Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Sunday, July 13, 2025 →
I found this report about life expectancy from Laywers Guns Money and boy is it something.
Gun-related deaths: The death rate for firearm-related homicides and suicides is 13.3 deaths per 100,000 in the U.S. compared to 0.1 per 100,000 in England and Wales. Ninety individuals died from firearm-related causes in England and Wales in 2023 compared to more than 45,000 in the United States.
Motor vehicle crashes: The death rate from motor vehicle crashes in the U.S. is six times greater than the rate in England and Wales—13.3 per 100,000 versus 2.2 per 100,000 in England and Wales.
Guns and giant vehicles define America. We can’t be surprised to reap what we sow. When I was a vehicle-owning person, the ones I purchased weighed around 3,000 pounds (they heaviest, a ’92 Ford F-150 was around 4,000 pounds). In fact, the best-feeling car I ever had was a heavy one at just shy of 3,000 pounds (’98 Saab 900s). Now? EVs are pushing the weight up to well over 5,500 pounds and some topping at over four tons. The amount of energy in an impact is just astounding.
Anyway, all of this will continue because Sandy Hook proved we will never do anything about guns and, as far as driving goes, occupant survival beats everything else (pedestrians be damned).
Thursday, July 10, 2025 →
I recently spent some time in Austria and Italy and now my once good-at-home coffee is suddenly watery and bland. Also, I had my first cappuccino while in Italy and, wow, do people know about these? That was a tasty coffee drink!
Friday, June 27, 2025 →
Apple should buy Polestar. They already look like cars Apple would make. Also, 1/100 the price of Tesla (company).
Thursday, June 19, 2025 →
The NYC subway is not scary. Amen!
Tuesday, May 20, 2025 →
My buddy Tom was right when he said (to my stupid, disbelieving face) that CarPlay Next Gen wasn’t going to come out. And it didn’t. To be more precise, he said it didn’t exist. It was just an Apple fantasy.
And, look, it didn’t come out, so he was right. But now we have CarPlay Ultra and it is out, so there’s that.
I don’t know when or if I’ll ever get to use CarPlay Ultra as I don’t own a car and I’m not likely to ever buy one (being a citybilly). But it’s fun to see. I rent a lot of cars via ZipCar and I was so relieved once they started buying cars with CarPlay. All car interfaces suck. I want to say ‘I don’t totally blame the car makers,’ but I do because they make the cars and those crappy interfaces. I get that it’s not their area of expertise, but, sheesh, hire some people. But if the car maker makes it easy for me to use CarPlay, then I’m good.
I hope we get to find out more about how Apple and manufacturers work together. Does Apple only offer 10 information cluster templates and says to the manufacturer “pick your colors and fonts?” Maybe there aren’t even templates? Could Honda make their cluster look super-close to Aston Martin’s? Can the user change the typeface or is that all controlled by the automaker? I’m assuming you get to choose from a selected series of layouts and apparently tweak the color some. I’m surprised you can tweak the color as color is part of a brand’s identity (or so I thought?).
Props to Aston Martin for including real switches in the car. Changing the cabin’s temperature via a screen is dumb and dangerous. It requires eyes off the road and a far steadier than one (me, I guess) can provide in a moving/bumpy car ride. I have to brace my hand on the dashboard above the screen in order to steady my hand enough to press the right on-screen button(s). Blah.
Sunday, March 30, 2025 →
I haven’t been to any protests over Tesla. I fully support these protests and hope they have the desired effect.
Based on the news articles and images about the protest, protesters should consider signs with alternatives. There should be signs for the Chevy Bolt, Mustang Mach-E (which is ugly), VW ID.4, and maybe even the more expensive Honda Prologue (based off of the Chevy Blazer EV).
I did a little looking around, and the Tesla Model 3 is still a pretty good deal for folks looking for an EV with decent range for around $40K (it’s a little over that amount).
Folks shopping for a car might not really care that Musk is a fascist or whatever; they might just want an EV that’s not $75K, and offering them an alternative might put other models into their minds that they didn’t know about.
If I were buying a car now, I’d look at the newest Prius. It’s a hybrid (which I’m aware adds a whole lot of complexity) that gets really, really good fuel economy (57 city, 56 highway) at a price that’s pretty good (mid-$30K). For the record, I don’t have my own car or drive one with any regularity thanks to living in NYC.
