🚀 go-pugleaf

In dc.general Charles Packer <packer@clark.net> wrote:
> So it's probably a little excessive to blame the pileups
> entirely on Washingtonians' purported lack of driving skills.
> Granted, people follow each other too closely...but hey, it
> works 99.99% of the time!...

Doing something wrong, stupid, and dangerous to other people 
just because your chance of escaping without consequences are 
good is still doing something wrong, stupid, and dangerous to 
other people. Blaming consequences on the weather is like blaming 
the cop for the traffic ticket... Yeah, if they hadn't been 
there, you wouldn't have gotten one, but that doesn't make it 
their fault when you do.

(Unfortunately, the local cops are usually too busy dealing with 
mayhem on a grander scale caused by local drivers to spend the 
time to make examples of tailgaters.)

In article <__9m6.147$FS3.18996@sjc-read.news.verio.net>, Doc wrote:
>Doing something wrong, stupid, and dangerous to other people 
>just because your chance of escaping without consequences are 
>good is still doing something wrong, stupid, and dangerous to 
>other people. Blaming consequences on the weather is like blaming 
>the cop for the traffic ticket... Yeah, if they hadn't been 


This deserves a followup, since it sounds like a response
of Biblical-proportioned wrath to what I intended as a
light-hearted tagline, though I don't know if you intended
it that way. 

The average following distance on a road like the Beltway
represents the consensus of what is safe under given
conditions. (I happen to think that it requires too much
hitting the brake pedal to keep it safe, and so I prefer a
longer distance, but that's more a matter of taste.) The
extraordinary number of accidents along the East coast when
the storm hit means, most likely, that the conditions
deteriorated faster than most people had ever experienced,
especially given the series of mild winters in the area up to
now. It was a matter of lack of flexibility, not of being
stupid or having dangerous intentions.

-- 
packer@clark.net (Charles Packer)
http://www.clark.net/~whatnews

>
> The average following distance on a road like the Beltway
> represents the consensus of what is safe under given
> conditions. (I happen to think that it requires too much
> hitting the brake pedal to keep it safe, and so I prefer a
> longer distance, but that's more a matter of taste.) The
> extraordinary number of accidents along the East coast when
> the storm hit means, most likely, that the conditions
> deteriorated faster than most people had ever experienced,

Most people will NEVER be involved in a 100 care pile up.   The reason we
have driving rules (including speed limits) is to have people do the correct
thing even when they don't know the reason.    At the speed limit on I-95
most cars can STOP in less than 200 feet.    Even most of the trucks could
stop in a little more than the length of a football field.    If everyone
were doing the limit and was not following too closely and had enough common
sense then everyone would have slowed to a crawl when the white out hit.

MAYBE a few folks would have fender bender type taps and when the white out
ended, they could have driven away.    The ice and snow should have caused a
general speed reduction to the point where the stopping distances could have
been maintained but NOOOO....

> especially given the series of mild winters in the area up to
> now. It was a matter of lack of flexibility, not of being
> stupid or having dangerous intentions.

Or, perhaps, STUPID INFLEXIBILTY!

John Gilmer wrote:

> >
> > The average following distance on a road like the Beltway
> > represents the consensus of what is safe under given
> > conditions. (I happen to think that it requires too much
> > hitting the brake pedal to keep it safe, and so I prefer a
> > longer distance, but that's more a matter of taste.) The
> > extraordinary number of accidents along the East coast when
> > the storm hit means, most likely, that the conditions
> > deteriorated faster than most people had ever experienced,
>
> Most people will NEVER be involved in a 100 care pile up.   The reason we
> have driving rules (including speed limits) is to have people do the correct
> thing even when they don't know the reason.    At the speed limit on I-95
> most cars can STOP in less than 200 feet.    Even most of the trucks could
> stop in a little more than the length of a football field.    If everyone
> were doing the limit and was not following too closely and had enough common
> sense then everyone would have slowed to a crawl when the white out hit.
>
> MAYBE a few folks would have fender bender type taps and when the white out
> ended, they could have driven away.    The ice and snow should have caused a
> general speed reduction to the point where the stopping distances could have
> been maintained but NOOOO....
>
> > especially given the series of mild winters in the area up to
> > now. It was a matter of lack of flexibility, not of being
> > stupid or having dangerous intentions.
>
> Or, perhaps, STUPID INFLEXIBILTY!

I'd like to see the effectiveness of intelligent flexibility when you suddenly
hit a patch of ice.

>
> I'd like to see the effectiveness of intelligent flexibility when you
suddenly
> hit a patch of ice.
>

There are places and circumstances where one will, indeed, hit "black ice"
unexpectedly.   This happens when it is very, very cold and the is water
running across the road.

But you just don't "suddenly" hit a patch of ice on I-95!

You have a few "clues."   Such as it is snowing, or freezing rain and the
temp is at or below freezing.

Now, one may occasionally hit a short patch of ice but drivers who
anticipate conditions beyond the bumper of the car in front will properly
prepare themselves by slowing down before the patch and then doing little or
nothing (including NO lane changes) while on the ice patch.

If you hit a patch of ice you have POTENTIAL big trouble.   If you are going
too fast to complete a curve on the road under ice conditions you may be
SOL.   Yet another reason to slow down when conditions turn bad (especially
on a road that has below standard curves.

>