I really have to get into this time zone change and posting stuff earlier, but, whatever. You’ll get it when you get it.
Had a long day doing things and have a couple of observations. The first of which that in general, on most roads, drivers around here are not too insane. They seem generally aware of things like speed limits and turn signals, and mostly appear cognizant that they are, in fact, behind the wheel of a guided missile than can kill a lot of people.
Having said that, there seems to be some sort of unwritten agreement among people around here that while you drive like a responsible person in most places, ALL FUCKING BETS ARE OFF ON THE I-10 and I-17. This is where you let it all out. It’s Vegas, but a highway- what happens on the I-10 stays on the I-10. Fucking maniacs. It’s as bad as i-95 around Miami.
The second observation is that in many ways it really sucks a lot more to be poor in a city than it does in the country. Yes, transportation is easier, but you can’t afford anything once you get there. There’s shitloads of places I would like to go and see and places I would like to eat, but fucking hell everything is so expensive. In the country, you just don’t have shit to do, period.
Paid no attention to politics today. I think I am better off for it.
War for Ukraine Day 684: (Some of) You Have Questions I (May) Have Answers
HumboldtBlue
For a minute it looked like Washington was going to get blown out by Michigan, but the Huskies score just before half, and it’s a good game headed into the break with Michigan leading 17-10.
FelonyGovt
Time zones in Arizona are so confusing because they don’t observe daylight savings time. When my daughter went to school there I could never remember if it was the same time there as here in CA or an hour behind.
Jackie
@HumboldtBlue: Second half will be owned by the Huskies! 💜💛💜
Typically we’re Cougar fans, but we’re all Washingtonians when it’s for the NC!
Erin in Flagstaff
The secret to AZ time zone: in the summer think beaches. We match Pacific time zone then. In the winter, think ski slopes. We match Colorado time. So either 3 hours or 2 hours from Eastern time (3 during daylight savings time).
As for I-17, that’s the first freeway I learned to drive on. This was many years ago though.
Leto
The blog has declared this is an illusion, that everyone is making more than enough money, and ofc prices go up so just stfu about it.
kindness
No politics days are good for the blood pressure.
Nelle
My son-in-law thought that, in Phoenix, using a turn signal to change lanes was an incentive to other drivers to speed up and cut you off.
piratedan
seeing two themes over on b-sky tonite….
The first is that the Georgia prosecution may be in trouble because of allegations that AG Willis hired someone she was inappropriately involved with (romantically) for a price way above norm… although how this relates to the actual crime committed seems like a reach, but we shall see…
the second is the Roger Stone tapes where he speaks about killing of either Representative Nadler and/or Swallwell to “send a message”.
jimmiraybob
Ahhhhhhh, the memories. When I lived in Tucson/Phoenix in the early 2000s there were morning rollover reports on the NPR stations.
Suzanne
Just wait until you drive on the 101! For a while, the stretch in north Scottsdale was the deadliest freeway in America.
BR
A DougJ worthy headline I saw on Mastodon:
raccoon.zone/@tilton/111722701950037251
Captain C
That’s where you’re most likely to get a mix of Chicago transplants used to doing 85 bumper-to-bumper on in-city freeways, and retirees from Sun City who think doing 50 in the left lane of a 65 is going dangerously fast. Also, you can include the Superstition Freeway (60) after it branches off of the 10 and heads east towards Apache Junction.
SpaceUnit
“In the country, you just don’t have shit to do, period.”
Bullshit. There’s meth and fentanyl.
SpaceUnit
@Nelle:
They’ll do that in Denver too, though it’s mostly assholes in giant pickups.
Suzanne
@jimmiraybob: In more recent years, there were multiple wrong-way-driver crashes on the highway, and that became the morning report.
Splitting Image
I’ve been fighting off a cold for the last couple of days, so I’m altering between semi-productive and completely miserable. At least it isn’t Covid.
In my more lucid moments, I’m re-watching the 1980 Pride and Prejudice with Elizabeth Garvie. Jane Austen makes everything better.
gene108
There’s not much to do anywhere after a while.
