well, perhaps you can do something about it.
I'd have to say this is one of my pet peeves. You know, like when you wash your hands and water runs down your sleeve thereby making your sleeve wet for the next 5 hours? Like that.
I'm talking about people who don't think the rules apply to them. They know who they are.
I haven't noticed so much of this here in Belgium, probably because I don't know most of the rules.
I do know that bikers rule the roads here. Not second to pedestrians either. Bikers have their own lanes and cars and people are expected to observe them.
It only makes sense. Otherwise it simply wouldn't be safe for the thousands of people who do ride a bike to do so. This is a seriously "bike friendly" city/country/continent.
Well, we saw our first car/biker accident last week. A biker was hit by a car. On our street. Although her bike will need some repair, fortunately she was mostly shook up and probably sore the next day, but it appeared she was not seriously injured. She was taken in an ambulance, but hopefully just as a precaution.
It could have been sooooo much worse.
On most streets, bikers have two lanes so generally they are going "with" the traffic. This biker was going "against" the traffic despite there being two lanes.
When the driver of the car looked to see if anyone was in the bike lane, there wasn't, so she pulled out.
Lo and behold this biker was coming from the opposite direction - "against" the traffic. She had her own lane on the other side of the road, but she wasn't over there.
It would be akin to you pulling up at an intersection planning to turn right, looking left - no cars coming, safe to pull out and BAM a car comes from the right!
Well, in bike lanes, you have to expect the unexpected because bikers rule the road. In this instance the driver of the car is at fault. No matter what.
Drivers must be very cautious and alert here. You won't see any coffee drinking, texting or cell phone usage while driving here. It's simply too risky.
I am a rule follower.
Rules are rules and as I see it, until they are amended or deleted, they are in effect. I may not agree with said rule, but I will follow it. It's the rule.
If I think it needs to be amended or deleted, I may even try to do that.
But if the speed limit is 75, I set my cruise at 75. I must assume this is not an arbitrary number, but that some genius has decided this particular stretch of highway is travelled safest at 75. So be it.
BTW, did you know that by going 85 in a 75 mph zone, you will reach a destination 50 miles away - 5 minutes sooner? Yeah, 5 minutes.
The few times I get behind the wheel here, I approach every intersection like an unmarked train crossing. There is the potential for a train to be coming from any direction. Side-view mirrors are a lifesaver, literally.
So, being a rule follower, I like it when others do the same.
Once we lived on a street with about 60 houses. Every house had a driveway and a two-car garage. Every person on the street parked their car(s) on the driveway or in the garage. Well, except one. This one person parked their car on the street. Without fail. There was an oil slick he'd parked there so much.
I don't know why, but this really bothered me that this guy had decided he'd use his garage for other purposes and use our street for parking.
Ohhhh, of course, apparently the rules didn't apply to him. So, I called the police to see if there was anything to be done about it. They said not unless it posed a danger. Apparently everyone having to get in the other lane to go around this parked car didn't pose enough of a danger so that was that.
It just didn't seem right that this guy should be able to do that. What if every other family parked their car on the street? What if every other family parked both their cars on the street? So I took matters into my own hands. I wrote the perceived rule-breaker a letter. I explained that his parked car was a potential danger and if everyone parked their car on the street there would be 120 cars on a daily basis and would he please stop parking there? He did.
Ironically, this same thing happened in our next neighborhood. However, this time it wasn't just one car and it wasn't just one person. This time the police agreed with me and erected a "no parking" sign. It most definitely made people think twice about parking on the street. And the multitude of children in our neighborhood and all those teenaged drivers were safer with full visibility and both lanes clear.
So here's a story you may have heard me tell before because I like the ending. For six years I commuted to El Dorado from Ruston to work. That's an hour and 15 minutes one way so I spent a fair amount of time on Hwy 167.
The stretch between Junction City and El Dorado is a four, sometimes five-laned highway with a posted speed limit of 55. Of course, I was the only driver going 55. Ha.
Every Wednesday morning on this stretch of highway the garbage was collected. A big garbage truck would drive down the shoulder headed south. Two workers would hang onto the back of the truck and when it stopped, one or both would jump off, run across the highway, pick up a trash can, drag it back across four lanes, empty it and drag it back to the other side.
Yeah, I know. Hang on, jump off, run across highway, drag can across highway, empty can, drag can back across highway, run back to truck. Repeat.
Now, I'm no genius, but this was about the dumbest thing I'd seen in a while.
This truck heading south would turn around at the county line and head back north. Sooooo, those cans on the other side of the road would be, yeah, on the same side as the truck now. Uh, you can empty those cans on your way back?
Like I said, I'm no genius, but did no one ever think of this?
I tried to ignore it, but finally, I decided it was time I did something. These poor guys were not only risking their life, but sometimes it was raining and freezing cold. And did I mention heavy traffic on the four, sometimes five-laned highway?!
Where was OSHA or NHTSA for Christ's sake?
If for no other reason, my own self-preservation. What if I ran over one of these poor guys? This highway wasn't completely flat. There were hills where one might unexpectedly come upon a guy dragging a trash can in the rain. Even at 55 mph, this would not be good.
The very next Wednesday morning I made note of the county logo on the truck and the waste management company logo on the trash cans. I did a little research and then I wrote some letters.
Ironically, I got a response from the county saying it was the waste management company's responsibility and I got a response from the waste management company saying it was the county's responsibility.
So what else could I do? That's right. Contact OSHA.
I simply forwarded my information to them and . . .
within a few weeks, the truck with a driver and two passengers drove south, the passengers jumped out, emptied cans along the southbound shoulder. The truck turned around at the county line, the passengers jumped out, emptied cans along the northbound shoulder. No one was hanging precariously from the back of the truck and not once did they run across the highway three times per trash can.
Perhaps it was purely coincidence, but either way . . . that was a good day.
So I thought I was on a roll. Within a month or two I saw a kid riding in the back of a pickup truck on this same highway. Mortified, I got to my office and called the police only to learn it was, in fact, perfectly legal for an employee on duty to ride unrestrained in the back of a pickup truck on a major four/five-laned highway. No age limit so if the kid was at his summer job, he's legal.
Not sure I believed this, I looked it up and . . . it's a fact Jack. And it ain't just in Arkinsaw neither.
But don't dare let this same kid ride in the cab of that pickup without a seatbelt. That would be against the law.
Perhaps someone will take this one on too.
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