perfectly aware that most people over the age of 70 couldn't drive a stick well enough to pass their driving test.  That's the other part of the benefit to my strategy.

September 23, 2002

I did something tonight that I do from time to time, and usually enjoy.  Night driving. Just coming back from dad's house around 10pm, in the balmy warm evening, I rolled down the window, turned off the tape deck, and just listened to the wind and the other cars.  It's not all that exciting in San Diego, since there are like 3m people in the county, so you're not exactly alone on the roads.  Not on 12-lane freeways, anyhow.  No traffic at that time of night on a Sunday, but it's far from an empty road.  However it's still sort of peaceful, with the darkness, and the relative quiet.

True, I was doing it mostly since I was so tired and had a headache, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it somewhat anyway.

Ideally night driving involves open roads, rural ones usually, both windows open, and medium speeds.  You just cruise along, smelling the night smells, hearing little besides the rush of the wind, perhaps talking to your riding companion.  I used to do that years ago with an old GF, driving her home after a date or night school, and it was very peaceful.  I'd like a convertible to do it in, and some nice mountain roads, but that will have to wait until later.  Just like everything else I really want to do.

August 31, 2002

It's wrong to laugh at this. Wrong, I tell you.  Even if it is from Canada.

Grieving relatives placing a memorial at an intersection where six people were killed earlier this week were sent diving for cover Wednesday as two cars crashed at the same place.

An Alberta Motor Association student-driver car was making a left-hand turn off Secondary Provincial Highway 512, just east of Lethbridge, at around 9 a.m., when it was T-boned by an sports utility vehicle, say RCMP.

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