HOYA SWALLOWS PENTAX !

On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 17:46:13 -0500, Pudentame
wrote:

I currently have to be at work at 3:00am. It's just over 5 miles away,
slightly more than an hour walking. There's no bus service at that time
of night, and damn little at any other time. And the streets I'd have to
walk do not have sidewalks for over half that distance.

Got a bicycle?

Philip Homburg wrote:
In article ,
Pudentame wrote:
I currently have to be at work at 3:00am. It's just over 5 miles away,
slightly more than an hour walking.

The nearest grocery store is halfway to where I work.

Ah, so all you need is a bicycle. :-)



Yeah, so the limited number of busses there are in this town could run
over me.

Laurence Payne wrote:
On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 17:46:13 -0500, Pudentame
wrote:

I currently have to be at work at 3:00am. It's just over 5 miles away,
slightly more than an hour walking. There's no bus service at that time
of night, and damn little at any other time. And the streets I'd have to
walk do not have sidewalks for over half that distance.

Got a bicycle?

Yes, but no place to secure it at work. Also no desire to ride up and
down that blind hill & curve at 2:30am, and especially not at 12:00 noon
coming home. It's a *VERY* busy street then, and there's a lot of
scofflaws who don't give a hoot about speed limits.

I've had to walk that way a couple of times when for some reason or
another I couldn't use my car.

Laurence Payne wrote:
On 26 Dec 2006 13:38:09 -0800, "
wrote:

Oh, and BTW, my 2wd standard cab shortbed Chevy pickup is small enough,
nimble enough, and handles well enough to avoid idiots on the road.
The fact that it is large enough and stout enough to provide protection
should one of said idiots manage to somehow launch him or herself
UNAVOIDABLY into my path of travel is merely a bonus.

One day YOU'LL make a mistake. Watch you wriggle :-)

Oh, I'm perfectly capable of making a mistake. It's just that someone
who spent 14 years as a motorcycle safety instructor and five years as
a motorcycle racer, and three years as a motorcycle racing instructor,
is on average, somewhat less likely than the average car driver to make
a mistake. I'm sure, someday, I will. In the meantime, I have 32
years of driving with nothing but one minor fender bender on ice, and
28 years of riding with no collisions, a record I'm doing my best to
maintain in SPITE of what sometimes appear to be the best efforts of
many of my fellow road users.

In article , David J. Littleboy
writes

"Kennedy McEwen" wrote:

I personally don't want to see someone in my rear view mirror approaching
at 175MPH while I am stuck at traffic lights on my way home from work.

The easy way to avoid that is to not own a car. (That's one of the reasons I
ended up in Tokyo.)

Seriously, I don't understand why more people don't decide not to own cars.
The (quite rational*) decision not to own a car ought to be a possibility,
right?

It is indeed a possibility David and I, for many years, lived without
owning or driving a car. However, I consciously took the leap some 15
years ago because the alternatives I was relying on were becoming too
expensive and/or unreliable and/or unsuitable for regular use.
Successive government policies have encouraged that trend. If, however,
I lived and worked in central London for example then I would gladly
return to my no car owning life. It is a lifestyle choice, but one
heavily influenced by economics and the civil planning of governments.
--
Kennedy
Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's ****ed.
Python Philosophers (replace 'nospam' with 'kennedym' when replying)

In article ,
Laurence Payne lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom wrote:

On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 13:57:15 GMT, Rebecca Ore
wrote:

The infrastructure of the US is auto-centric.

Yeah. It's going to come as an even bigger shock to you guys. But
you'll cope, as we all will have to.

I'm moving to England if I can. Otherwise, I'm staying in Philadelphia,
a wonderful place separated from Pittsburgh by Northern Alabama.

Kennedy McEwen wrote:
In article , William
Graham writes


I am impressed, however with these formula I cars that can hit the
rails at
175 MPH, fly end over end a dozen times, completely come apart at the
seams
until there is nothing left of them but the cage containing the driver,
which, after he unbelts himself, he walks away from without a
scratch....Why
can't they do that with the family sedan?

