h a l f b a k e r yGet half a life.
add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random
news, help, about, links, report a problem
browse anonymously,
or get an account
and write.
register,
|
|
|
Please log in.
Before you can vote, you need to register.
Please log in or create an account.
|
Travelling on the freeway each day, morning and
afternoon, is the lot of many of us, it seems.
This necessitates a lot of lane-changing and weaving,
often without much warning. This, in turn, necessitates
a
lot of gesticulating and mimed (well, it appears to be
mimed, as we all have windows
up and air-conditioning
on)
shouting and gratuitous, unheeded advice and
observations about parentage and proclivities.
I feel traffic would flow more smoothly if everyone's car
sound system was hijacked to play the same musical
score
simultaneously, overriding the current "drivetime" crap
of
wannabe comedians and loud, jarring music. Different
roads and different days would, obviously, have different
musical scores played across the system.
That way, a single piece of music could be played to
subtly
influence all drivers to follow a particular rhythm whilst
driving. More experienced users of the system would
soon
pick up the habit of driving to the music and cut down on
the close calls and belligerent outbursts I see played out
repeatedly.
Eventually it may be possible to film the resulting traffic
behavioural patterns at work, to entertain others and
promote the cause of safe traffic choreography.
...could use this technology...
Road_20tunes [hippo, Apr 19 2012, last modified Apr 23 2012]
dancing cop
http://www.cbsnews..../watch/?id=5377254n [xandram, Apr 19 2012]
Relevant - what was playing on the radio?
Fatal_20Auto_20Collision_20Song By my perverse logic - if your song isn't playing, you know you'll be okay... [Custardguts, Apr 23 2012]
Instant Replay
Instant_20replay for [CustardGuts] [hippo, Apr 23 2012]
[link]
|
|
I nearly died this morning. An articulated B-double
truck (60 tonne; 34 wheels) zigged when it should
have zagged, putting me into the skinny breakdown
lane at 110kmh. |
|
|
Perhaps a cymbal clash could be inserted at this point in the music score? Your scheme might work in Qld but, from what I can tell, all West Australians drive to the tune of their own piper - regardless of any external influences. (Glad you made it) |
|
|
I swear I've seen 50% of my hair turn grey since 8am.
I thought I was fucking gone. Frigging great
truckload and trailer of mining machinery parts. It
would have turned me into 105kg of strawberry jam. |
|
|
Thanks [hippo]. I think of that idea every time I run
over the rumble strip on the side of the road into
town. |
|
|
Glad to hear you're not dead, [UB]. |
|
|
Meanwhile, [AusCan531] is right about sandgroper driving habits. I think it comes from having grown up with near-empty roads. When I first visited in the mid-nineties, locals would call it a traffic jam if there were three cars ahead of them at a red light. |
|
|
I wonder whether something similar applies in Moscow, where, I think, there's been a comparable explosion in traffic density over a couple of decades. |
|
|
After seeing many, many examples on Youtube, I've come to the conclusion that it'd be a good idea to have a video camera on the dash recording a loop whenever you're driving. Just forward the .mp4 file of the lawless truckie to his parent company, or the police, or both. |
|
|
People should be held to account for putting others at risk. |
|
|
As a last resort, it'd be good fodder for the coroner.... |
|
|
That makes me wish I'd had an .mp4 cam on my helmet
last year, since I can't actually remember the crash itself.
All I've had to go on are witness accounts and the scant
police reconstruction. Maybe with video evidence I could
secure federal funding for my campaign to extinctify
Cervus Displacia. |
|
|
You'll all thank me someday. |
|
|
I thought about the [Fatal Auto Collision Song]
idea not long after the incident. |
|
|
I recall an interview by an auto magazine of a
senior test driver for one of Australia's automotive
manufacturers, asking him what he thought of a
test car's sound system. His response was rather
telling. "Remove it. There are too many things to
do already, in a moving car for the average, or
even above-average, driver to operate a vehicle
safely." |
|
|
Too true. When I was a teenager, I slid off of the road in a
snow storm because a favorite song came on the radio and
I reached for the volume knob at the wrong moment.
Nobody was hurt and I learned a valuable lesson, although
it's one I've been unable to impart to my wife. How can an
otherwise sensible woman, someone who normally serves
as the voice of reason in our relationship, persist in her
belief that it's perfectly safe to apply make-up while
driving? It only takes one little distraction... |
|
|
A mascara brush through the pupil will change her
mind, surely? |
|
|
I recall a road safety expert explaining that crossing a
4 lane road without traffic lights was actually more
difficult than landing a 747 on manual controls. |
|
|
[Custardguts] <cough> - see link! |
|
|
Of course the reverse is also true, and may constitute a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. If "your song" comes on via random happenstance, you may become distressed/distracted and subsequently have a fatal auto collision you otherwise wouldn't have had. |
|
|
....Anyhoo, did you get the fucker's numberplate or company name? |
|
|
[Hippo] - nice. Don't recall having seen that before. |
|
|
[Custard] I just had a flick through it to remind myself of it and was shocked by [StarChaser]'s annotation - people used to see 100Mb as a really sizeable chunk of memory. |
|
|
// If "your song" comes on via random happenstance,
you may become distressed/distracted and subsequently
have a fatal auto collision // |
|
|
In college I participated in a classmate's project involving
Pavlovian conditioning; in this case, her goal was to help
insomniacs get healthy sleep by administering OTC sleep
aids and playing the song 'Milk' by Garbage (a nice soothing
track, for those who haven't heard it) while we drifted off.
Cut forward many years later, to my wife unknowingly
putting that album into the CD player while we were
touring the Blue Ridge Parkway... I didn't actually drive off
the road, but it was a close-run thing. |
|
|
Private subcontractor, pulling the trailers for a large
national firm. I missed the rego because I was
dodging the concrete crash barrier. |
|
| |