Posts by James Butler
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Or anyone who needs to visit somebody in a rural (or semi-rural – places like Piha and numerous Wellington suburbs are off the grid as far as public transport is concerned) area.
Indeed. People often wring hands about what the post-oil city is going to look like, and how we can plan for it etc. But the post-oil countryside is a much bleaker prospect.
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to nzlemming,
Not if your WOF depended on it
But that would force everyone to buy a new car. I like old cars ):
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to Chris Waugh,
And take the pitlane speed limiters from Formula 1 and put them in all vehicles so that it becomes physically impossible to exceed the speed limit. Hook them up to your device so that if the speed limiter is disabled, the car won’t go, and the GPS will set the speed limiter to whatever the limit is on that stretch of road. Oh wait, then you’d lose the income from speeding fines…
I’ve heard this suggested seriously, and I agree that if we were starting all over with the whole cars thing it would actually be an excellent idea. BUT, unlike the instant fine/ignition lock thingy described upthread, it would be pretty much impossible to implement on existing vehicles. So then you’d have 20+ years before the majority of the fleet were fitted with it, and a massive perverse incentive for people to hang on to older cars.
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Hard News: Review: Lana Del Rey, 'Born…, in reply to linger,
means you need something at a higher octane
(e.g. Bee Gees)Tell you what my car does need: Autotune </coat>
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Hard News: Review: Lana Del Rey, 'Born…, in reply to BenWilson,
Get a good car stereo. That goes for all you music freaks. Don't let wubwub loving bogans be the only ones who get to hear their music as the technology gods intended.
The technology gods never intended for music to be listened to in a tiny metal box with a pink noise generator at the front. Good car stereos are a waste of time. Choose for your journey music which sounds good on a crappy stereo.
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to BenWilson,
In most cases, I think it doesn't actually add any time at all. This is a great fallacy that many drivers believe, that if you drive faster, without anyone impeding you, and taking every cheap dangerous advantage that you can, that you will get where you want to go substantially quicker. You won't - along your way, you will encounter many stops, most of which are far, far longer than all of the little cut corners and risks and speeding added up to.
Heh - saw a concrete example of this on my ride this morning. There was a boy racer in a hotted-up purple Skyline, booming exhaust, hissing wastegate, tailgating, wheelspinning, dodging into gaps, all the way from Greenlane Hospital to the Panmure roundabout - I know this because I kept up with him the whole time on my bicycle.
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to BenWilson,
That sounds like a frustrating death-trap. I know how I'd get to the stop-box. I'd ride on the road to it, amongst the traffic. If I couldn't do that, due to car speeds being too high at the time to allow a cyclist to take the right lane, I'd stay in the left lane, and do a hook turn onto Gt South Rd.
Yep, that's exactly what I do. It helps that it's all downhill, and on a blind approach to a major intersection, so I can maintain an easy 40+ km/h and merge pretty well with the (slowing) motor traffic. But it means pointedly ignoring the council's passive-aggressive sign. I'm pretty sure that even if it were mandatory to use the cycle lane, as I believe it is in some parts of the world, I would ignore it.
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to Stephen Judd,
To date, the council’s response has been to put large signs on the footpath asking cyclists to be considerate.
Indeed. There's a sign on the corner of Wheturangi Road and Green Lane saying something like "Cyclists please dismount and cross to use the cycle lane". So if I'm heading east, I stop, dismount, wait for the privilege of crossing twice to get to the lane which I can ride for 100m dodging reversing cars and pedestrians the whole time? Then I want to turn south, and Great South Road has a handy cycle stop box in the right-turn lane. So how am I supposed to get to it, if I'm on the other side of the street? Dismount and cross to the middle I guess... #yeahright
Going the other way is less of an issue, until you have to merge from the on-footpath cycle lane to the on-road cycle lane at Wheturangi Road, while cars are turning left across your path. I'll stick to the road, thanks, because at least then I'm visible and my progress is predictable.
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to Yamis,
IMO if there is an adjacent cycle lane on a footpath it should be illegal to be riding on the road.
For that to work we'd need to agree on a high minimum standard for such lanes. Using the one dedicated footpath/cycle lane on my commute I'm pretty sure would increase my risk; Tamaki Drive is another terrible example.
As a car driver it is enough to be worried about other cars, trucks and busses on the road without worrying about cyclists when there are also cyclists riding along the footpath next to you amongst others.
No, you need to be able to do all these things at the same time. That's pretty fundamental I think.
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to BenWilson,
Rock on!
Sounds dangerous.