…and I generally support environmental protection
In some instances more power the better,I drive underpowered heavy trucks and believe me they are a real hazard to navigation,I like enough power to be able to merge equal or above ambient speed(makes a seamless transistion usually-on the other hand something slow is a real hazard and there is not a thing I can do about it,a former boss used to always try to order the trucks speed restricted to 65 mph and most roads a person has to navigate has a traffic stream faster then that and other routes are not availible) my strategy for dealing with disagreeable traffic is to let someone else drive or find a better route if possible-Kevin
@VDCdriver, you may be right. it may also be some kind of use it or lose it deal with the funding.idk
VDC : “I have a theory that the owners of the private companies that repave our county roads must be related to people in authority at the county level.”
My friend, you’re being more than kind. I’ll bet if you check the makeup the your state’s various committees you’ll find them populated with people whose businesses would benefit from the “proper” decision. I’m been on one of these committees. Large companies even have “legislative liaison” officers with staffs, which are basically very sharp lawyers whose job it is to establish relationship with legislators to influence legislation AND appropriations. Admittedly, I had the opportunity to work with one for a few years in pursuit of a $2.1M D.O.L. grant that I was trying to get. Yeah, I guess I was “part of the problem” for a few years. But I learned a great deal about the way appropriations work. It ain’t pretty.
A family friend offered me a job working for a start up paving company with him the ostensible owner but actually owned by the then mayor and several members of the city council and the state representative from this district. That was many years ago and all those originally involved have died and I am clueless who owns the company now but it has done well all these years.
@degosa I am sure of it, ALEC is controlling legislative agendas, by the way you want to run again, support our agenda or we will throw millions towards an opponent we choose, it is sad that millions in TV advertising is enough to win an election, in spite of no truth in advertising and no research by a normal voter into the issues and platform. As Michelle Bachman, tea party said giving the poor the right to vote is like giving a robber a gun, tax cuts for the rich and cut everything but SS and military."
Ryan would increase military spending and provide large tax cuts for millionaires, with deep cuts in non-defense spending footing the bill. But the House cannot cut enough discretionary spending to fund Ryan’s budget. So it attacks Obamacare, Medicare and Social Security, with a plan to increase the Medicare eligibility age and turn it into a voucher program.
Inside Politics: ‘Stinkburger’
Breaking America’s health and income security programs is the long-term political game for Republicans. The smarter ones know they cannot achieve budget balance and more tax cuts for the wealthy by cutting only domestic discretionary spending, which is just under 17% of the total federal budget . So they attack entitlements
ah, partisanship, the nectar of our enemies. divide and conquer.
the left has reared its ugly head, will the right raise its gaping maw to battle?
@VDCdriver
One of the town selectman and road commissioner also owned the road contractor business that did all the town’s road work. I instructed him to put in an 18 inch culvert on our private road and when I returned from work, he had put in a 12 inch. When I told him it was too small, he just said, “call us if it clogs and we’ll be up to clean it out”. Obviously not for free. That was the last work we hired him for and did the next twelve culverts ourselves. You can imagine how he skewed the town. This crap goes on in towns all over the US.
I could tell you stories about our current road agent in our town, but I have to watch my blood pressure.
I miss the old town meeting formats, where department heads had to justify expenditures and policy changes to us, the residents, and we got to debate them and vote on them. A lot of the shenanigans that go on wouldn’t have survived a town meeting format.
That was the last work we hired him for and did the next twelve culverts ourselves. You can imagine how he skewed the town. This crap goes on in towns all over the US.
I was on our towns budget committee for many years. We had to go out and inspect each road paving project and check to see if they were putting in proper drainage, proper base, and even proper asphalt. Many times it was NOT properly done. People complain about government waste because we had to hire someone to inspect the companies. Where as if the companies were HONEST and did the work properly we’d never have to hire these inspectors.
