Thoughts on driving and speed limits etc...

Just realized something today, while driving home from work...

you know, I think part of the reason many people find driving the speed
limit so painful is that, frankly, their cars just suck. I mean, I know
mine does. It's an '05 Impala; it's an American version of the Toyota
Corolla scaled up for supersized asses. It's an appliance on wheels.
Bland to the point of pain, and when it does have character it's usually
annoying. A tool; designed to get one from point A to point B. Thus,
when driving such an appliance one tends to want to drive as fast as one
is comfortable with, so as to minimize the time spend traveling.

Compare and contrast with the car I found myself wishing I was driving
today; my '55 Studebaker coupe. Now despite its sleek, racy looks
(well, OK, for 1955 it was stunning, today it might look a little tall
and dated, but still) you sit up pretty high in that thing. It's got a
split bench seat, made if anything less comfortable by having 50 years'
worth of asses sitting in it. You definitely feel a little confined in
it, it's not spacious and inviting like a contemporary sedan would have
been. The big 17" steering wheel is occupying a good portion of the
real estate in front of you, close enough to be a little claustrophobic.
It's loud, there's tons of rattles, and the interior looks like
someone locked a rabid dog in it for a couple hours. But you know what,
it's FUN to drive. It's responsive, it feels like a real car. You can
tell exactly what's going on with the whirly bits just by listening,
feeling and smelling, and it doesn't try to second-guess you when you
ask it to do something. I've found myself driving it in the slow lane at
only a tick over the speed limit and not really giving a crap. It's
nice just to kick your left leg up on the firewall, hang your left elbow
out the window, adjust the little vent window just right, and listen to
the burble of the engine as you just tool down the road. With the right
weather, it can't help but put a smile on your face... looking out over
those big, rounded shiny black fenders at the rest of the world in their
Explorers and Hummers all sealed up in their air-conditioned bubbles and
thinking "you don't know what you're missing..."

Nah, in that car driving is not a task to be accomplished as quickly as
possible, it's an enjoyable diversion that just happens to get you to
where you're going.

Yeah, I know what I'm going to be doing tomorrow...

The above post probably sounds like a troll, but it's really not. It
was just the first really nice spring day we've had here and it kinda
did something to my head to make me come up with the above. I still
couldn't believe all the people that were driving around like worker
bees on crystal meth with their windows tightly rolled up and usually
cellphones glued to ears. I shut my phone off as soon as I got on the
road, rolled all the windows down, and tried to imagine some big, sexy
fenders and a V-8 burble... (couldn't quite pull the last off...) still
wasn't too bad a drive. Did see a few convertibles hastily pulled out
of storage for the occasion, all is not lost I guess...

So I guess the point is, if you really want to do something about
speeding, how about getting rid of all the boring little
appliance-mobiles and putting some interesting vehicles back on the road?

nate

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> Laura Bush murdered her boy friend:
> You are an idiot. People who speed are psychopaths who enjoy killing
> others and that's why they do it!!! Only way to stop them is to lock
> them up.

You first, asshole.

--
"> Have you ever driven a car faster than the legal speed limit?

Yes, but never deliberately. In fact i got a speeding ticket about 5
years ago for doing 41 in a 25. I just about kicked the cops teeth in
cause i was sure he was lying. No way the SL on this wide open
stretch could be 25, i thought."

Pride of America (c.k.a. "laura bush - VEHICULAR HOMOCIDE), 10/3/2002
Message-ID: >
http://tinyurl.com/5u4wg

Connecting POA to LBMHB/lbVH:
See the following: http://tinyurl.com/ahphj

> Nate Nagel:
> So I guess the point is, if you really want to do something about
> speeding, how about getting rid of all the boring little
> appliance-mobiles and putting some interesting vehicles back on the road?

Interesting thought. The big reason I speed on city streets is not so
much the car being boring (eventhough a Ford Taurus has to be a dull as
it gets - but a good sound system can mitigate that) but the other
idiots on the road that make me want to get to my destination ASAP.

Get me out onto an open road with little traffic and I can relax and
enjoy the ride (see my commentary on 95 from the previous night - mostly
an enjoyable ride on a nice wide interstate with little to no traffic or
problems save for the dude from WV and even he wasn't that big of a
problem), and I am perfectly happy doing the SL and enjoying the ride.

Laura Bush murdered her boy friend wrote:
>
> You are an idiot. People who speed are psychopaths who enjoy killing
> others and that's why they do it!!! Only way to stop them is to lock
> them up.

"You are an idiot?" Talking to yourself again I see, moron.

I *really* love mowin' those little kiddies down. You wouldn't believe
how many I ran over when I was doing 106 out on the interestate:

> http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...-81.452474&t=h

You know what? I've *never* had a fatal accident. It's been, what,
three and a half years since your last fatal accident?