HinTN
Yes, blogmaster, you are.
jimmiraybob
Pack a picnic basket and head up to Roosevelt Reservoir through the Superstitions. Then hang a right down to Globe – some decent eats and, if they’re still there, some decent local-art galleries. Then check out the Arizona Geological Society – lots of rocks & old mines in the country.
Barbara
@FelonyGovt: My husband has a major client in Arizona and he told me that the way to remember it is:
California in the summer, Colorado in the winter.
Easy peasy so long as you remember to set the clocks correctly in whatever time zone you are in.
Suzanne
Cole, you’re there in that very brief window in which outdoor activities are fun. Go hike Camelback or drive up to Jerome or Prescott and walk around.
Ivan X
@FelonyGovt: though, Navajo Nation observes Daylight Savings Time.
Also, when the rest of the state, in the warmer months, has the same time zone as CA, they’re not on PDT — they’re on MST. Same time, though.
dmsilev
@Nelle: In the Boston-driver tradition, use of turn signals is considered “giving information to the enemy”.
Scout211
My in-laws were snow birds from Oregon and owned a mobile home in one of the many sprawling mobile home parks in Apache Junction. This was maybe 30 years ago. We drove from Central California to Apache Junction to visit them many times and always dreaded those last few miles.
The view of the Superstitions from their mobile home park was awesome, though, and we could hike around the base of the mountains and climb the rocks.
Martin
So, I’ve argued for some time that people have two modes of driving (this extends to other activities, but driving is universal).
We have the safe mode where drivers keep tabs on every potential collision – other cars, bikes, pedestrians, dogs, etc. ‘I know where everything is and refresh my knowledge depending on when a collision is possible’. This is usually the only mode in rural areas.
We also have the trust mode where drivers cannot do the above – we exceed our cognitive load and simply can’t track everything, so we prioritize the things near us, and things we are more worried about. In this mode you trust the driver 2 lanes over to not be suicidal and try and hit you, and you just filter them out of your attention, maybe picking them back up when you go to change lanes. These areas develop cultural conventions for driving – how fast to go, how to pass, and so on. You notice these conventions change from say, I-5 in LA to I-5 north of the Grapevine. When you hit the I-5/CA-99 fork you can see everybody around you change conventions. For a lot of rural drivers, they have no experience with this (or maybe a little bit when they go to the airport) and without practice, it’s simply overwhelming because they aren’t comfortable letting control (and probably shouldn’t).
There’s also airport mode where things are so chaotic and there’s no established conventions because it’s a foreign environment for everyone where it’s just a free-for-all. Everyone is responsible for not hitting other parties, and that’s it. This is also Manhattan driving.
You see this in education as well. Classes with enrollments below around 70 or so students, instructors can learn the names and faces of their students, engage with them on a pretty personal level – bump into them at lunch out on campus, and you know they’re in your class, which class, what their name is, and how they’re doing. You can have a non-weird conversation, which makes students feel seen by the institution and belonging there. From 70 to about 150 instructors will learn the faces and the names but not be able to put them together. They’ll know which names are struggling, but not which faces. Meeting a student at lunch you might be able to say ‘you’re in my 2:00 class’ but won’t be able to offer up a name or give feedback on how they’re doing. Above 150, the instructor might recognize a student as having been in one of their classes, but not know which one or when. They’ll almost never know their name or how they are performing. Students are effectively anonymous. If a student disappears, instructors almost never notice. It’s not like the instructor learns 50 student name/faces and doesn’t learn the rest, they don’t even bother trying. This is just cognitive overload and it affects everyone.
In education you address this to some degree by how you structure your course offerings (I’ll spare you the seminars I could give on this). On roadways, you do this by isolating potential obstacles. On SoCal freeways you never try and account for the vehicles in oncoming lanes because there’s a big concrete median that removes them from the collision calculus. But on midwest interstates, you don’t quite get that luxury – you’re usually separated by a large grass divider which vehicles can (rarely) cross. Pedestrian overpasses lower cognitive load. Protected bike lanes lower cognitive load. Consistent speeds by drivers lower cognitive loads (argument for speed limiters). Dedicated turn pockets and signals lower load. Elminating right on red lowers load. The psychology of motorist attention isn’t really something that the US does, but Europe does – and their road design and operation reflect that.