I remember a town I used to live in years ago getting a new young police chief who thought that if he generated a lot of ticket revenue he could get an additional car and three additional officers approved. So he set his officers off an a quest to set up speed traps and write tickets. Next town meeting, he got up and did his presentation. He was stunned when everyone lined up at the microphone and lambasted him for his “ticket giving binge”. After we all finished chewing him out, one by one, we voted down his additional cruiser and additional cops. I’ve never seen such a stunned face in all my civilian life. I think the kid learned something that day.
VDCdriver I live in a fairly small agricultural town (9,000 pop) and consider 20mph occasional farm equipment on the 55mph highway a minor inconvenience compared to freeway jams and urban gridlock. I am also retired and tend to arrive at appointments about 15 minutes early.
A cop comes up to the car window asks me if I knew why he pulled me over. I told him that it was because I couldn’t find a slow moving farm implement to hold me up when I really needed it. He didn’t see the humor.
To bring up a slightly different view, I don’t think many people use the power they have. If you watch a highway, city street, or onramp, you won’t be able to reliably identify the cars that can do 0-60 in 8 second versus those that take 12 seconds. There are a handful of drivers in fast cars who drive like they bought the car for screeching away from signals, but everyone else drives about the same, whatever they are driving (excluding large trucks that can’t begin to keep up.) Most of us have a comfortable driving style, based heavily on what the people around us are doing. We aren’t in that much of a hurry and realize traffic flows most amoothly if we’re all driving consistently and predictably.
It’s certainly not that we need to do 0-60 in 7 seconds. Most trucks and SUVs are slower than that and plenty of cars. Ten seconds 0-60 is still common, but under 7 seconds is also common, and that performance used to be found only in the most powerful aports cars. Now almost any luxury sedan can do it. A generation ago, when a family sedan might average twelve seconds, and a sports sedan manage eight (at best) , people still accelerated quite easily onto freeways. Many of those onramps were built before 1960, when cars were much slower accelerating than that. People were stillr able to pass slower traffic, and had to more often with fewer multi-lane highways. And it isn’t as if speeds were any lower. Before the 55 mph speed limit traffic moved much like it does now. If you read car magazines (as I do) it’s easy to get the impresssion cars are quicker than they are. They pay more attention to performance cars, and for regular cars they almost always test the fastest variant.
As for Massachusetts drivers, yuck. I’m back there every year and am astounded by the bizarre driving I see. Sure, NYC drivers are agressive, but they know how to control their cars. MA drivers just swerve randomly and slow down unpredictably. Part of the problem is the monstrous highway engineering. The Big Dig may not have helped much in reducing traffic, but the miles of highway it replaced were laughably bad, with narrow lanes, sharp curves, abrupt left exits without much notice, etc. All of that ia more or less the norm for older MA freeways, but that stretch was among the worst. Now we’re left with Storrow, almost as comically bad. What do they have against signs in that state? Cross into NH or RI and you’ll be quickly informed of all the uncomung exits and distances, special road conditions you need to know of, etc. MA leaves you completely in the dark until you’re practically to your exit (and then it might be a left exit, or if you want to go north you have to continue two more exits and cut back on some other highway) . Oddly, despite all this incompetence, MA has the fewest highway fatalities per mile driven. I think it’s because no one is brave enough to drive fast. Everyone is feeling their way along hoping they haven’t already missed their turn. They’re driving slowly trying not to miss the one sign they hope exists. And they’re afraid of the rough roads damaging their cars. That’s another easy way to tell you’ve left the state - the road gets much smoother.
My current vehicle is a 2010 KIA Forte SX 6 speed manual with a top speed of 135mph. I have driven it to 90mph once. A total moron was driving their Tahoe at 45mph on a 55mph 2 lane highway. When we reached a double lane passing zone they would floor it to keep the 20 plus vehicles behind them. I have no idea why this 70+ driver was doing this. I had the “pole” position behind them when we reached the fourth passing zone. I downshifted to fourth gear and out accelerated the SUV at 90mph. As I slowed to 60mph I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that the moron had slowed to 45mph with their 20 plus vehicles behind!
