Archive for August 3rd, 2009

Looking at this page of state-by-state laws on texting and various forms of phoning while driving, compiled by the Governors Highway Safety Association, I was intrigued to note a column reserved for the drivers of school buses, and that a number of states (16) have a law prohibiting them from any form of phone use — even when that state does not actually ban the use of a hand-held device. Only one state at the moment actually prohibits school bus drivers from texting while driving, an example of how quickly the technology and practice has arisen.

But the school bus driver distinction is an interesting one to me; are we saying that is not OK for the drivers of vehicles carrying our children to talk on the phone and drive, and if so, why? But if this is not OK, then why is it OK for the drivers of every other vehicle around that bus to be talking on the phone, and why is it OK for parents with their kids in the car to talk while on the phone? I think this ties in to a certain feeling we have about risk: We worry about being in someone else’s hands (even a school bus, statistically safer than private transportation), but maintain a feeling of what’s been called “the illusion of control” when we are the perceived masters of our own fate.

What if this guy had come up against this guy?

Photo by nycblondieandbrownie/Flickr

I just finished a curious sort of early 21st century meal. I received a Twitter update that the “Schnitzel and Things” truck was in nearby Brooklyn Heights, so I hopped on the bike, grabbed me some schnitzel (and some sides), and returned home.

I wonder if this sort of trip (particularly non-motorized) is even captured by transportation planners; i.e., do “mobile food trucks” appear in Trip Generation or Parking Generation? (though the latter is probably moot in this regard as I’m not sure how many New Yorkers drive to the mobile food truck, though I’m sure they do for those Korean tacos in L.A.). More broadly, this food-transportation nexus is worthy of further study — it is, after all, one of the key reasons people leave the house. What do these invisible networks look like, how many food deliveries are made every night by NYC’s mobile army of deliverymen? I’m not sure if it matches in efficiency or intricacy the legendary dabbawala, or “tiffin wallahs” of India (particularly Mumbai).

Reader David notes that when bottlenecks develop at intersections in Ghana, or traffic grows abnormally congested, it’s not uncommon for people to spontaneously take matters into their own hands. The video is of an American friend (perhaps the advertised ‘D.J. Mayonnaise Hands’?) of his who decided to pitch in; I’m not sure he’s accomplishing much, traffic-wise, but I’d give his technique an ‘A.’

Off topic here, I know, but just briefly: At my local Post Office on Friday, the one with the reliably epic lines and the smudged plexiglass bulletproof windows (through which you struggle to hear the clerk), a woman ahead of me purchased a $25 money order, which evidently needed to be mailed to the state court system by a certain date to avoid some kind of fine.

So she requested that the clerk postmark the letter, to prove that she had dropped it off that day. “We don’t do postmarks,” the clerk said. I did a mental double-take. Don’t do postmarks? What’s the Post Office for? You can get insurance, delivery confirmation, tracking — but you can’t a postmark? The woman was as perplexed as I was. It seemed the letters were postmarked at a different facility. There may be logic in this, but how difficult would it to be to stamp the odd letter or two when so requested?

“You need to get a ‘Certificate of Mailing,’ ” the clerk said. “It’s $1.50.”

A small sum, perhaps, though probably not to the woman ahead of me.

Reader Jay sends in a link to this interesting take on the traditional “your speed is” feedback signs (”speed trailers” as they are sometimes called). From what information I can find they seem to be the work of the ad agency Cramer-Krasselt, possibly for the Wisconsin town of Elm Grove, but I’m not sure if it’s a print PSA or if these signs have actually appeared on the side of the road. Has anyone actually seen them?