Friday afternoon driving tunes: Thunder Road

Yup.

You didn't expect a commuter blog to NOT include Thunder Road in its playlist at some point, did you?

Hope your weekend is a good one!

What's wrong with this picture?

What's with this guy?

If you look at the position of his head, you can tell that he's leaning way over onto the middle elbow rest. 

He's been driving this way for 20 minutes, so it's not like he's adjusting his radio.

He doesn't have a passenger, so he's not getting amorous or giving his girlfriend his undivided attention.

He's probably got a numb right butt cheek. 

He's probably got a sore neck from keeping his head vertical.

He's probably got a sore back because of the curve he's forcing his back to endure.

...OTOH, his chiropractor probably loves him for the future business. LOL

 No-one I know drives this way, although there are lots of people out there that do.

Can anyone illuminate me? Why do people drive like this?

Nissan Leaf electric car is coming soon!

 Key quotes and photos from our friends at digitaltrends.com:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/lifestyle/nissan-leaf-review/

There are no gears in an electric car. Therefore, there are no numbers to indicate gear level. Instead, you either shift into D for Drive, ECO (or Drive X2) to save battery power at the cost of acceleration, reverse or neutral.

... this sounds fine to me. Most of the time, I'm stuck in gridlock, and ECO is perfect. The occasional time the road opens up in front of me, or I need to accelerate past a semi, I think I'm smart enough to switch it to D mode.

Sitting behind the wheel, you’re given plenty of information about the vehicle’s state of charge and how far it will go on a charge. The touchscreen in the middle stack displays a host of energy consumption metrics: how much power the climate controls are using, how many extra miles you’ll get if you shut them off, how many miles you have left, how many kilowatts the electric motor is using or how much energy the regenerative brakes are recovering. This info is easy to interact with and use.

... the geek in me finds this very appealing. I love realtime data. :)

The Leaf is a radical departure just from the fact that it does not use gas. Sure, there are plenty of infrastructure issues to work out. ... In the end, the time is right for the Nissan Leaf. It’s a smart electric car that will, at long last, wean us from gasoline.

Hear, hear! Let me drive one!

Friday afternoon driving tunes: You can do it by No Doubt

Underrated song from a great album from years gone by. Crank it up, get back to it and win the race, baby! :)

Bullet hole stickers

As I sit in traffic, I have a lot of time to think about things. 

I'd like to say, it's always about the big things in life. 

However, it's often about the mundane. 

...Like the vehicle in front of me and those bullet holes. What's with those things? Maybe you've seen them -- the very classy stickers that look like bullet holes, usually afixed to the bumper.

I always find it kind of funny that they're usually put on with great care to appear like the vehicle was casually strafed with a machine gun, but not with enough care to ensure that the light source and shadow effects have a consistent direction. (hint for those of you who might be considering putting these inspired ornamentations on your ride: the sun is always above you, and a bullet makes an indentation, so that would make the shadow on the top edge of the hole, and the highlight on the bottom edge. And it would be consistent from bullet hole #1 through bullet hole #400. Got it?) :)

So, what's the point of these things?
I suspect the idea is to make the driver look tough and interesting, as in "look at the trouble I get myself into."
However, I always think it says "people hate me enough to shoot at me, and I'm not man enough to face them, so I was running away when they shot me."

Think about that, tough guy.

Photo of bullet holes courtesy of www.bullet1.com

Time Stand Still

Alright, my friends. It's Friiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiday!
Hopefully traffic is moving, and it's only time that's standing still for you. <smile>
Here's a great driving tune to get you through the commute. Drum on that steering wheel like you mean it!

I turn my back to the wind
To catch my breath
Before I start off again.
Driven on without a moment to spend
To pass an evening with a drink and a friend
...

Terribly apropos, no?

3 reasons that the Google Car is brilliant for the frustrated commuter

Google is already a friend to the frustrated commuter, because they help me avoid traffic with Google Maps Traffic. 

Now, it has been revealed that they've been investigating computer-driven cars. Not an original idea, mind you, but it actually looks like it stands a credible chance of happening with our existing infrastructure (read: doesn't rely on magnets in the road).

Here's the official announcement from Google.

And here's an article that shows some of the how-to of the Google Car.
 
 

image courtesy of NYTimes.com

So, I'm totally in love with the idea. 
Here are 3 reasons that the Google Car is brilliant for the frustrated commuter.

1. Efficiency of traffic flow

Have I told you how much I hate being stuck traffic? When you think about it, "increased volume" should not equal "slowed speed", except at the "queue points" such as highway on-ramps. The reason traffic slows with volume has to do with the human psyche -- we get nervous and we naturally slow down when we're feeling claustrophobic when boxed in. Tapping the breaks or slightly slowing at one point in the highway translates to a full stop miles down the road behind the original incident, as the reaction to those brake lights cascades back through the traffic column with increasing force. A computer-driven car has none of these hang-ups. Traffic will continue to move smoothly when the cars in the traffic are driven by computers.

2. More "me time"

Ignoring the probable time-in-traffic savings in the previous point, there's another way that a Google-driven car would give me more "me" time: the ability to fully engage in something besides driving. I can imagine reading a book, working on a laptop, texting, watching a movie, practicing my drawing skills, taking a nap, etc.; all while sitting in my driver's seat as the computer drives my car to my destination with speed and efficiency. The possibilities are endless.

3. Safety

There are a lot of people who are not particularly good drivers (and I reluctantly have to include myself in that group). If a computer-driven car could make the mediocre drivers move through traffic in a better-than-mediocre way, I think that's useful. Plus, a lot of drivers drive distracted. All the activities I list in the previous bullet (reading, movies, texting, etc.) some drivers do already today. The Google car would simply take over the driving from the drivers that are already doing these things unsafely.

Bring it on Google! This frustrated commuter says, "it can't come quickly enough!" :D

Bring the funk

Gray, drizzly Friday afternoon.

This seems helpful:

Stuck in traffic with kids

Yesterday, I took 4 hours off from my vacation time pool. The day was overcast but dry (though threatening rain for the next day), and the kids were out of school on a Pro-D day, workload at the office was a little light... it's rare for everything to align so perfectly, so I decided to just go out and take advantage of the opportunity to go for a hike with my 2 oldest.

I live out on the flats where, although there are hikes, they're pretty flat. When we get the opportunity, we like to hike in the mountains. So that means, off we go across the bridge to the north shore where the mountains are.

We had a lovely time, but that's not why I'm telling you this.

On the way back, around 4:00 PM, we hit some rush hour traffic. We were crawling along at maybe 5 km/h for about 20 minutes. The kids in the back were having a great time, pulling each others' hair, giggling, calling each other "gooberface" or somesuch, being obnoxious to each other, and generally having the sort of giddy good time that kids do. I found this odd, because I was steaming about the frustratingly slow road progress. 

So I asked my 10-year old what she thought about this heavy traffic, in which I'm stuck frequently. She responded,
"It's not bad as long as you have tasty gum and good music to listen to."

And there you go. 

Not quite the amazing insight I was secretly hoping for, but I think there's some food for thought there. :)

Friday afternoon driving tunes: "Leave a light on for me"

Confession:

On my Friday afternoon commute, I like to put on my iPod which I turn up really loud. 

I select some guilty pleasure music (modernity, hipness and artistic merit be damned), grab a couple of Bic pens, and proceed to drum on my steering wheel. 

My rythm is awful, but the crowded rock stadium in my head loves it.

Here's what I've got cranked this afternoon:

What about you?