July 25th, 2008, 15 Comments »
I’m not a parent, nor have I been a child for quite a few years. When I was a kid, though, I remember that my brother and I sat in the back seat, even when there was nobody sitting beside my parent up-front. This was even true if it was just me in the back seat and only my mother or father up-front. In my recollection, we sat in the back seat until I was, I don’t know, eight or ten years old.
I’m not sure, but I think this behaviour is quite commonplace. I know, in recent years, there’s been a concern about the minimum size of the child and air bags and so forth, but that wasn’t the case back in the 80’s.
This feels like a very naive question, but why does this happen? And if you’re a parent, when did you give your kids permission to ride up front?
15 Comments »
July 23rd, 2007, 6 Comments »
Joe assembled an amusing list of reasons why drivers don’t use their signals (in the British Isles they call it ‘indicating’):
- I’m performing an illegal manoeuvre and the Garda [Ed: police] might notice
- I’m only changing lanes
- I’ve passed my test
- I’m on my second provisional license
- I’ve stolen this car
- I’m driving a white van/taxi/mercedes/BMW
- It should be obvious from my road position what I’m planning to do
- I’m running this red light (see reason 1)
- Using my indicators runs down the battery
- I used my indicators yesterday
Do people signal more consistently in North America? I think so, but I’m not really sure. I’ve barely driven in Europe, and I rarely drive back home, so I have only vague impressions. Someone ought to do a study.
6 Comments »
July 17th, 2007, No Comments »
James sent along this we’re-becoming-a-social-network essay by the owners of a car website. I know little of and care nothing for cars, but I was interested to read the thinking on why and how to evolve into a social network:
My light bulb moment arrived via an email from an editor/writer with an enormous and well-deserved reputation in the automotive press. After praising the site, he drilled down to what made it unique: you. TTAC’s commentators’ literacy, insight and expertise blew him away.
The comments are as informative as the post itself. I’m not necessarily an advocate for sprinkling the Social Network Faerie Dust on any old site, but this sounds like a very good fit.
I was skimming the site, and noticed this colourful phrase from a review of the Subaru Tribeca: “The new Tribeca’s front end looks nothing like airborne pudenda, and everything like a Chrysler Pacifica.” High praise, indeed.
No Comments »
March 20th, 2007, 1 Comment »
Metaefficient writes about the VentureOne (that’s one astonishingly bad name), a three-tire hybrid that can go 160 km/h and gets 100 miles to the gallon (sorry to mix systems of measurements, but who thinks in litres to the kilometer?). From the VentureOne website (with the dodgy URL FlytheRoad.com–who’s doing their branding?)
The VentureOne is a fully enclosed vehicle that is surrounded by a steel “safety cell” and other safety features typically found only in cars—things like side impact beams, driver airbag, rear bumper and engine shield.
While the same height and length as the MINI Cooper, the driver in the VentureOne sits as high off the road as a standard automobile. When combined with its 360° glass canopy effect, the VentureOne not only provides a driver with tremendous road visibility, but adds to a sense of overall driving confidence.
They’ve also got a blog (dudes, use clean URLs), which has a bunch of photos from a test drive.
Name aside, this thing looks pretty cool–a lot like those cars in Minority Report, all bulbous glass domes. It’s preferable, obviously, to sit next to your passenger, but I could live with that for shorter trips.
1 Comment »
