What did you do to your Volvo today? Topic is solved

[bmdubya1198]

Paid homage to Gabriel Voison and For a rubber squeaking , full ABS deployment stop in dry pavement that just kept me from hitting a Hyandai in the Mass Pike

Pissed at myself for lack of sit awareness, the realised he had no brake lights and I had atoppped on a pure visual speed reference alone. That’s actually praiseworthy.

Its amazing how fast your brain can calculate from "its all good" to "$#!%....gonnadiegonnadiegonnadie"

It really is. I had some idiot yesterday come completely into my lane, fortunately she looked up from her phone just in time to not hit me!
People who pay zero attention while driving should have their licenses revoked instantly. It just pisses me off that these people can continue to put peoples' lives in danger and they rarely get caught.

[RickHaleParker]

People who pay zero attention while driving should have their licenses revoked instantly.

I have been saying the same for some time because: According to NHTSA, text messaging or using a mobile phone while driving now accounts for most car crashes that used to be attributed solely to driving under the influence or DUI. Statistically, the use of a cellphone when driving is six times more dangerous than drunk driving.

[bmdubya1198]

People who pay zero attention while driving should have their licenses revoked instantly.

I have been saying the same for some time because: According to NHTSA, text messaging or using a mobile phone while driving now accounts for most car crashes that used to be attributed solely to driving under the influence or DUI. Statistically, the use of a cellphone when driving is six times more dangerous than drunk driving.

Definitely. At least drunk drivers are trying to pay attention... although they're usually doing a terrible job. Most people on their phones just get sucked into their phones and sometimes just stop looking at the road.

[WhatAmIDoing]

I get what they're trying to do, but the restrictions on modifications are just ridiculous. I mean, it's not like everyone is going to be modifying their cars. I get that "every little bit counts" for reducing emissions, but I don't think Joe Shmo who just drives his car to work and the store and wherever else and isn't into cars is going to care about modifying his car in any way. California seems like hell for car enthusiasts!

agreed on the ridiculousness. most of these rules are actually relatively recent, within the last 15 years. I also agree with abscate that it's super important to have an emissions control program, and it's hard to overstate the benefits those programs have yielded for our lungs over the last several decades.

what gets me is that the sniffer - the most labor-intensive way to test emissions, the thing that directly measures what you want to limit - is *supplemented* with the visual inspection. like, who cares how you get to acceptable emissions? who cares what parts are on the car, as long as it's not spewing NOx? that might be an understandable rule if you didn't want to commit people to a sniffer test, but you're doing the harder thing anyway. why add a step that disqualifies cars that you've verified don't actually make the air less clean?

as far as California being hell for car enthusiasts, I think there's a very strong case to be made for southern California being the global center of modified car culture, and it's still going strong. everything from lowriders to desert trucks to riced-out Hondas got its start or made it big in SoCal, and the ratio of cool modified car to everything else is higher in LA than anywhere else I've lived. there are more obstacles, but it's obviously not killing the scene.

I think Volkswagen proved that visual inspections, OBDII emissions, and sniffer tests don't really work.

[bmdubya1198]

Haha, that's true! But they definitely had to pay for it!

[RickHaleParker]

Definitely. At least drunk drivers are trying to pay attention... although they're usually doing a terrible job. Most people on their phones just get sucked into their phones and sometimes just stop looking at the road.

That is why the exception for hands free use of cell phones is fatally flawed. It is not what your doing with your hands that is the threat. The threat is what one doing with their mind or should I say, what one is not doing with their mind.

[Rattnalle]

Definitely. At least drunk drivers are trying to pay attention... although they're usually doing a terrible job. Most people on their phones just get sucked into their phones and sometimes just stop looking at the road.

That is why the exception for hands free use of cell phones is fatally flawed. It is not what your doing with your hands that is the threat. The threat is what one doing with their mind or should I say, what one is not doing with their mind.

Might as well ban speaking to the passengers or driving with kids in the car and well then. I do get your point but there has to be a limit somewhere. People need to learn to prioritise their attention though. I often find myself having to rewind my audio book, or realise that I haven't heard a thing of what the others in the car have said if there's been something going on outside the car. Brain seems to just shut off those inputs.

[RickHaleParker]

Might as well ban speaking to the passengers or driving with kids in the car and well then. I do get your point but there has to be a limit somewhere.

The way I see it: If you are distracting the driver, you are an idiot. Because your life in the hands of the driver.
My Father made it real clear why he expected us kids to behave when in the car.

[Rattnalle]

Might as well ban speaking to the passengers or driving with kids in the car and well then. I do get your point but there has to be a limit somewhere.

The way I see it: If you are distracting the driver, you are an idiot. Because your life in the hands of the driver.

Doesn't have to be on purpose though. Just being there is in itself a distraction.

[abscate]

If I had been on the phone I would have pranged it for sure. My rule is, right hand lane, cruise on, 67 mph speed ( about 20% speed percentile) I will use phone hands free. Otherwise, no.