[ale] [OT rant] selfishness

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Chuck Payne <terrorpup at gmail.com> wrote:

>On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 12:28 PM, Geoffrey Myers
><lists at serioustechnology.com> wrote:
>> Just the reason all emergency vehicles should have a 50 cal. on the
>front.
>>
>>
>> --
>> From my iPhone
>> Geoffrey Myers
>>
>> On Jan 11, 2013, at 10:51 AM, Jim Kinney <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/
>>
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>>
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>
><satire>
>
>It very simple. No need to raise taxes. No need to worry about the
>raise in gas prices. Or the idiots that keep owning a care is right
>and not a privileges. Plus would make most epa wet dreams.  What is
>it? Ban Cars!!! Why should Americans owe something that kills each
>years more people than guns. They are doing more to destroy the world
>than the people who are killing themselves with cigarette and cows
>eating grass. Cars! Cars in the hands of those that only have half a
>brain brian are weapons of mass destruction. Cars. The true problem to
>all problems.  It not SVU, with owners that think that if they buy a
>big car that they safe on the road, even though they are the ones cut
>you off and saluting you to tell you are number one in their books.
>
>Call the president now! BAN CARS NOWS!!! Save everyone! We need our
>government to save people. We can't do it. The greedy car companies
>won't do it. We are the kids to sleep in the car dealer parking lots
>to save us for ourselves.
>
>CARS! Yes, join me. Say it now, Say it loud. BANNED THE CAR!! Let know
>one own this true WMD. Please father government, save us for us.
>
>Think of the Trillions of dollars we can save the American family, no
>need for insurance, no need  to worry about oil prices going, no need
>for worry about class warfare since no can own a expensive car.  Think
>of the hundred thousands of lives we can save because on can cause
>wrecks.
>
>Yes my fellow Americans. BANNED THE CAR!!!  BAN IT NOW!!!
>
></satire>
>
>Jim,
>
>Sorry, but I feel your pain. I hate traffic in Atlanta, I really wish
>we could do like other part of the world and make it hard for anyone
>to drive a car. Example, for me to get my license in Japan, I had to
>pay about $5000 dollars, this included me taking 150 hours of training
>with instructor. Once I had finish my train, to get the license it
>cost me $500 dollars to take the test.
>
>Because of that, and I am cheap. I learned to love trains and buses.
>
>But we do have a lot people that need to be sent to training camps and
>retrain on how to drive.

That Japan scenario is insane.  Everyone should have the right to transport themselves where and when they want, if they can afford it.  And, affording it shouldn't be ridiculously expensive.  They just don't have the right to be an ass about the way they use the car.

My son learned to be a safe and courteous drive with $ 600 of training from a local school.  There was also the fact that I told him there would be hell to pay if I found out he was abusing the car.  I could have trained him all myself if he'd been willing to listen, but teenagers being teenagers, it was easier to hire someone.  He still drives a bit fast for my taste, but I don't think he would ever knowingly engage in the stupid behavior described in the beginning of this thread.

(I will acknowledge that space in Japan is much more rare.  They say you can't stack 6 one thousand dollar bills up on the ground in Tokyo and not be able to buy the land they're sitting on.)

Ron 


--

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Ron Frazier
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