The Random Thoughts Thread

Or you could pull a Clarkson....

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I can follow this but it is in contrast to what we have seen in US jurisdictions (at least those around me).
Prior to installation of a redlight camera, a given intersection gives a 5-6 second yellow warning on its way to red. Concurrent with camera installation, the duration of the yellow is changed to 4 seconds. If 5-6 seconds was a safe and reasonable duration BEFORE cameras, it should remain the same and not be shortened to generate more revenue.
A residential street (generally a residential through street) has a speed limit of 30 or 35 for years. Concurrent with camera installation, the speed limit is changed to 25 mph. If it was safe at 35 mph for the last decade, its difficult to believe any version that says 25 is the correct safe speed limit with a camera.
Its not hard to doubt whether justice or safety were factors in these decisions.

Code Red said:
When I lived in the UAE, we had speed cameras, but very few red light cameras (actually every red light had a camera, but very few issued tickets). The technology used there is sound. In five years there I never heard of anybody with a legitimate complaint about being tagged unjustly.

Everybody knew what the speed limit was, and everybody knew the cameras were there. Anybody who got tagged wasn't paying a fine, they were making a donation because they either weren't paying attention (bad at speed), or they were stupid. We called them "volunteers."

Instead of bragging about how fast they were driving, people were actually embarrassed when they got "flashed - (the light going off on the camera indicating it got you) because it was a stupid mistake. Imagine that - people being embarrassed about breaking a law.

Enforcement was simple and logical. Registration of the vehicle is a privilege. If you want to put that vehicle on the road, the you take responsibility for what it does on the road. All tickets must be paid to register it for the next year. If you owned the vehicle, you take responsibility for it because you are in the best position to keep it below the speed limit or stop allowing others to exceed it.

It was kinda hard to find the injustice in that approach.
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4x4x4doors said:
I can follow this but it is in contrast to what we have seen in US jurisdictions (at least those around me).
Prior to installation of a redlight camera, a given intersection gives a 5-6 second yellow warning on its way to red. Concurrent with camera installation, the duration of the yellow is changed to 4 seconds. If 5-6 seconds was a safe and reasonable duration BEFORE cameras, it should remain the same and not be shortened to generate more revenue.
A residential street (generally a residential through street) has a speed limit of 30 or 35 for years. Concurrent with camera installation, the speed limit is changed to 25 mph. If it was safe at 35 mph for the last decade, its difficult to believe any version that says 25 is the correct safe speed limit with a camera.
Its not hard to doubt whether justice or safety were factors in these decisions.
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Neither.

I also object to ticket revenues going to the "general fund", but I digress.............
 
Who knew that OVERTOURISM was a word?

The Dutch War on Tourists

Outnumbered by drunk and disorderly visitors, the Netherlands fights back.

by Rene Chun

The Atlantic

The Dutch have suffered some brutal occupations, from the Roman empire and Viking raids to Spanish and Nazi rule. But now they face an even larger army of invaders: tourists.

In the era of cheap flights and Airbnb, their numbers are staggering. Some 19 million tourists visited the Netherlands last year, more people than live there. For a country half the size of South Carolina, with one of the world’s highest population densities, that’s a lot. And according to the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions, the number of annual visitors is projected to increase by 50 percent over the next decade, to 29 million. Urban planners and city officials have a word for what the Netherlands and quite a few other European countries are experiencing: overtourism. With such an influx of humanity comes a decline in quality of life. Residents’ complaints range from inconvenience (crowds spilling from sidewalks to streets) to vandalism to alcohol-induced defilement (vomiting in flower boxes, urinating in mailboxes).

Amsterdam, with its museums, guided canal tours, and picturesque architecture, sees much of this collateral damage. To combat it, the city recently passed various pieces of legislation, including a moratorium on new hotel construction in much of the city; new fines (140 euros for public urination or drunk and disorderly conduct); new restrictions on Airbnb rentals (30 nights a year per unit); and a combination of bans and restrictions on new tourist-centric businesses, such as bike-rental outfits and donut shops, in the historic city center. Guided tours of the city’s Red Light District will be banned in January 2020, and thanks to new government regulations, many of its cannabis “coffee shops”—the first of which dates back to 1967—have closed. There’s even talk of charging day-trippers to set foot in the city, a bold policy recently enacted in Venice. Perhaps most telling, earlier this year the Dutch tourism board officially shifted its mission from “destination promotion” to “destination management.”

