Daily Annoyances

[Arragonis]

Thick fog today, freezing fog in fact. You would think people would be careful.

No. Don't you know that Foglights are to cars what shields are in Star Trek ?

[wdb]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

Today's annoyance - there is a 'park and ride' bus stop on my route to work - don't get excited it doesn't work for me - and the entrance has traffic lights on it. These sensibly have detectors so the lights only change when someone wants in or out. The bad bit is that a butterfly expelling excess gas in Brazil is enough to set these sensors off. So we all stop and watch as nothing pulls out.

Reminds me of a former annoyance. Large intersection with separate traffic light cycles for left turns and traffic in each direction of the crossroad, a total of 6 cycles in all. I would get there in the middle of the night, with no other car in sight, and the light would turn and I would wait through all of the cycles. That light had no sensors whatsoever - it just cycled through on its own little schedule, oblivious to butterfly, traffic volume, time of day, you name it.

I'm also mildly annoyed by never having been offered a date in an ecomodder ad, but I think I can live with that one.

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by wdb

Reminds me of a former annoyance. Large intersection with separate traffic light cycles for left turns and traffic in each direction of the crossroad, a total of 6 cycles in all. I would get there in the middle of the night, with no other car in sight, and the light would turn and I would wait through all of the cycles. That light had no sensors whatsoever - it just cycled through on its own little schedule, oblivious to butterfly, traffic volume, time of day, you name it.

Great intersection to shut the engine off while you wait. In fact, great place to practice light timing. (See? Always look on the bright side of life)

Recently, pedestrian crossing lights in my area are being upgraded with sensors that turn the light red if a car is going faster than the speed limit. Cool, no problem if I'm alone, but I get a red when a car going in the opposite direction is speeding. Why? Why do I have to stop when I wasn't the one speeding?

But it gets better: There is a street close by, 2 lanes each way, nice and straight over 5-6km, goes parallel to the river, so the only intersections are with roads on the east side. It's a great place to (illegally) race at night, so what did the authorities do to make it safer? The lights have sensors and are programmed to turn red during the night hours. Turn red right in front of the car, so that it has to slam the brakes to stop. As soon as the driver takes his teeth out of the steering wheel the light is green again. Acceleration, 500 meters, and slam the brakes again. Etc., etc., and so on. The PSL is 70 km/h, by trial and error I've found that going 40-50 km/h allows you to catch most of the lights just as they turn green again. I've heard that going 150 km/h allows you to hit the lights just before they turn red. As mentioned earlier, this was supposed stop speeding and racing, but the effect is that no-one pays attention and just runs the reds. Except for me, but thankfully I've found a better route: not only is it shorter (10.1km vs 10.6km), but also it has a lower speed limit (50km/h all the way vs 70km/h most of the way) and less lights. Win-win.

[nemo]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

Recently, pedestrian crossing lights in my area are being upgraded with sensors that turn the light red if a car is going faster than the speed limit. Cool, no problem if I'm alone, but I get a red when a car going in the opposite direction is speeding. Why? Why do I have to stop when I wasn't the one speeding?

But it gets better: There is a street close by, 2 lanes each way, nice and straight over 5-6km, goes parallel to the river, so the only intersections are with roads on the east side. It's a great place to (illegally) race at night, so what did the authorities do to make it safer? The lights have sensors and are programmed to turn red during the night hours. Turn red right in front of the car, so that it has to slam the brakes to stop.

This is a typical government solution to a problem. A few people doing something wrong, punish everyone, instead of doing some about the people causing the problem.

[Odin]

^^^^Easy solution, go even faster so you can make it though before it turns red, I'm assuming they legally have to have the yellow light first

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by Odin

^^^^Easy solution, go even faster so you can make it though before it turns red, I'm assuming they legally have to have the yellow light first

Yes, the standard is a 3-second yellow. But on that road at night I'm sure it is much shorter. I wonder if I timed it and it turned out to be 1-1.5 seconds, if I could have them do something about it being less than what is legal? Actually, I think it's a waste of my time since I now have a much better route...

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

Yes, the standard is a 3-second yellow....

A lot of these here are inconsistent - some junctions are more or less one side amber/red, other side amber/green with no pause. In a strange area it can be dangerous to 'run' a light.

My annoyance today ?

Two words.

White.

Seats.

Somewhere near the Skoda factory a car interior designer is cackling manically about that one...

[Arragonis]

And today - Suicyclists.

[320touring]

Ease up chief!

Blowing exhausts is my complaint for the day!

[wdb]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

Great intersection to shut the engine off while you wait. In fact, great place to practice light timing. (See? Always look on the bright side of life)

Thanks, you reminded me of the other annoyance with that intersection: it was just over a curving rise, no chance to time the light.

Today's annoyance: plastic 'bubble' packaging designed to make you want to reach for a blowtorch. I had to get a knife out to liberate a pair of AA batteries from the stuff yesterday.