🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <DqFAtA.HBw@txnews.amd.com> Rick Shank,
ricks@dvorak.amd.com writes:
>Ignorance, abundance of jobs, and poor road system design.  The abundance
>of jobs allow the ignorant to actually have a place to go for employment.
>This leads to an increased density of ignorant.  These losers had no/poor 
>jobs where jobs were tight.  They move here (along with the intelligent,
>but in higher percentages) in droves.  Take a poorly designed traffic 
>system like Austin has (can you say safety?), stir in a bunch of ignoramuses 
>(5% - 10%) and you get driving pandemonium.  

And just where did you get these "statistics"?  Out of thin
air?  I thought so.

>Disclaimer: To me, ignorance (from the word ignore), is the blatant disregard
>for knowledge.  

Not in my dictionary.

>It is not to be confused with lacking intelligence which to
>me means one is learning but hasn't yet achieved.  It is more a statement of
>attitude than a statement of status.

Actually, "learning but hasn't yet achieved", sounds a lot more
like my dictionary's definition of "ignorance".  The definition
of "ignorance" contains no mention of attitude.  Look it up.

>Austin is a great city with many wonderful reasons to live here.  The driving
>condition in this city is deplorable and deserves attention.  

I agree that the condition of some of the driving *surfaces* in
this city (i.e., short blind onramps, confusing traffic signs,
disappearing and wierdly merging lanes, etc.) are in some cases
deplorable.  Personally, I think that that has orders of
magnitude more real bearing on the sometimes perceived
situation than any relative "ignorance" of the drivers in this
town vs. any other.  Sure, the lower deck of I-35 has been
nationally rated as one of the most dangerous stretches of
interstate highway in the nation, as the previous poster
implied, but IMHO it's due to the way it was designed, not the
people driving on it.  Anyhow, how do you tell the difference
between  a "Dallas driver" passing through Austin and a native
"Austin driver"?  The "Dallas driver" is driving better?  Yeah,
right.

>Telling someone
>who recognizes this condition (who is more than likely one of the concious [sic] >
drivers) 

Again, yeah, right.

>to get out of town, is counterproductive.  When there is a problem,
>one should fix the problem, not shoot the observant.

I *never* told him to leave town, I just offered to give him
directions, since he seems to dislike it so here.  And I try to
work toward "fixing the problem" every time I drive by trying
not trying to police other drivers (See "tolerance" in my
previous post.).  It's hard sometimes, I know, but I say again
that I have lived in many different cities, and "Austin
drivers" are no better and no worse than most.

Gordon in Austin 
You've read my disclaimer.