The thing that wastes the most gas: The need for respect

That's how a lot of people park around here.

Inspector Morse' bailiwick, eh?

 

Not quite - We're about 80 miles from Oxford!! Hell, that's half the way across the country!

A couple of years ago my wife and I flew to Guernsey in the Channel Islands. We'd hired a littlecar and drove around the entire island. At one point we stopped to eat dinner and the waitress asked where we had come from. When we told her she said 'Oh, so you've come a long way!' This on an island that's about 5 miles long, and we were staying in the centre of the island!!

The entire island has a maximum speed limit of 30mph, and when a bus comes the other way, the hire car people warn you to go up on the pavement (sidewalk) to let them go past!!

 

So most of those count as truck spaces here. (Though I'm not actually within Seattle.)

It turns out that Seattle does have minimum parking space sizes: https://bestcitycodes.wikispaces.com/file/view/parking+spaces.pdf

"A. Parking Space Dimensions.
1. "Large vehicle" means the minimum size of a large vehicle parking space shall be eight and onehalf (8 1/2) feet in width and nineteen (19) feet in length.
2. "Medium vehicle" means the minimum size of a medium vehicle parking space shall be eight (8) feet in width and sixteen (16) feet in length.
3. "Small vehicle" means the minimum size of a small vehicle parking space shall be seven and onehalf (7 1/2) feet in width and fifteen (15) feet in length."

So 'small vehicle' spaces can be a mere 90" wide.

 

In the UK the recommended minimum size is 4.8 metres by 2.4 metres. or 15ft 8ins by 8ft .9ins so that is likely to be the largest space you might be lucky enough to see.

 

The one thing I like about Costco, ours at least, is the generous parking spaces. They put a double spacer line to define each stall, decent sized to begin with, and then the double line is maybe an extra foot of width.

 

On the need for respect, Once when my battery was fresh from a rebuild and charge I beat a cobra mustang, all the way down the freeway off ramp b4 he caught up to me at about 70 miles an hour squeezing past me lol. Three days later a corvette well that was on surface streets so the driver had to take it easy catching up at 45 mph I was going 40 in the 35 zone took him a while to catch up.
Most gas driven cars will have a hard time keeping up at first. Just because electric motors have instant lower end torque, which gas engines suck at.
So I can enjoy the "pole position" quite more often than in my mustang in the past.
terramir

 

I wish I had pictures of some of the streets where I lived in Kyoto. I think many of us would call them sidewalks.

Of course, many walk, cycle or take transit, and most cars are much smaller than the behemoths popular in America.

 

Guess I have to admit to being a hypocrite.
As I recently binge watched the reboot of Hawaii 5 0 on netflix, and the show had a deal with GM/Dodge so the protagonists, McGarret and Danno were always driving all over Hawaii in a beautiful vehicle like above.

I have to admit I found myself thinking about how much fun it would be to be driving one.

I suppose if you are chasing Wo Fat all over Maui, one could argue the Dodge Challenger Demon IS the right tool for the job. It's probably overkill as far as my chasing down a quart of milk.

 

Found him, right downtown, Honolulu, Oahu:

 

Book Em Danno! er, I mean Mendel.

 

That was one of the first shows I recall watching on a color TV, fall of '68.

 

I was pretty young, when the original was making it's run.
But I remember the theme song, and the "adults" watching it in my family.

I was impressed with the reboot. I really didn't expect to like it. But the characters were all interesting, and the story lines intriguing. For throw back, 1970's television crime drama, level entertainment it was pretty good.

 

I was just heading off to Halifax, to complete basic training, staying overnight at a friend's in Van. Seems like a lifetime ago.

 

" Dodge Challenger Demon" ??? pshaw.... Noisy, dirty, inefficient, obsolete technology!!

 

(Cue old guy voice)
Back in my day the Challenger and Demon were 2 different cars.
The Plymouth Challenger twin was the Dodge Charger.
The Dodge Demon twin was the Plymouth Duster. This was a smaller car.

 

You say that likes it's a bad thing.

You left out "Fun".

I know it's not a popular viewpoint, especially within Prius Chat. Where many of the denizens enjoy the click of an electrical outlet into a vehicle charging socket over squealing tires, speed and smoke.

And trust me, I'm there too.....for the most part....

But I enjoy driving. And I can't totally remove myself from the reality that sometimes those dirty, inefficient, obsolete technology vehicles look and I think are, a lot of fun to drive. Even if they are machines with no respect for clean air, emissions or fuel efficiency.

 

It would appear that planners are not living in any reality. Same group probably decided diesel was a great thing to push.

 

It's a fact that 84% of all drivers rate themselves above average in driving abilities.

 

Yup - and a UK insurance company did a study a couple of years ago. They got 100 experienced drivers to take a mock driving test. I think I'm right in saying that 70% or so failed the test. 10% of them were so dangerous, you wondered how they were still alive - let alone how they ever got a licence in the first place!