Is your commute killing your marriage?

I suppose it's intuitive, but a recent Swedish study shows that longer commutes correlate to higher divorce rates.
If you think about it, it's not hard to think of reasons why this might be true: guilt of being away from each other, compromises in career, increased stress, etc.
It's just interesting to see a study that highlights this.

I often joke that my commute kills a little bit of my soul each time. Perhaps it's also killing my marriage...

From here.

Dodge doesn't like robot drivers

... although, as pointed out many times before, I DO like robot drivers.

Yeah, yeah. I know that just the other week, I enthusiastically posted another Dodge commercial that I liked. However, the difference is recreational driving vs. utility driving (i.e. commuting). When it comes to utility driving for the daily commute, put a robot in the driving seat any day.

Drive greener and save money

Part of the frustration of vehicle-based commuting is the costs: cost of the vehicle, cost of maintenance, cost of insurance, and of course, the cost of fuel. Minimizing fuel usage is of benefit financially, environmentally, and socially (costs of maintaining peace in increasingly-hostile foreign areas).

Well, our friends at Eco Driving USA have a series of excellent tips that help minimize fuel consumption. While some of these are well-known to me, others I hadn't thought about (for example, I drove around for a couple of weeks with 100 lbs of gardening lime in the trunk).

Read on at Eco Driving USA.

Want to dispose of your car? Why not donate it?

Presenting a guest blog post by our friend Daniel Frank, of GiveACar in the UK

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If you’ve ever been stuck in traffic surrounded by huge numbers of cars, then you will have hoped for a reduction in the number of cars on the road. However, even if we persuade people to cycle, take public transport or car share, then we still have to solve the problem of car disposal for the cars we get out of circulation. If you’ve determined that you no longer need your car, or if your car is no longer roadworthy, the problem is your car is too a large object just to leave in the garage or on the driveway. Selling the car privately can be a complex affair, and may incur income tax penalties. So what options are there?

Well, one option to consider is that of car donation. Car donation takes several forms; for example, in the US a car might be passed on to those in need who couldn’t otherwise afford one, or used by the charity itself. Alternatively, and somewhat more popularly, in Canada and the UK, cars are often sold for scrap or at a car salvage auction and the money given to the donor’s choice of charity. 

In addition, both the US and Canada give the donors a tax receipt for donating their cars to approved charities. So if you want to dispose of your old car, you can even get some money back from it, while helping a great cause. 

Having said all this, you do need to be careful and avoid scams. In the US you should check that the charity is eligible to receive donations and talk to them to ensure how much is gained through your car donation. In the UK, you can check for programs approved by the Fundraising Standards Board like Giveacar, which specifically targets scrap cars.

Helpful links for reputable places taking car donations for charity in your country:

UK: www.giveacar.co.uk

USA: http://www.cardonors.com/WP/car-donation-directory/

Canada: http://www.kidney.ca/Page.aspx?pid=419

Weaving through traffic? You suck.

To: the jerk 3 miles ahead of me who was weaving through traffic 15 minutes ago

Message: You totally suck.

From: the hundreds of drivers who are behind you who are now stuck in stop-and-go traffic, all due to the fact that you erroneously thought that you could shave another 30 seconds off your commute.

PS: You totally suck.

Via: Car Insurance Guide 
and Autoblog.com

You are not stuck in traffic. You are traffic.

Great image, courtesy of Bike Friendly North Shore via Treehugger.

Car-babble doom-speak: Getting conned while having my oil changed.

I get my oil changed fairly often. I feel it's the single biggest thing I can do to keep my car from dying before its time.

However, I dislike changing my own oil. I know HOW to, it's just that I dislike it. It requires getting slippery and dirty in parts of the car that I'd rather not go. And oil filters are hard to get off if you don't have the proper tools. The last time I changed my oil myself, I had to pound a screwdriver through the filter so I could turn it to get it off. Messy.

So, I turn to the "professionals" for this task. And because I'm not one to plan too far ahead, I like to go to the local instant-lube place. Let's call it "Señor Lube". Which is why my complaints come in.