@Dag,a 12" culvert pipe isnt VDOT legal in these parts and I,ve seen a lot of driveways saddled with a culvert pipe that didnt even need one as for the repaving Folks,slow down and look closely-these modern enviromentally friendly mixes dont hold up good under traffic and heavy loads.
VDOT is more concerned with “wetlands” aka mudholes-then correct and timely maintainence-Kevin
“VDCdriver I live in a fairly small agricultural town (9,000 pop) and consider 20mph occasional farm equipment on the 55mph highway a minor inconvenience compared to freeway jams and urban gridlock. I am also retired and tend to arrive at appointments about 15 minutes early.”
I agree with you, and I hope that nobody thought I was really complaining about the very slow farm equipment on my local roads. As the bumper sticker on all of the farmer-owned pickup trucks states, No farmers–No food!, and I agree with them.
And, like you, I tend to arrive early for all of my appointments. Much better than cutting it close and having to worry about traffic!
“Large companies even have “legislative liaison” officers with staffs, which are basically very sharp lawyers whose job it is to establish relationship with legislators to influence legislation AND appropriations.”
Absolutely! And, it doesn’t just involve legislators.
A perfect example of the destructive nexus between government and business is the Tesla debacle in NJ. Our biggest state newspaper was able to track the large “donation” that our esteemed governor (Chris Christie) received from the state’s car dealer organization in January, 2014, followed by the governor’s appointing of a new crew to the NJ Motor Vehicle Commission in February, to the Commission’s decision in March to stop Tesla from selling cars directly to the public.
When Christie was criticized for his anti free market policy, he responded that it was the MV Commission that did this deed, and it had no connection to him. Yeah, right.
He then said that, if the underlying laws were changed, he would sign the bill to change them, so two state legislators (one R, one D) have called his bluff and introduced exactly that type of bill–which is supposed to pass both houses of the legislature this week.
I wonder if Christie will have to give back that “donation”.
However, this exact type of ugly scenario is now playing itself out right now in Missouri, where it appears that Tesla sales will shortly be stopped. I have no idea about how much money changed hands in Missouri, or who received it, but you can be sure that somebody received “a donation”.
@MikeInNH
A friend and former student who owned a construction company calls it " guaranteed " employment on the part of unscrupulous contractors. When HE made a bid for the town, it was usually a little more. But, as he explained, he always did the job using the best practices and like many good contractors, was state DEP certified. That is no guarantee they will do the job right but they have more to loose if the don’t. If you use best practice methods mandated around lakes and streams, EVERYWHERE else too, you actually get the best bang for the buck. These contractors are higher too because they hire the best people and pay the higher wages to keep them. If more board members voted to use these types, over time, they save huge amounts of money.
Both my neighbor whom I occasionally work with as well as work on my own around watersheds on the lake and I became DEP certified out of necessity and his business took a jump because of it. He does more work then before, even at higher prices as he is now recommended by the DEP to do the job right when they license construction work in critical areas. He’s a real problem solver instead of a "guaranteed " employment rip off contractor. Now, this isn’t NH so I have no idea how they handle construction work or do any certification…but it is good if communities investigate qualified contractors. What I really like about this certification process is that contractors can submit improved ways of doing work to the certification board. So, it becomes a way to constantly improve the process. Everyone benefits.
If you use best practice methods mandated around lakes and streams, everywhere else too,, you actually get the best bang for the buck.
And I thought only we in Software Engineering use the term “Best Practices”.
It’s a terminology we’ve been using for decades. As with almost anything…there are many different ways to build something with software. Some are good…some aren’t. There are certain ways in each area that are considered “Best Practices”. And I strongly enforce it with ALL my engineers. You either follow the Best Practices policies we have in place…or leave. It’s proven over and over again to save time and money and build a better product.