[ale] [OT rant] selfishness

[Jay Lozier]

On 01/11/2013 12:28 PM, Geoffrey Myers wrote:
> Just the reason all emergency vehicles should have a 50 cal. on the 
> front.
Only a 50 cal? How about a 40mm autocannon with AP shells to go through 
the engine block?
>
> --
> From my iPhone
> Geoffrey Myers
>
> On Jan 11, 2013, at 10:51 AM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com 
> <mailto:jim.kinney at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>> There was a wreck on I-285 that required fire trucks, ambulance and 
>> closing down 3 lanes next to the center divider. Of course traffic is 
>> backed up for a few miles. As the emergency vehicles are approaching, 
>> people were, in general, making NO APPARENT EFFORT to clear a path 
>> for the emergency access. I could see the approaching lights and hear 
>> the sirens a full 2 minutes before they were finally adjacent to my 
>> car. Finally, as they were nearly adjacent, traffic began to ignore 
>> the lane markers and spread apart to allow an envelope of open road 
>> to appear just ahead of the emergency trucks.
>>
>> And then the most blatant example of selfishness I've ever seen 
>> occurred. The car behind me had not made a single move to clear the 
>> way for the ambulance. From my view, the cell phone call was far more 
>> important than the road conditions. So when I was finally able to 
>> squeeze left, along with the cars in front and the right side traffic 
>> squeezing right, the car behind me took the new hole as an 
>> opportunity to jump in front of the traffic that was making room for 
>> the ambulance and fire rescue trucks.
>>
>> The driver actually impeded the flow of the emergency crew as she 
>> finally tried to merge back into traffic but there was no room. So 
>> she stopped moving, laid on the horn and looked like she was about to 
>> ram a car out of they way when finally some serious other car packing 
>> allowed her to clear the way.
>>
>> As a species, we are doomed if that mentality continues. I hope the 
>> fire truck got her tag and she loses her license. We need to have 
>> urban transportation that is not propelled by individual interest. 
>> The roads are simply too crowded and people are too distracted to 
>> always be safe drivers. We can't force people to be safe but we can 
>> remove opportunities for people to be stupid and selfish. I like the 
>> idea of being able to get to work/pub/friends/food without needing to 
>> sweat the details of driving and still make it in less than 2 hours. 
>> I ESPECIALLY want to hit my fav pubs and then get home without 
>> endangering anything but my own liver.
>>
>> We are close to having the capability but we are light-years from 
>> having the social will to make the leap.
>>
>> </rant>
>>
>> um. duh. The auto2 should have a hardened, real-time Linux system brain.
>>
>> -- 
>> -- 
>> James P. Kinney III
>> ////
>> ///Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What 
>> you gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on 
>> his own tail. It won't fatten the dog.
>> - Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain
>> ////
>> http://electjimkinney.org
>> http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
>> /// //
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ale mailing list
>> Ale at ale.org <mailto:Ale at ale.org>
>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo


-- 
Jay Lozier
jslozier at gmail.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20130111/40f8df4f/attachment.html>