To an extent, most of them are designed to deform protectively in
exactly the same way - hence the presence of crush zones etc. Of
course, they won't withstand a 175MPH impact with all/any passengers
surviving, but the suspension doesn't fall apart when they drive over a
pothole either. Drivers and passengers of the average family sedan
wouldn't accept being strapped into the harness by a 3 man team (drivers
cannot tighten the harness enough by themselves), wearing a HANS brace
or flameproof overalls every time they get into the vehicle either or
being fit enough to withstand 10g differential forces on their neck
muscles before being given a license every season.

There have been many technologies that have transitioned from F1 to
commercial cars, seat belts, anti-lock brakes, monocoque/unibody chassis
to name a few, but ultimately they are different vehicle types with
vastly differing requirements. One common aspect is that if you make
the car capable of going fast enough, that is as fast as some people
will drive it, and I personally don't want to see someone in my rear
view mirror approaching at 175MPH while I am stuck at traffic lights on
my way home from work.

When driving on the Autobahns, it isn't all that unusual to be passed
when going at speeds approaching 200mph! Those guys DRIVE. NOte that
the drivers are MUCH more responsible there than in the US.

A good integral rollbar would be of great aid in preventing deaths, as
would a simplified full harness, rather than the airbag.

David J. Littleboy wrote:
"Kennedy McEwen" wrote:

I personally don't want to see someone in my rear view mirror approaching
at 175MPH while I am stuck at traffic lights on my way home from work.

The easy way to avoid that is to not own a car. (That's one of the reasons I
ended up in Tokyo.)

Seriously, I don't understand why more people don't decide not to own cars.
The (quite rational*) decision not to own a car ought to be a possibility,
right?

*: Cars are dangerous and expensive (at the least; breathing gasoline fumes
can't be good for one). And one can buy a lot of camera equipment for the
price of a car.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan



That depends on where you are. New York City, Tokyo, London, yes.
Beeville, Texas, or Allen, Tx, or Henderson, Nv. not feasible.

Philip Homburg wrote:
In article ,
David J. Littleboy wrote:
*: Cars are dangerous and expensive (at the least; breathing gasoline fumes
can't be good for one). And one can buy a lot of camera equipment for the
price of a car.

However, often a car is the most convenient way to get all that gear to
where you need it. :-)


Not everyone lives in a major city with adequate public transportation,
or wants to.

Roger wrote:
On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:58:03 +0900, "David J. Littleboy"
wrote:

"Philip Homburg" wrote:
David J. Littleboy wrote:
*: Cars are dangerous and expensive (at the least; breathing gasoline
fumes
can't be good for one). And one can buy a lot of camera equipment for the
price of a car.
However, often a car is the most convenient way to get all that gear to
where you need it. :-)

It's not only convenient, here in the states with wide open spaces
it's a necessity. Howeve I have found that for trips it is cheaper to
rent a car than drive your own unless your car is paid for and has a
lot of miles on it.

Going from Michigan to Denver is cheaper to fly my own airplane
compared to driving. Coach class commercial flights are cheaper yet
and by far the cheapest was to rent a car.

I can hire a cab for a day for many more days than I have days to go out
shooting on the money I save not having a car. (Not that I've ever done
that, since public transportation here is flipping amazing, but it's on my
list of things to try for rural locations.)

I could also legally rent a car, but that wouldn't be a good idea (I've
never driven in Japan, and only drove for a year in the US and converted my
US license to a Japanese one).

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

A commercial flight, booked months in advance can be much cheaper for a
long trip, say Dallas to Toronto, than driving and staying in hotels,
eating at restaurants. Unless one is fond of camping out, travel by car
can cost a lot more than just wear and tear on the car and gasoline.
I prefer to fly, and then drive a rented car, or more lately, just go on
a cruise, and leave the driving to the captain.