Photo Radar

From Today's Toronto Star: Police want photo radar brought back


I wasn't going to start off this blog with traffic rants. I've read many that have and will do a much better job of explaining the issues involved but I have to say something about this one:

Speed doesn't kill. Rapid Deceleration kills, usually when that rapid deceleration is connected to an object, like a wall, barrier or other cars. Stop using buzz-phrases.

Erratic, numb-skulled lane changes kill. People who multi-task cell-phone dialing, radio station switching, make-up applying and child abuse in the form of disciplining their little monsters all kill. Stupid arrogant pricks who boast about their superior alcohol tolerance kill. (Your last "kegger" was twenty years ago dipshit!) Soccer moms, in vehicles that are twice as high and three times as heavy as the one driven by the poor dumb bastard they've just crushed, kill. ("I just love that safe feeling that the Navigator gives me when I take little Johnny to camp")

Fast drivers have never scared me. Fast aggressive drivers who see me as their next potential "kill", kill. (Beating me to that last bit of open space that is my only hope of merging is such a triumph of your human spirit isn't it, Dickhead?) Cheap bastards with vehicles that were new before the first shuttle launch that have major body components held on with duct-tape scare me (they really don't care if you hit them)

The last time photo radar was implemented it was nothing more that a traffic-congesting cash-draining (to us, the driving public) nuisance. It was scrapped for a reason.

I'd much rather have red-light cameras, as those idiots deserve to be nailed to the wall...

Enemy of the environment

I drove to work today alone in my car. I was surrounded by others who were also alone in their cars. I played tag with 18-wheelers for a car-length of available space. Stop. Go. Stop. Go. Stop. GO GO GO! I called countless drivers countless names and made many silent mental death threats. My finger behaved itself.

Elapsed time door to desk at work: 45 minutes.

If I did it by transit: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Time saved on 1 trip: 45 minutes
Time saved today: 1 hour 30 minutes
Time saved in a week: 7 hours 30 minutes
Time saved in a year: 17 days 8 hours

I want to take transit: but the train and subway are stealing the minutes, the hours, the days of my life.

The one thing you can't buy more of in this world is time.



{edited later}

Stupid Assumption

Yes, I know. It's a big assumption that I'll actually do something useful with that time. And I guess I could read...
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Shut up.