So yeah, urban interstate? You’re in trust mode/free-for-all depending on time of day. LA traffic usually is pretty orderly except around holidays when it turns into free-for-all. Not a great environment for a WV driver.
Bill Arnold
@FelonyGovt:
This is the way. Sadly, at this house in the Northeast only the automatic cat feeder is always on solar time.
Mainly because the timer is too finicky to mess with. (The cat gets canned food; the feeder drops are supplemental.)
SpaceUnit
@Scout211:
I was once a pretty hardcore hiker and backpacker. We did a little four day foray into the Superstition Mountains back in the 90’s and pretty much crawled out.
That’s one of the most hostile environments I’ve ever encountered.
ETA: It’s no mystery why there’s so much crazy lore associated with the place.
Kristine
@Splitting Image:
You’re the first person I’ve seen mention that version! It was my first and my favorite. Garvie was a marvelous Eliza. I also loved Barbara Shelley as Aunt Gardner.
Captain C
@Scout211: I have a friend who lives in that area and you’re absolutely right about the views.
Ohio Mom
@gene108: I agree. At least that’s how I feel about southwest Ohio.
Captain C
@Martin:
This also applies to Boston, by deliberate intent of Boston drivers. Sometimes with questionable attention pad to the not hitting other parties part.
Sister Golden Bear
I, for one, welcome posts coming at an hour were I can respond to them, and actually participate in them without slacking off at work.
NotMax
Holding out hope that in tomorrow’s Appeals Court hearing Ford’s pardon of Nixon is cited as precedent and proof there is no such thing as absolute or blanket presidential immunity.
Remember that acceptance of a pardon conditionally carries with it an admission of guilt.
Bupalos
1. You’re absolutely better off for having paid no attention to politainment today.
2. You aren’t even close to poor.
3. Complaining about ridiculous inconveniences in driving or flying is serious Marie Antoinette shit. Your consumption is killing people. And animals and the future and oh no, bubba made you mad because you want to get back to… whatever other thing, probably eating some meat or watching a screen…45 seconds sooner.
4. Like, not YOU, but all of us. Me too. We need to do better.
karen marie
@Suzanne: Are you new here?
Hahaha.
Only kidding.
I hope you are!
satby
Drove 3 1/2 hours round trip today back to Chicago to have a late breakfast with a very dear friend. I take the toll road from the Notre Dame exit all the way until it merges with 94 near Gary and it’s so much less congested that it’s an almost enjoyable drive. 80/94 is just so loaded with semis that it gets tense even though I like to drive. Hell, I learned to drive IN Chicago: side streets, old S-curve LSD, and the Ryan.
Bupalos
@Martin: this is an awesome post that I got a lot out of.
Thanks for taking the time man.
M. Bouffant
@NotMax: Tomorrow is The Nix’s 111th birthday, oddly enough.
Bupalos
@Kristine: ok into the cue it goes!
Bupalos
@SpaceUnit: where is this now?
NotMax
@Ivan X
But the Hopi reservation (inside the borders of Navajo land) does not.
BTW (pedant mode, activate), only one “s” — Daylight Saving Time.
Bupalos
@SpaceUnit: there’s sustainable agriculture. Old growth woods. Mycology. Maple sap.
Need brewpubs tho.
Alison Rose
@Bupalos:
Enough about your Tinder profile.
SpaceUnit
@Bupalos:
A bit southeast of Phoenix.
Jackie
@NotMax: Has a time been given? I know we’ll get live audio of the hearing.
NotMax
@Jackie
Supposed to commence at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time.
SpaceUnit
@Bupalos:
I think you might be confusing the place with a different Superstition Mountains.
Though brewpubs are welcome anywhere.
Jackie
@NotMax: Eeeeks! Early for me; I’m up by then but will need to have ☕️ in hand and TV on. Thanks for the heads up!
ETA hopefully one of the morning front pagers will have a post cued and ready!