"Laura Bush murdered her boy friend" > wrote:

>
>Nate Nagel wrote:
>> Just realized something today, while driving home from work...
>>
>> you know, I think part of the reason many people find driving the speed
>> limit so painful is that, frankly, their cars just suck. I mean, I know
>> mine does. It's an '05 Impala; it's an American version of the Toyota
>> Corolla scaled up for supersized asses. It's an appliance on wheels.
>> Bland to the point of pain, and when it does have character it's usually
>> annoying. A tool; designed to get one from point A to point B. Thus,
>> when driving such an appliance one tends to want to drive as fast as one
>> is comfortable with, so as to minimize the time spend traveling.
>>
>> Compare and contrast with the car I found myself wishing I was driving
>> today; my '55 Studebaker coupe. Now despite its sleek, racy looks
>> (well, OK, for 1955 it was stunning, today it might look a little tall
>> and dated, but still) you sit up pretty high in that thing. It's got a
>> split bench seat, made if anything less comfortable by having 50 years'
>> worth of asses sitting in it. You definitely feel a little confined in
>> it, it's not spacious and inviting like a contemporary sedan would have
>> been. The big 17" steering wheel is occupying a good portion of the
>> real estate in front of you, close enough to be a little claustrophobic.
>> It's loud, there's tons of rattles, and the interior looks like
>> someone locked a rabid dog in it for a couple hours. But you know what,
>> it's FUN to drive. It's responsive, it feels like a real car. You can
>> tell exactly what's going on with the whirly bits just by listening,
>> feeling and smelling, and it doesn't try to second-guess you when you
>> ask it to do something. I've found myself driving it in the slow lane at
>> only a tick over the speed limit and not really giving a crap. It's
>> nice just to kick your left leg up on the firewall, hang your left elbow
>> out the window, adjust the little vent window just right, and listen to
>> the burble of the engine as you just tool down the road. With the right
>> weather, it can't help but put a smile on your face... looking out over
>> those big, rounded shiny black fenders at the rest of the world in their
>> Explorers and Hummers all sealed up in their air-conditioned bubbles and
>> thinking "you don't know what you're missing..."
>>
>> Nah, in that car driving is not a task to be accomplished as quickly as
>> possible, it's an enjoyable diversion that just happens to get you to
>> where you're going.
>>
>> Yeah, I know what I'm going to be doing tomorrow...
>>
>> The above post probably sounds like a troll, but it's really not. It
>> was just the first really nice spring day we've had here and it kinda
>> did something to my head to make me come up with the above. I still
>> couldn't believe all the people that were driving around like worker
>> bees on crystal meth with their windows tightly rolled up and usually
>> cellphones glued to ears. I shut my phone off as soon as I got on the
>> road, rolled all the windows down, and tried to imagine some big, sexy
>> fenders and a V-8 burble... (couldn't quite pull the last off...) still
>> wasn't too bad a drive. Did see a few convertibles hastily pulled out
>> of storage for the occasion, all is not lost I guess...
>>
>> So I guess the point is, if you really want to do something about
>> speeding, how about getting rid of all the boring little
>> appliance-mobiles and putting some interesting vehicles back on the road?
>>
>> nate
>
>You are an idiot. People who speed are psychopaths who enjoy killing
>others and that's why they do it!!! Only way to stop them is to lock
>them up.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!! RUN'EMDOWN !!! 20 points for businessmen,
30 points for old ladies, 50 points for parochial-school kids in
uniforms !!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!!!! PSYCHOPATHPSYCHOPATHPSYCHOLATH.

Oh GET REAL 'Laura' ...

People who 'speed' are people who aren't robots programmed to
follow State directives. They're people who want to GET some-
where. A few are incompetent. A few are psychos. The overwhelming
majority are regular Joes and Janes.

In article >, Nate Nagel wrote:
> Just realized something today, while driving home from work...
>
> you know, I think part of the reason many people find driving the speed
> limit so painful is that, frankly, their cars just suck.

While that may be true for some people, I just want to maximize
effeciency on most trips and not fall asleep. But on an empty road I'll
often go slower because I know I can maintain that average. It's the
average speed that counts.

Brent P wrote:
> In article >, Nate Nagel wrote:
>
>>Just realized something today, while driving home from work...
>>
>>you know, I think part of the reason many people find driving the speed
>>limit so painful is that, frankly, their cars just suck.
>
>
> While that may be true for some people, I just want to maximize
> effeciency on most trips and not fall asleep. But on an empty road I'll
> often go slower because I know I can maintain that average. It's the
> average speed that counts.

True... I guess it's just that in the Impala even on short trips I just
want to get to where I'm going and get on with my life as quickly as
possible, in any of my other cars, if it takes me an hour just to run to
the parts store and back, oh well...

nate


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Harry K wrote:

>
> Odd, I had the dubious pleasure today of having it both ways and was
> thinking about the same thing.. Rode a tow truck to take my 05 Ford
> 500 (they struck again!) and picked up a loaner for the weekend.
>
> Ford 500 - tow driver asked how I liked it. My reply "it is a geezer
> car, comfortable, reasonably large, loads of room and boooorrrrinnng.
>
> Ride home was an 06 Focus - small, noisy, cramped and somewhat fun.
> Not a sports car by any means but one that one 'drives' vice rides in.
> 20 miles of both city and country. Would I have it for my ride? Nope,
> I am too old for them things any more but occasionally...

Why do you say you are too old? My mom has a Miata and a GTI 1.8T, and
my dad's ride is an old hot-rodded Chevy stepside pickup truck. (they
also share my mom's old car, an '86 Golf, and there's an old IH Scout
and a Porsche 914 up on blocks in the barn. The last is my fault,
though) I don't know how old you are, but I doubt older than they by
more than a decade or so - any older and you wouldn't be posting to
Usenet. Life is too short to drive boring cars, regardless of age.

nate


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