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If you happen to come across a yellow in Chula Vista, please slow and come to a stop on a late yellow.
My wife is out there on her mobility scooter. She doesn't always know what's going on in all directions.
Whatever it is you're headed for, it's not that important.
With respect.
 
Gallowbraid said:
Best rental vehicles show up when you fly in late and are only staying in town until the following morning. Next week in Idaho I'll probably end up with a '98 Taurus Wagon. :rolleyes:
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Nice score!

Since this is in the Random thread... PSA - If you are doing a personal rental that is not covered by your employer, ensure that you have good auto insurance, credit card primary or secondary insurance, or the rental car company insurance.

My wife went to Idaho this summer and took a rock to the windshield which required windshield replacement. She had declined the rental insurance as we thought we were well covered by our credit card... Yes and no. We found out that they had changed their policy to secondary, so, we needed to start with our auto insurance company. I called our auto insurance company only to find that we had missed adding glass breakage coverage when we switched to their company. Great... We are on the hook for the first $1,000 before insurance kicks in. And it could cost this much, and more, as newer cars have to have their vision systems calibrated after having the windshield replaced, and that could take some time. We would also be responsible for the down time on this rental.

1) This is not a horror story. Avis was awesome! $210 bucks for the repair of their rental car as it was a simple windshield replacement. Note that my wife stopped by Safelite and got a quote for replacement and turn-around time in case we had to go to battle.
2) When you damage a rental car, you need to contact them within the time specified in the contract (she did). Hey, they want to give you another car as they need to fix their car and you can't be driving around with a broken windshield. And now you have another car that you might damage... This could have easily turned into a horror story. And, I found a lot of them on the web while helping her to sort it out.
 
Scott B. said:
I can see you in the Taurus... :p
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I'd rock a Taurus, Gambler 500 style.

TD64 said:
Nice score!

Since this is in the Random thread... PSA - If you are doing a personal rental that is not covered by your employer, ensure that you have good auto insurance, credit card primary or secondary insurance, or the rental car company insurance.

My wife went to Idaho this summer and took a rock to the windshield which required windshield replacement. She had declined the rental insurance as we thought we were well covered by our credit card... Yes and no. We found out that they had changed their policy to secondary, so, we needed to start with our auto insurance company. I called our auto insurance company only to find that we had missed adding glass breakage coverage when we switched to their company. Great... We are on the hook for the first $1,000 before insurance kicks in. And it could cost this much, and more, as newer cars have to have their vision systems calibrated after having the windshield replaced, and that could take some time. We would also be responsible for the down time on this rental.

1) This is not a horror story. Avis was awesome! $210 bucks for the repair of their rental car as it was a simple windshield replacement. Note that my wife stopped by Safelite and got a quote for replacement and turn-around time in case we had to go to battle.
2) When you damage a rental car, you need to contact them within the time specified in the contract (she did). Hey, they want to give you another car as they need to fix their car and you can't be driving around with a broken windshield. And now you have another car that you might damage... This could have easily turned into a horror story. And, I found a lot of them on the web while helping her to sort it out.
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My department has an employee who's had more than one rental car totaled out by hail while working in the Midwest. He has a bit of a tick whenever the word hail gets mentioned now. As a work group we regularly throw ice cubes at him because we're supportive people who care about his mental health. In all of these instances the company paid damage waiver has taken care of the car. I wouldn't personally rent a car without the waiver.
 
During campfire, I always open up this game Complete the sentence and mostly I ask about funny things about death like If you would be a ghost to whom would you appear first?
 
Optimistic Paranoid said:
Jalopnik has an article to video of an off road test where Jeep loses to a Mercedes G class and a Toyota Land Cruiser.

https://jalopnik.com/watch-a-jeep-wrangler-lose-an-off-road-comparison-to-a-1837622157
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Well I just wasted 20 minutes or so...
That guy is such a Toyota fan boy it was incredible. As far as I’m concerned the Wrangler won the first 2 tests as it clearly had better articulation.
On the hill tow test the Toyota I’d I do well but when he tried the G Class he clearly jumped on the gas to give the MB more speed going up the hill...

The G Class is an amazing truck but the electronics on it are beyond fixable when something goes south on the trail and that’s the beauty of the Jeep.
 
For the longest time I had my router setup to block all traffic originating from pinterest.com. This helped keep my honey-do list to a minimum and protected me. I've decided though that bringatrailer.com is easily the most dangerous website ever, and that my wife visiting pinterest is tame compared to what might happen if I continue to browse bringatrailer.com.

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