Martin
@Bupalos: Thanks for saying that. I don’t think I realized how important getting my thoughts out are to my mental health – so periodically I just need to bleed thoughts out. Glad that at least sometimes I write something useful.
HumboldtBlue
@Martin:
You wrote one of the most informative comments I have read on this blog a few years ago detailing how skilled farmworkers are and how those different skills translate into what they’re working on in the field.
On the football front, I said before the game, the Michigan defense was gonna be the difference because the offense was gonna score 20-plus point and Washington had to keep up.
Washington didn’t.
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conquering heroes
Hail! Hail! to Michigan
The leaders and best!
Kristine
@Bupalos: Compared to the later movie versions, it’s smaller scale. IIRC I first saw it on Masterpiece Theater.
No Colin Firth emerging from a pond, but it’s still my fave version.
Jackie
@David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch: Congrats to the Wolverines players.
Not so much to Harbinger.
Geoduck
@David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch:
The Huskies had their chances, but muffed it. The refs deciding to not penalize Michigan for holding didn’t help.
mvr
@Sister Golden Bear: Yes, I too appreciate threads that come in the off hours. Though I never seem to get to a thread before it is dead, no matter how much free time I have.
frosty
@Martin: Yes, I thought your brain dump on driving was useful. It’s a good take on urban vs. rural driving and I can see it applying in other ways too. As far as my urban driving skills, I’m getting less trusting as I get older. I HATE changing lanes now, and look multiple times before making the move.
LA freeways are different than everywhere else I’ve driven, except oddly enough, the DC Beltway. At rush hour, drivers maintain 2 second headways: the time between when your front bumper passes a point and the one behind you passes the same point. Everywhere else it’s 3 seconds.
What that means is that you’ve lost reaction time if something happens. As a result, you don’t watch the car in front of you, you watch the 2 or 3 in front of that one, to give you back some time to brake.
When I go out to California to a college reunion it takes me a day to get back into it. One thing I’ve remembered to do is to accelerate into lane changes. Gotta put the hammer down and make a confident move!
teezyskeezy
@frosty: DC power players think they are immortal…or at least impervious to damage from mundane everyday bs like car accidents.
NotMax
@Jackie
It’ll be 4:30 a.m. here. How inconsiderate!
:)
frosty
@teezyskeezy: Or maybe their limo drivers. I doubt DC power players drive the Beltway themselves. It’s just schlubs like I was, commuting from College Park to Dulles through the Rock Creek Rollercoaster.
Three crazy years!
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
@Geoduck: You can’t penalize them for holding the Championship trophy 🏆
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
Is it in doubt how the appeals court would rule or are you making a cheeky joke with the court citing Ford’s pardon of Nixon?
I’m leaning towards the latter. Sorry, I’m tired tonight lol
RaflW
@Martin: Manhattan driving is not a free for all. At least it wasn’t when I drove deliveries there (admittedly a long time ago). It looks chaotic at times, and it is not an environment for people who are not confident, but I found it had systems and underlying order. Up until gridlock, which did suck but thankfully didn’t happen to me that often based on my drivetimes (9-10:30am and ~3-4 pm, the rest of the time I was mostly shelving books in the basement of the Strand Bookstore).
Martin
@frosty: I think the bigger takeaway from this idea is that people aren’t bad drivers due to some failing. I mean, some are, but by and large people aren’t. The problem is that we set up people to be bad drivers by demanding people operate in environments that we simply are not equipped to operate in. I’m sure on paper to traffic engineers, a dozen lanes of traffic plus pedestrians and all that looks perfectly reasonable, but cognitively, even for the best of us, it’s too much. And for those people who are starting to fall off, or are sick but still need to go to work, and all that we simply invite them to fail.
