driving home from work yesterday there was more than an average amount of traffic. it was pretty much stop and go most of the way home along the interstate. the traffic report that i heard on the radio failed to mention any delays on this particular road so i was curious as to the cause of the delays. keep in mind that as a highway engineer i often find myself critical of roadways and their design, but more often i am frustrated by the level of driver performance that i observe.
so to get back to the traffic, it had been a few miles (i dont know, maybe 5 or so) and there was still no evidence of any incident that was causing the delay. i grew suspicious that the backup was caused by the sun. yes, you heard correctly. the big ball of fire far away in the sky was ruining my commute home.
the problem is that when it is setting it shines directly into drivers eyes headed west. i dont know what the best way to deal with this problem is. my top suggestions include sunglasses, eye black, hats or visors [which are most often built to cars]. but i find it a little bit funny how people react.
imagine, if you will, that you are driving. you enter intense sunlight and are temporarily blinded by the sun. fearful that you might hit something that you cant see, you slam on the brakes and come to an immediate stop. this is an interstate highway and the speed limit is 65 mph. now you expect the person behind you, who cant see anything, to see you and stop in time?
i am not proposing a better solution, just cracking up because everytime i see this phenomenon occur, i think to myself that those drivers think they are being safe by coming to an immediate stop with total disregard for the driver behind them who cant see a thing and is approaching them at full speed.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
17 comments:
I'm not a highway engineer and I still wonder how traffic jams occur when I don't see someone pulled over or an accident. Then, I just assume everyone on the road but me is a complete raging moron.
What gets my goat even more is the people that slam on their brakes becuase there is a parked police cruiser on the shoulder and the officer is out of his car and ticketing someone else. No need to slow down for that....In fact, I tend to speed up when I see this occuring just to prove that I am not scared.
-AManda
who knew amanda was such a BA?
your technique got me thinking amanda... you mentioned speeding up. well i have thought about that also. and i think if i were a cop i would use this to my advantage. like, i would get my partner to be a cop performing a speed trap but make it a bad one. like he is not hidden and its obvious he is there and not getting anyone. then, like a half mile down the road would be me laying on the bushes in camo gear and facepaint with a radar gun. once i see other BA's like you i hop into my car and track you down. i should be in law enforcement.
I think you know my feelings on this subject. I get road rage when I'm not even driving. I hate it, people are so retarded. The driving test should be much harder
I have had sun in my eyes and never had it affect me to the point that I felt the need to slow down. I also usually wear a hat, though. I think one of your proposed solutions (shades, hat, etc.) should be required in every car to go along with the visor already provided, because it's obvious people don't know how that new-fangled contraption works.
I once got pulled over on my first visit to UMD. The cop flagged me down from the side of the road. Apparently they do this down here (not where I'm from) I thought he was waving so I waved back. Well, in the rearview I saw him running back into his car and he came chasing after me w/ his lights on. He didn't ticket me though because he couldn't stop laughing at me as I kept saying "I thought you were waving, I didn't know I was getting pulled over, I waved back, did you see me wave back?"
Believe it Iceguy. It was on Indian head highway and it was a state trooper.
I like the idea of iceguy being more of a douche and just ripping everyone apart anytime we write something, that should be fun
I've heard of girls getting away with all kinds of stuff after being pulled over.
1) Who's Iceguy? Sounds like Terrence but I'm not sure.
2) I always wear eye black when driving, even at night.
3) Maryland drivers are more idiotic than the rest of us. We in Philly won't slow down for anyone then will intentionally cause a scenario where there will be a flip of the bird and an altercation to follow.
4) Joanna and I did notice yesterday morning that the sun caused a backup driving east toward downtown and I agree I don't really understand this phenomenon nor traffic in general, sans accident (shout to Pomfret on that).
I wear my sunglasses at night
iceguy is frese (thats his last name but people rarely call him by his other name, matt. he is one bad MF...)
to respond:
iceguy, your dads ride is sweet. i have heard of sunglare being reported when i am not listing to claiken, but it wasnt the other day.
brian d, driving with eyeblack makes me laugh. and md drivers are not all bad. i didnt say there are not bad at all. we have bad drivers just like every other state.
frese/JW, i have seen worse offenses be let slide by cops who pulled people over. although i doubt that JW was wearing a tiny snake skin miniskirt and letting her features hang out of her tight shirt after she got pulled over at 3 am having been drinking before she was even 21.
corey, thanks for reading
eric, i also like the idea of frese being a huge dbag.
Morgan, sweet comment about Mack. Made me laugh. I will now go crawl in a hole while I try to get this foot out of my mouth.
I think I've heard of frese. He does sound like a bad m/f'er.
I realize CT is only #44, but I distinctly remember driving to the beaches in RI when I was in HS and noticing that the drivers were incredibly bad on the other side of the state line. I only have 7 spots worth of room to talk but I guessed the bottom spot and got it right. Thank goodness its a small state and there aren't may of them.
I heard today at lunch that Mack loves the meat packing.........district.
I blame sun glare for the time I fell asleep at the wheel... if the sun wasn't in my eyes, I wouldn't have had to close them.
Post a Comment