Drag racing on North Maple (is never a good idea)

therideI actually don’t think this mess was created by a drag racer. And there was no black ice today (thank you god or whoever). I did not see what happened here but I think that whatever happened was due to plain old excessive speed. It is not unusual for somebody to drive 40 (or 55) on N. Maple. Which has a 35 mph speed limit. And no, it was not the bus that went off the road but I once saw a bus ride up over the curb, so it happens. My regular 0-skunk-30 walking route is totally within the Landfill neighborhood on lightly traveled streets. But I have to traverse the N. Maple sidewalks to get to the Plum Market. These taaaarrr tracks scared me enough that I took a picture of them.

Somewhere not too long ago, I read an article that predicted the end of the automobile. I apparently didn’t bookmark the article and I can’t remember the details. I suspect it didn’t say that automobiles would entirely disappear. But the idea was that our society would be much less dependent upon everyone driving everywhere all the time. I would love that. I *love* to drive!!! Except… 1) When I am driving in nasty weather like snow / ice / tornado. 2) When I am driving in heavy traffic (*and* in nasty weather conditions).

I don’t really mind my eight-mile commute, at least not most days. It’ll get MUCH worse in June when they start to build the South State/Ellsworth traffic circle. I may have to take the “back way” home for a long time. Sigh. It’s so much easier to head north on State and hit the I94 18-wheel Clogway…

I do wonder what will happen in the next 50 years or whatever. When I was a little kid, we owned one vee-hickle. At some point, my grandfather bought a jeep that he didn’t really want to drive (or something), so it ended up in my family’s driveway and we sort of had a second car. Later on, we bought our own second vee-hickle and then my old coot got access to The Bank Car and much later, the Engineer and I got our own vee-hicles, and at one point, there were often five cars parked outside The Commander’s house. I have skipped over a whole lot of stuff but the point is that families who once got by with *one* vee-hickle evolved into families who had enough vee-hickles for pretty much every driver. Here at The Landfill, we *began* with two vee-hickles. We both owned vee-hickles going into our marriage and we needed two vee-hickles to get to work. Then, for many years, we owned three or even four vee-hickles. In the early years it was a form of hoarding, although we eventually learned to get rid of old cars. Later on, it was because there were teenage drivers and we needed enough vee-hickles for everyone to get around. Nowadays? We are back down to two. But I cannot imagine not having a vee-hickle at my beck and call when and if I need one.

What is next? I don’t think I’ll be around to see whatever replaces automobiles. Or, I may be around but extremely cranky about the fact that I cannot participate… Or maybe whatever replaces automobiles will accommodate meeeee in my old age… Yikes, I am not there yet and do not want to go there…

I do love to drive and I hope we will keep up enough infrastructure I can still do it…

7 Responses to “Drag racing on North Maple (is never a good idea)”

  1. Margaret Says:

    Yep, we are a car culture. I can’t imagine life without the independence of a car. Maybe if I lived where there was a subway it would be different although even then, I would be impatient!! I hope no one was standing on that sidewalk when those tracks were made.

  2. Tonya Watkins Says:

    Funny. My post tonight was about vee-hickles, too. Two of us, three vee-hickles. And now, two NEW ones. I do love to drive, except for my sucky work commute, but I can’t imagine using public transportation. I wouldn’t have a clue about how to take a city bus. When I looked into it once, since there is a stop in front of our house, it would take me 2 hours to get to work and it would include 2 transfers. No thanks.

  3. kayak woman Says:

    Aaaaannnndd… The nearest bus stop to my work is at least a mile away and that walk would be along the shoulder of a high-speed (45 mph) two-lane road. No thanks!

  4. jane Says:

    Coincidentally I will probably be taking the bus home tonight since I just dropped my car off for potential clutch replacement. I used to take it all the time, but now I need to go to their website and figure out the schedule — but the stop is close to my work and home, so no worries.

  5. Pooh Says:

    When Dave moved to D.C., he was hinting about needing a car. I said that D.C. had a very good public transit system, AND horrible driving. I wound up the rotors on my helicopter, ;-), just a little bit. I looked up NIH, where he’d be working and said to Dave: “It’s on the Red Line and near three bus routes. Choose an apartment accordingly.” He did, and he got a car from us when he moved to Purdue.

  6. kayak woman Says:

    My kids navigated around town on the city bus throughout high school since there weren’t school buses to Commie High & only seniors could park in the lot.

  7. jay Says:

    I take a bus fairly regularly, but getting to work takes a bit of work, and about 1 hr 15 minutes. (vs 30-45 minute driving)
    We can do a short walk and bus downtown – and take the light rail to SeaTac – which is awesome.
    A couple of bucks beats Shuttle Express every time.
    I don’t recall using the bus when I lived in A2, but I did ride my bicycle everywhere.