Current mood:

Suicidal

It's not rocket surgery.
Msnbc.com has a recurring feature, "Ads of the Weird". This week's column discusses an Australian PSA which implies that men who speed are deficient in the sausage department. (I know, I know, a clever idea that no one ever thought of before!)

The comments are full of everyone's Personal Philosophy of Driving, which (like driving itself) turns wanky and obnoxious immediately:

Or maybe people just like to drive fast and it has nothing to do with being macho or manly. Driving fast doesn't mean you have to drive stupid, and I think it's just as likely that people driving BELOW the speed limit cause an equal number of accidents as SOBER drivers driving ABOVE the speed limit. If you don't like someone driving fast behind you, GET OUT OF THE WAY. Especially if you're in the left lane people c'mon, learn how to drive.

John B

Aaaaand they're off. After wading through a couple pages of this, it's enough to make me want to give up driving forever and dust off my trusty old bicycle, rather than chance sharing the road with some of these people.

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	frequentmouse 2007-07-19 06:25 pm UTC (link)
	Helpful hint: stay out of Montana. Really. You won't like it, especially going down the east side of the Bitterroots into Missoula, where people tend to break the sound barrier. The good thing is: not many people in Montana, so it's less terrifying than, say, the M-4 on a Sunday afternoon or I-5 in the Central Valley of California. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	circumstance 2007-07-19 07:03 pm UTC (link)
	There are MANY reasons why one should stay out of Montana, in my experience... (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	frequentmouse 2007-07-20 06:35 pm UTC (link)
	Hey, I like Montana, although not so much that I don't have problems paying for my daughter to go to college there. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	shaysdays 2007-07-20 03:25 pm UTC (link)
	Isn't Montana the one with long stretches of road that have "Safe and prudent" as the speed limit? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

frequentmouse
2007-07-20 06:34 pm UTC (link)

Not explicitly; the posted speed is now 75mph for cars and 65 for trucks, although, in fact, I-90 east of Missoula behaveds as if the route number is the truck speed limit.

They had to post speed limits to get Federal Highway Administration money, the same year that the Feds pushed all states to a 21 year old drinking age.

What should slow people down is the number of white crosses for highway deaths. There's an intersection east of Helena (on 12) with at least five. And then there's the wildlife, which is everywhere: the prospect of hitting an elk at 80 is... well, it scares me, but not as much as going below the speed limit when everyone else is going above it.

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