These places are run by generally friendly young folks. However, they're pressured to upsell. And upsell they do, in the most condescending possible way. However, over the years I've come to discredit almost everything they say.

• "Sir, your old oil is dark, so I recommend a hot oil flush to get the gunk out of the engine." Right. It's old oil. It's supposed to be dark. That's why I'm here, dude. And you're suggesting that I basically waste perfectly clean oil to "rinse" the inside of my engine? You want me to pay for 1 1/2 oil changes today?
• "Sir, I noticed your head gasket is damp, so I'd suggest that we put this special additive in to help with that." Right. Like your little $12 bottle of additive is going to prevent the head gasket blowing.
• "Sir, your air filter is quite dirty"<shows me the air filter which is slightly gray, and actually has a piece of 4" grass on it. It's March.>  Right. Like you didn't just put that piece of grass on the filter right now. No, take the grass back off the filter, and put it back in. It's good for another 5000 km.
• "Sir, I noticed that your car is old..." Yeah, that's right. It's because I don't have a lot of money. "...so I'd recommend you use a synthetic motor oil in it. It's only double the price of the usual oil you use." Right. Like a synthetic oil is really going to make this old heap run better than it currently is.
• "Sir, I noticed that your brake fluid is frothy, which indicates that it's going to break down and cause your brakes to fail at any moment. Naturally, I suggest you get this changed with our convenient brake fluid replacement service." Right. Looks fine to me. Plus, when I return 5000 km from now, and again 10,000 km from now, none of my subsequent "technicians" will comment on it.
• "Sir, OMG, I can't believe it. Your mechanic used green coolant in your radiator. Your car is only spec'ed for the orange coolant. I suggest we get this changed with our coolant service immediately." Really. You expect me to believe the opinion of a 16-year old oil change worker vs. the opinion of my mechanic, who has 35 years experience. I don't think so. Plus, I kind of like the color green. Leave it, kid.
• "Sir, your PVC valve (or sometimes it's the inside of the oil cap) is dirty. That's a sign that your engine is burning oil. I'd recommend you get our hot oil flush." Again with the hot oil flush. Gimme a break!

Mrs. Lurch is equally frustrated and intimidated by the barrage of auto-babble doom-speak. However, she simply bats her eyelashes at them and responds, "Oo, you better write that down. I'll ask my husband about that the moment I get home." Unfortunately, I can't do that trick; I have to resort to "Well, son, I'll have to ask my mechanic about that next time I bring the car in for scheduled maintenance"... which sounds pretty wimpy.

And yet, in spite of this, I keep coming back. I suppose I'm one of the many who's willing to put up with aggressive upselling in the name of a fast convenient oil change.

Disaster in a tunnel?

This morning, the lovely and talented BitchCakes posted an entry in which she shares her fear of commuter disaster in a tunnel.

To which I commented:

In my city, I sometimes have to take a car tunnel that runs under a river. Every time I do, I have visions of that old Sly Stallone movie "Daylight".
There are a lot of bad drivers in my city, so I could easily imagine one of them panicking, hitting the wall, sideswiping me, and causing a big pileup, during which a semi truck punches a hole in the tunnel, allowing the muddy waters to flood in.

I can't look at faces while driving through tunnels for fear of being the one that causes the accident, but I DO make judgements based on the cars I see around me.
- The burgundy LeBaron -- probably a little old lady who looks like my grandma and weighs, like, 90 lbs.; I'd totally hoist her over my shoulder and get her to safety.
- The white minivan -- probably full of kids on their way to school; they'd probably (erroneously) look to me as a leader to get them through the burning wreckage floating on the icy water.
- The silver Escalade -- probably driven by a total douchebag who would step on my hands as he heads for higher ground at the end of the tunnel.
- etc.

So what do you think? Are BitchCakes and I alone  in our irrational fear of this scenario?

...Yeah, but can traffic thin enough for them to make the jump to hyperspace?

Image courtesy of buzzfeed.com

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?

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