RipCordless

A pop-culture consumer who keeps it, by design, in the shallow end of the pool.

Roads

England’s Roads

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England has an amazing road system. Really.

If I were to create a country named, um, nothing witty jumps to mind, I would model the road system after the English. Why? Because it works, and it works well.

The English road system consists of clearly marked and well maintained roads, strict speed limits, and drivers who pay attention. Oh, one more thing, they have no stop signs in England. Intersections are mostly handled by round-abouts. Not the US version with strict lanes of travel as you drive around the circle. No, wide open round-abouts which leave drivers to work out their troubles and right of way themselves. Like adults. Quite refreshing.

Speed limits? Sure, they have them but the slow lane runs at somewhere around 70mph. Drivers use the middle and fast lanes for passing. You won’t see drivers weaving through traffic because slow cars actually stay in the slow lane when not passing. If one comes across a slower moving truck, drivers will pass in the middle lane, then promptly report back to the slow lane. Once more, the slow lane isn’t really slow at all. And considering the fact that you can get anywhere in England, by car, in a very reasonable amount of time (England is roughly the geographical square-mile equivalent of Louisiana), driving is some much more rewarding.

Bravo England, for treating drivers like adults. Well done.

Aging Tires: Road Hazard?

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Recently bumped into an ABC report on the age of tires and how a brand new tire, max tread can actually be years old (due to the practice of retreading the tire for resale). From the report, it appears the US is one of only a handful of countries that don’t place expiration stamps upon their tires. The lobby responsible for this disinformation claims there is no need but most civilized countries around the world recognize the actual life of a tire is no more than six years. Not six years then slap on another tread. No, six years in total.

Check out the clip here. Interesting stuff. When I took a look at the tires on both my rigs, I found one was two years old, the other four years old. Worth checking on.