Commuting: The strange. The Odd. And the FUN

Who wants to be the one to make the decision....

Why Self-Driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill
Self-driving cars are already cruising the streets. But before they can become widespread, carmakers must solve an impossible ethical dilemma of algorithmic morality.


https://www.technologyreview.com/s/542626/why-self-driving-cars-must-be-programmed-to-kill/

Most "processions" like that are decidedly not "1 %-er" groups, but rather, club or rally groups (toy runs, etc.). Although i confess to owning a big Harley, I absolutely detest those large group rides for that very reason--slow, cramped, constrained... lol. Most 3-platch riders/groups I see make very good time on the highway. Just my .02

Some lady was going downhill on a four way intersection while I was making an uphill left turn. She had the only stop sign, and kept motioning like she was trying to shoo me out of the way as she rolled through the intersection, into the broad side of my car. I almost wanted to just stop, get out and walk up to her window so that we could have a conversation about who has right of way on a hill and what the big, red sign means.

I honestly wonder if I'm the only one in these hills who actually knows to yield to uphill traffic. Everybody seems to bomb down the hills while expecting uphill traffic to pull over for them and they seem hopelessly confused if I pull over for them when the roles are switched. Ironically enough, my neighbors have been putting up fake signs to label more or less normal intersections as "dangerous." They've also bolted a few speed limit signs to the utility poles. I don't even think that they've lived in this neighborhood for a year.

Strange , Odd, not Fun
Today after stopping by a motorcycle repair and suspension shop to pick up a donation for our upcoming event. I followed a Camry which was not able to stay in her lane. She kept swerving into the lane on her right. I got close enough to see why. She had a jar of baby food in her hand on the wheel. She kept turning all the way around to stuff a spoon of food into her kids mouth, while doing 40 mph in rush hour traffic. The kid was in the back seat on the passenger side and she had quite a reach to get the spoon into her brat's mouth.

Obviously a mother of the year candidate.

At least she wasn't texting, right?

Shitty commute day. Pissing down rain on the way home. 18 out of the 23 miles required lane splitting. I'm so happy I installed the Rekluse. Without that I wouldn't be able to type till tomorrow.

Just your typical commute in North Carolina I guess. This guy got out of his paddock and was just standing around waiting for his buddy to let him back in. He was not a fan of the motorcycle though, tell you what.

My friend and I were coming into Los Angeles from the north in a Friday afternoon heading to Pasadena for the OU/UCLA football game. We had ridden out and came down the coast. Anyway we got caught in a slow down and while grinding along a CHIP motor officer came alongside and waved for us to follow him. We did for several miles until he waved and took a exit. A police escort for our first lane splitting adventure. I key up the CB and told my buddy that only thing we needed was him to have his lights on and that would have been icing on the cake

Last week I was commuting and the car in front was delayed at each light/stop sign. It was her phone, but not texting, she was watching a movie / tv show!

passed someone last week doing the same. Crazy!

I see this almost every day.

Probably causing a lot of people to hit their brakes when you do that.

Jesus christ...There was some police activity on the freeway today, and nobody handled it well. I had a few people just run up to my rear bumper while running their high-beams in the stop and go/rubbernecking traffic. I really don't know what they were figuring to accomplish, but it sure the fuck didn't make me drive any faster. Definitely made it hard to tell when I was actually out of the snarl, being that I couldn't fucking see anything.

Lol.

The wife and I were out Saturday morning running errands. Had 4 separate people that I had to honk at because they were texting when the light turned green.

Yeah, smart phones sure have slowed down traffic flow @ signaled intersections. Every red light has people looking @ their phones...

Kind of a "duh" moment for me, but I just realized how much of the shitty driving that I see might be on account of people just throwing their adaptive cruise control on.

Especially when combined with automatic lane correction.

And the generally shitty attitudes that most people seem to have around here, these days.

Hadn't ridden in a while due to schedules, weather. Love riding a motorcycle, fucking hate doing it in the Bay Area. Aside from all the usual crap where people can't handle intersections and totally blank on right-of-way rules (more in the sense that they freeze up when I do things like yield to them on a hill), some jackass actually got upset because traffic was stopped to let a column of school children (some of whom were wheelchair bound) cross the street. Took less than a minute for that asshole to start leaning on his horn, as if it wasn't a predictable scenario being literally one block away from the local elementary, middle and high schools at 3:00pm.

Of course I can't say that I'm too surprised since people have gotten pissed off at me for stopping for a school bus with flashing reds before, in spite of the fact that I'd long since pulled off of the road to get out of their way while I waited. I was literally the only vehicle in that queue that didn't pass that thing while its red lights were flashing.

School buses need to have dashcams when the lights go on, of sufficient resolution to get license numbers of cars going both directions. Then turn the video over to the cops so the miscreants can get big tickets and points on their license. I don't care if the owner claims s/he wasn't driving it (and you know it'll happen) - owner gets the fine and points unless they can convince a judge that someone else was driving, in which case that same someone else gets the penalties.

I can only imagine that's some single mother rushing to her second job or something.

But, yeah, fuck her. (Serious. Not being sarcarstic.) She's put a lot of people in danger outside of just her and her kid. (Serious.)
I can be compassionate for whatever her situation is, but only to a limit.