“Probably the same people that laboriously write out a check in front of me at the grocery store”
And they’re usually in the 15 items or less line . . .
LOL
A few years ago, I did an experiment to see just how much time I can save by driving like a complete jackass. The trip was the 37.2 miles from work to home, 13 miles of it on I-35, most of the rest on Highway 71, Southwest Parkway, FM620. The slowest speed limit for the bulk of the trip was 55, maybe about two miles total on roads that had 45 and 30 mph speed limits.
Driving like a complete jackass.
Top speed 93.1 mph.
Average speed 42.1 mph
Trip time 53:02
Time spent stopped 9:04
Driving like I can wait to get home.
Top speed 63.6 mph
Average speed 38.9 mph
Trip time 57:13
Time spent stopped 4:36
53minute 2 seconds verses 57minutes 13 seconds, a difference of 4 minutes and 11 seconds. Not even enough time to smoke a cigarette.
So today, I leave for work 4 minutes and 11 seconds early so I don’t have to speed and drive like a complete jackass to get there on time.
Want to win a sucker bet? Bet your lead footed buddies that they can’t average 65 mph on a road trip. You’ll probably win that bet unless they go 80 mph all the time and never stop to eat or pee.
"Probably the same people that laboriously write out a check in front of me at the grocery store. And they’re usually in the 15 items or less line . . . "
Yup!
Many years ago, I was in back of one of these jackwagons.
It was bad enough that he had not pre-prepared the check with the name of the store and his signature, but this guy actually made everyone wait while he entered the info in his check register and did the math (very slowly) in order to come up with his new balance in that account!
I would have spoken up, but it was fairly obvious that this guy had some serious mental issues, based on his overall behavior.
My parents drummed it into us that we were never to inconvenience others, but I don’t think that very many parents bother with this type of parenting today.
Why aren’t lights timed better? U hear traffic officials constantly discussing smooth traffic flow and never see it in action?
Occasionally (especially if local authorities are in charge of the lights) they’ll deliberately set lights to red as an “electric speed bump” to slow traffic. Or to encourage stopped traffic to eat and/or spend money otherwise. Or to favor local traffic over out-of-town commuters on the thorofare.
In Albuquerque…I"M the slow poke !
You can usually see that next light and know about when the cycle might change
BUT
Why they do this baffles me.
Timing traffic lights. Why so few? It’s the Chamber of Commerce effect. On streets with a lot of retail stores, the store owners object to timing the traffic lights. With everyone smoothly going down the road and hardly ever stopping for a red light, the business owners feel it will cut into their “pull over and make an impulse-purchase” business.
Well you brought it up, but the lady in the checkout that waits till the total comes up before opening her purse to start digging for money, then the guy forms perfect letters on his check and takes 5 minutes to fill it out, complete with writing it in the book.
How about 30 items in the expressline?-Kevin
I had two check writers in front of me about a month ago. (it doesn’t help that I stopped at the store on a Tuesday, a day that seniors get an automatic discount) The first lady knew the drill–she didn’t have the check filled out, but wrote her portion out pretty fast and gave it to the clerk for franking. She wasn’t surprised by the process.
However, the second old dear not only was a bit slow, but wanted cash back for her check. When the clerk told her they couldn’t do that, she insisted on having a manager come over and tell her the same. Noticing that the woman had a debit card, still in its plastic sleeve, the clerk explained that she could get cash back if she used this card to pay instead of a check. This actually seemed to spark some life in the old girl, and after some faltering attempts where the card was scanned upside down and vertically, and a PIN was dredged up, success was achieved. She actually said: “I’ll use that next time, it’s a lot better.” She seemed excited to learn something new, and seeing this filled me with hope.
It’s all too easy to regard this segment of the population as just going through the motions like zombies, and I always hope that if I somehow make it that far, that I will continue to be open to new things and not just trudging through life like so many of all ages seem to be.
“the lady in the checkout that waits till the total comes up before opening her purse to start digging for money”
These women are amazing. Based on my observations, it appears that most of them seem to be startled when asked to pay at the end of the transaction, and then–of course–they always seem to be digging for that odd penny that they are sure is sitting somewhere in the deep recesses of their purse.
I, by contrast, have already swiped my credit card during the checkout procedure, and the clerk merely has to wait a second or two for the machine to print my receipt and hand it to me. Even though I am retired, I can think of a few thousand better uses of my time than waiting until the end of the transaction…then slowly reacting to the need to pay…then digging for cash…and then waiting for the clerk to count out my change.
I have a friend who insists on paying cash for everything, and she inevitably winds up going to the bank at least twice a week in order to…get more cash. I have tried to point out to her that she is…
wasting an incredible amount of time each week…
wasting a lot of gas…
and…
depriving herself of the cash-back rewards that many credit cards have.
However, my attempts to help her on this score have been as successful as my attempts to convince her to stop tailgating. All of my polite suggestions apparently fall on deaf ears…
Here in NH and MA…people aren’t necessarily racing to the next red-light…they are racing to get in front of the person next to them. I don’t know why…but there are so many lights that - less then 100yds after the light…the lanes merge - so it’s a race to who gets in front. When I first moved to New England I thought it was just old roads and that the traffic just increased too fast for there to be a problem…but NOOOOO…There are many NEW traffic lights and roads where the lanes merge right after the light…it is SOOOOOO STUPID to design a road like that.
I’ve known a few folks for whom the pedals are on/off switches. Press one or the other depending on what you want top speed up or slow down. The idea that you can regulate each is a foreign concept to them.
And the guy who was full of gestures? It just might be that his passenger (and I’m guessing wife here) has an issue with the driving style of the driver and the guy’s gesturing is him defending his position - and NOT his criticizing yours.
“There are many NEW traffic lights and roads where the lanes merge right after the light…it is SOOOOOO STUPID to design a road like that.”
Here in the Seattle area it seems as though many roads, traffic lights, and intersections are designed to impede the flow of traffic rather than improve it.