Wednesday, March 12, 2025 →
If you want good school lunches, the superintendent should be eating them. If you want good public transportation, the mayor and their entire department should be taking the bus and the train to work. If you want good, safe bike lanes, the head of the roads department should ride a bike to work.
For the vast, vast majority of those scenarios, they aren’t happening. Yet we subject our children to them. I’m amazed the kids haven’t risen up and ended all the people making these decisions.
Instead, we get: USDA cuts over $1 billion in funding for schools, local food purchases.
Thursday, February 20, 2025 →
I was going to link to the positive effects of NYC’s Congestion Pricing.
But then King Cheeto got involved. I don’t even know why since he doesn’t even live here. Perhaps it’s purely because he hates NYC for hating him and that translates to making it worse for folks living here. So much for States’ Rights, I guess.
And, man, I don’t understand my governor Kathy Hochul. She delayed this and even lowered the fee (forget the part where she totally made up the part where diner owners in NYC were worried folks from NJ weren’t going to go from NJ to NYC to go to a diner). But now that John Barron is getting all pushy Hochul is now in favor of it? Yeah, I know it’s working as intended and that’s why she is in favor of it, but not for lack of trying to make it not work.
Tuesday, February 4, 2025 →
Why don’t I have more faith in humanity? We still don’t know how to wear masks properly. Mouth and nose should be covered. How do you still think your honker hanging out is effective? How do people not understand this?
And the reason I’m writing this at all now is I just saw a woman on the subway lower her mask to cough. To cough!
Friday, October 11, 2024 →
Did Elon Musk just invent the bus? I really wonder if he thinks that. Wait until the tech bros realize they can string a bunch of ‘em together!
Wednesday, October 2, 2024 →
EVs aren’t catching as much not because charging is hard and not because the range isn’t there, they are simply too expensive. When a new model comes out, I no longer first check range, instead I check price. Oh, look, the new Polestar 3 is very close to coming out. It’s $73,000. To start?!
I know I’m beginning to get up in years, but holy cow is that expensive. And at the risk of sounding old and cranky (maybe that older and crankier?), I sure would love to see something like the 2020 Honda HR-V (2024 and on are now too big) become completely electric. Don’t change anything else that doesn’t need to be changed. For god’s sake, don’t whizbangify the door handles! Good door handles are a solved problem. Glove box latches are a solved problem.
I wish this idea had become a reality.
Tuesday, October 1, 2024 →
Why in the world are these new postal trucks constantly labeled as goofy while current F-150s, Silverados, and RAMs aren’t? You need a step to get into these machismo trucks, can’t reach the truck bed from the side, and, most importantly, you can’t see kids or passenger cars from the driver’s seat! The pickups also get crap fuel economy.
Anyway, I happen to think the new postal trucks are cool as heck. And the folks driving them love them.
Thursday, June 6, 2024 →
Kathy Hochul’s decision to “pause” congestion pricing in NYC is cowardly, disingenuous, and wrong.
It reminds me of the decision Michael Bloomberg (of whom I am no fan) made banning smoking in bars and restaurants. The critics all came out saying it would hurt those businesses. Of course, the opposite happened.
It’s the same with congestion pricing: It won’t harm business, it will ultimately help them. A lot. There are many examples of that kind of article if you look around.
It’s extra frustrating as we see more and more European cities ban cars to simply wonderful results.
I would bet money the people who influenced Hochul don’t even come into the city.
Tuesday, October 31, 2023 →
People: Can we get affordable EVs?
Toyota: Best we can do is a fake transmission.
Wednesday, August 9, 2023 →
This Cadillac mocks the whole green movement.
Monday, May 29, 2023 →
We do love our children so, chapter 128.
Tuesday, December 20, 2022 →
People trash talk the Post Office’s new mail truck, but I absolutely love its look. I wish more cars and trucks had such good visibility and low step-in height. And they’ll be more of them sooner than later.
Sunday, November 13, 2022 →
The Car-Free Dream.
Saturday, May 28, 2022 →
This feel like a 70% appropriate punishment for punching out the teeth of a flight attendant. I would have added in: You no longer get to fly in the United States. And, before the 3-year probation begins, you have to pass a college-level biology class with a perfect grade.