And globally we are aware of this, but not yet in the US. The UN has called for a maximum speed limit in urban areas of 20mph, which is ludicrously slow by US standards (we go through school zones faster than that) but which is being taken up pretty widely. The point of lowering the speed limit is that it shrinks massively the envelope of potential conflict – at 60mph you have to anticipate a tenth of a mile ahead, but at 20mph it’s 100 feet. There’s just way fewer targets in that much smaller circle so drivers are better able to switch back to that safe mode of tracking everything, because there’s much less to track, just by slowing down. And of course, the consequences of failure are much lower. But that all goes against our rugged individualism ethos, where we should just get better at it, even when doing so is to some degree physically impossible. The only way to solve the problem really is to change how we approach the infrastructure. But we’re not going to try that until we’ve blown a trillion dollars into trying to automate the driving part.
And 2s headways is pretty generous for LA. It’s usually closer to 1s, and odds are better than not the vehicle in front of you is so large you can’t see the brake lights of anything in front of it, so you can’t even anticipate the car in front of you braking. That’s the other side of the upsizing of vehicles in the US – particularly trucks which don’t really allow you to see through the windows to the road ahead – it just becomes this wall of non-information that you need to follow at relatively close distance and maintain near-perfect reaction times. Unless of course you invest in an even larger truck and selfishly pass that burden on to everyone behind you.
Jay
Here, in BC we don’t really have “rural”. The closest we have are major highways, arterial roads and the FSR Roads. If you are actually “rural” here, that generally means you are on at best a two lane dirt* road that leads to an urban paved road or a major highway.
Forest Service roads, generally require 4WD.
*and by dirt, I mean dirt, few have a gravel topping or road crush, most are just bulldozed through to remove the topsoil, so spring starts with mud season, summer brings dust season, fall brings another mud season and in winter, after they plow the road, the potholes get filled in with compacted snow and ice.
We don’t have the flat agricultural areas, in a grid layout, with a small town with basic supplies and services 10 grid road junctions away. We have twisty roads that follow the contours of the mountains.
Eg. Rock Creek, one general store, one gas station, one “Lost Gold Mine” tour, the general store and the tour are closed in winter, ( no tourists). The gas station has gas, some auto stuff, snacks, pop and smokes.
Eric S.
@Martin: to follow all internet conventions, This. An excellent summary and explanation.
HumboldtBlue
Twitter warning:
Jimmy Kimmel gives Aaron Rodgers what he so richly deserves, a good smacking.
gwangung
@HumboldtBlue: If you don’t want Twitter, here’s the Youtube version..
I mean, it’s not even a blitz…..it’s just a confident, low energy takedown, that doesn’t even need to steamroller or go over the top on the ownage….
eclare
@HumboldtBlue:
I just watched that on my DVR.
Mallard Filmore
@Nelle: When I use a turn signal, it’s more like a warning.
Steeplejack
New thread upstairs.
sab
@Mallard Filmore: When my husband gives a turn signal, it’s an explanation of what he is already in the process of doing.
SteveinPHX
I amp up my attention levels by a 10 factor when driving thru Phoenix on I-17 or I-10 (especially around that deck-park tunnel on 10 in downtown).
bluefoot
@RaflW:
I agree with this. There are definite rules to Manhattan/NYC driving, but you need to know what they are and you need to be confident. Hesitate and it not only messes you up, it also messes up everyone around you. Everyone is paying attention, unlike some other metros that I’ve lived in. I was just there over the holidays and was happy that my NY driving skills are still there.
Boston is a whole other beast. Massholes and idiots for the most part. Recently it seems like people are ignoring lights – I keep seeing people go through red lights as long as there isn’t traffic too close in the cross streets. What’s up with that? Has anyone else seen this?
Paul in KY
@HumboldtBlue: I guess UW was lucky Harbaugh only ran #7 3 times in 1st half. UM was the better team, dammit.
Paul in KY
@SpaceUnit: That costs money…
Paul in KY
@satby: I always take the toll road. So much better, until you get in with the proles who had to be on I-94 whole way.
Paul in KY
@David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch: Congrats. Your team was best all year. Your coach is still a weirdo.
judybird
Back in the 50’s, when public schools in California were well funded, we had drivers’ ed and drivers’ training in high school. One instruction that has stayed with me – always speed up when changing lanes.
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
@Paul in KY:
I kind of like him because he’s clinical insane. He like the Andy Kaufman and Sandra Bernhard of coaching.