Moderator: Dictators in Training
On Friday, the light changed too quickly even for high school students to make it across without running. It went from green to red in 20 seconds.
Maeya wrote:The crosswalk lights in many cities are extremely short. There's places where I'll barely step into the intersection before it starts flashing. I obviously don't have statistics for crosswalk lights around the nation, but just from personal experience, there's been more than one incident where I'll have barely crossed one lane when the fucker changes. And I don't walk particularily slow.
Agrajag wrote:Maeya wrote:The crosswalk lights in many cities are extremely short. There's places where I'll barely step into the intersection before it starts flashing. I obviously don't have statistics for crosswalk lights around the nation, but just from personal experience, there's been more than one incident where I'll have barely crossed one lane when the fucker changes. And I don't walk particularily slow.
Walk faster?
Maeya wrote:Agrajag wrote:Maeya wrote:The crosswalk lights in many cities are extremely short. There's places where I'll barely step into the intersection before it starts flashing. I obviously don't have statistics for crosswalk lights around the nation, but just from personal experience, there's been more than one incident where I'll have barely crossed one lane when the fucker changes. And I don't walk particularily slow.
Walk faster?
Yeah, that must be it. I'm simply walking too slowly. Why didn't I think of that sooner?
Diekan wrote:I can understand their walking slow, but do they have to drive so fucking slow as well? Get-out-of-my-fucking-way I have places to go, things to do and people to see. If you can't drive at least 55 in a 55 mile/hour zone - you have no business having a damned license. Seriously, you ever been in a 65+ speed zone and have some older than dirt person in front of you going freaking 45? Or worse is when they come to an almost complete stop before making a turn.
Seriously, you ever been in a 65+ speed zone and have some older than dirt person in front of you going freaking 45? Or worse is when they come to an almost complete stop before making a turn
arlos wrote:Seriously, you ever been in a 65+ speed zone and have some older than dirt person in front of you going freaking 45? Or worse is when they come to an almost complete stop before making a turn
Heh, one of my grandmothers had the craziest habit when driving. When she wanted to get onto the freeway, she'd get onto the freeway onramp like any normal person, but when she got to actually ENTER the freeway, she would *STOP* the car, and then look BOTH ways. WTF you need to look BOTH ways, I have no fucking clue, maybe just in case some random drunk asshole is going down the freeway the wrong way, I dunno. But yeah, when she got to that point we revoked her driving privilages.
That didn't slow her down much, though. She lived with us, or more accurately, the family lived with her. She'd always depended on my grandfather to handle finances, etc. and she was pretty frail in general. She and he were visiting us when we lived in Kansas, when my grandfather suddenly keeled over with a massive stroke and died in like 3 days. She couldn't have made it on her own, so my parents moved the family back out here to California (where my parents were from anyway) into the house that'd been her and my grandfather's, so my mom could take care of her. When I finally got old enough to drive, my parents gleefully unloaded the task of driving her to Bingo and suchlike on me, which was ever so fun.
My other grandmother lived fine on her own once my grandfather died, until a series of micro-strokes left her with basically what might as well have been advanced Alzheimers. Completely changed her personality, too. She used to be stubborn, but really sweet & caring. After all that, she got manipulative & rather mean. She truly couldn't care for herself in the least, so we had her put in a nursing home for people with conditions like hers. Hard as hell to go visit her and remember her how she had been, and compare that to how she was then. It was honestly a relief to everyone when she finally passed away. I think it was a relief to her, too, as knowing her when she was sane, she would *NOT* have wanted to go on living like that, period, and I couldn't blame her in the least.
Anyway, old people and driving has been a major issue for a long time. One of the original Old-Fart colonies, Sun City right outside Phoenix, has always had one of the worst accident rates anywhere. When we lived there in the 70s, they used to give public utilities workers hazard pay for whenever they had to go into that area, because workers getting plowed into by 85 year olds in cadillacs was so frequent. What they ended up doing to get rid of the deaths & injuries to city workers is they'd park 3-4 of those HUGE bright orange city trucks in front of the work area as literally a giant shield wall of metal. Even then, though, the city'd lose several trucks a year from old people just plowing into them.
Honestly, there needs to be a law changed so that people have to re-take the actual real-world driving test from the DMV every so often once they get past a certain age. It'll never happen in a million years, though, given the clout the AARP has.
-Arlos
