Dear Sir,

I was in the maroon hatchback, waiting to turn right on H from 18th this evening as you walked through the crosswalk, with the light, as pedestrians are permitted to do.  Some jackass behind me honked, and you thought it was me.  It was not.  I know you waved at me as if to say, "Hey, jerk, I have the right of way."  And it's true that you did, and I was respecting it.  Had I honked at you, you would have had every right to give me a rude gesture or a nasty look, as I would have deserved it.

But it wasn't me who honked.  I think it was the RAV4 behind me, although I'm not sure what he was complaining about.

In any event, I apologize.  The guy behind me was a jerk.

Sincerely, Complaint Hub

I seriously feel a little bad.  I guess I shouldn't.  I didn't do anything wrong.  The guy I don't know and will never see again, who's probably already forgotten this happened, just thought I did.  But I do try to be courteous to pedestrians, beyond simply yielding when they have the right of way.  Except jaywalkers.  Jaywalkers are on their own.  I'm not saying don't do it, because I certainly do.  I'm just saying that you're on your own.

Due process too much hassle for DC dept. of motor vehicles - Boing Boing

Washington DC's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) will no longer allow citizens to protest parking tickets in person, reports Thenewspaper.com. Instead, they'll offer mail-in and e-mail adjudication.

What kind of crazy person would go to the DMV to protest a ticket in person, anyway?  As many of you have found via Google, I have a bit of experience protesting tickets via the mail.  It actually works.  They really do look at your letter, and they really do respond.  It sometimes takes a letter to your councilmember to get it all worked out, but the statement in the article to which Boing Boing has linked:

Under the DMV's plan, motorists will only be able to object to a ticket by email or letter where city employees can ignore or reject letters in bulk without affected motorists having any realistic recourse.

Just isn't true.  Does DC give out too many ridiculous parking tickets?  Probably.  Is the city too financially dependent on this revenue source?  I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me.  Should it be easier to contest an erroneous ticket?  Sure, but we have to weigh the cost/benefit analysis here.  The reason you can't contest a ticket in person anymore is probably NOT so the DMV can deny you due process (Does the DMV even owe you due process?  I'm not sure.  Maybe some lawyer can answer.).  It is probably to save the DMV some money.  If they don't have to employ someone to sit and listen to how you know it said no parking, but you only had to run in for a minute, and it's not your fault that your manicurist had a line and you had to wait and the kids were running around and it's really not fair and you normally park in a regular spot and take the other car that you can usually park but this time you had the big car and gosh don't you have kids then you understand, right?  Then maybe they could put some of that saved money to use for education or increased police patrols or any of the million other things the city could be spending its money on.

Anyway, I know I only link to BoingBoing when they piss me off, so I want to state here that I read and enjoy the site every day.  And I really don't just read it waiting for them to say something that bugs me.  I really recommend the site.  They usually have smart, interesting things to say.  Sometimes they say ridiculous things, but don't we all?

During the big snow last week, we discovered that my wife's car wouldn't start.  She doesn't drive very often, so it wasn't the end of the world, but she would have liked to have driven that particular day, so it was a little annoying.  Then we moved, and didn't really have a chance to take care of it.  So, yesterday, I went to take care of it.  I borrowed jumper cables from a coworker, figuring I'd try that because it was free.  If that didn't work, I'd see if the guys at the repair shop across the street would come look at it, or else I'd get it towed.

I got there, and there were cars on either side of hers.  I would have had to park in her trunk to get close enough to jump it, so I went across the street to the repair place.  They were unhelpful and wouldn't go off-site, so I called AAA.  They were very quick, and sent someone in about 25 minutes.  23 1/2 minutes after I called, the car next to my wife's pulled out.  When the tow truck driver arrived, he pulled out a little thing that was probably a battery in a case with cables attached, and he jumped the car.  It started just fine.

It's nice that it's the battery and not the starter or something worse, but it's annoying that I could have done all that myself if only my wife had backed in to the spot, or the lot had been less crowded.

Oh, well.  Didn't cost me any money, at least.  And now I'll go get a battery today and put it in, and then we'll figure out where we're going to keep her car, or if we're going to sell it, or whatever.

Automotive Killer App? The Zeroshift Automanual - Jalopnik

If your idea of nirvana is clutchless gear changes with zero lag up and down the cogway, today may be your birthday.

However, if you really like to DRIVE, this is another nail in the coffin. I know I'm in a small minority here, but I think the skill and enjoyment of driving comes from the driver, not the car. Certainly it is more fun to drive a brand new BMW M5 than a '74 Pinto. But if I shave .4 seconds off my quarter mile time because I got some new transmission that does all the work for me, that's a step down in my book.  If I have aFerrari, and you have a Hyundai, and I beat you in a race, that doesn't mean I'm a better driver.

I LIKE doing the work. I like working the clutch and shifting gears. I'm comfortable doing that, and I want to continue doing that. It's not the most efficient way to drive, perhaps, but I'll trade some efficiency for my enjoyment.

I hope that, when the day comes that this kind of thing is standard, where the car controls everything, that we also have auto-drive cars. If the car is going to insist on shifting for me, I'm not interested in doing any of the rest of the work.

I've been driving the wife to work this week, due to her unfortunate knee incident (She's seeing an orthopedist on Monday, we think she hurt her MCL), and that involves taking 66 into the city.  Now, at 7am, that's not bad.  It's HOV-2, and traffic is light.

However, they already have the metered ramps turned on.  Along the entrance ramps to 66, they have traffic lights, where they allow one car per lane to go at a time.  The light is red, someone arrives at the light, it turns green for one car.  Great system when traffic is heavy - it prevents a big pile of cars trying to merge all at once.  Unless the backup gets really bad, and then it doesn't do any good.

My point, and I do have one, is that these meters have sensors in the road so they know when a car comes.  So they know how heavy traffic is.  And therefore, they could turn themselves off when there is one car coming by every minute or two, when the lights are totally unnecessary.  They could also turn themselves off when the traffic is so heavy that they don't make any difference at all.

Is that too much to ask?  I have the email of someone at VDOT now from the whole Seven Corners debacle.  I haven't contacted him yet.  I should - now that the election is over, I've been swept under the rug, it seems.

Techdirt: Getting Rid Of Traffic Lights And Traffic Signs To Make Everyone Safer

When you remove all of the guidance, it makes people (and that includes the bikers and pedestrians as well) much more cautious and careful -- so they tend to make fewer dangerous moves. On top of that, it actually makes the traffic flow much more smoothly, allowing people to get where they're going much faster, even if they drive slower.

I suspect that this works better in cities, and Seven Corners might be too complicated to remove the signs, but this is an interesting concept.  Basically, if you remove traffic signs and lights, everything moves more slowly and smoothly and people drive more safely.  I suspect that this would only be temporary, though.  People would drive more safely at first, but if you go through an intersection twice a day on your commute to and from work, many people will get used to the little quirks of the road (For example, at a particular intersection, the left lane always backs up trying to turn, so you get to the right before you get there) and take advantage.

Still, it is nice to see people examining things like this, which people take for granted, and wondering if there is really a better way, even if it sounds quite drastic.

I took an alternate route to work today because I had to drop the wife off in Arlington so she could pass out Jim Webb (Democratic candidate for Senator in VA) literature.  So I was coming through a sort of bad intersection - nothing like Seven Corners, but not the nicest intersection, either.  As I went through the green light, a school bus pulled halfway into the intersection to turn right.  Into my lane.

First of all, you don't pull halfway into the lane when a car with the right of way is already occupying that lane.  Second, I thought school buses never turned right on red.  Doesn't it say that on the back of the bus?

I always drive more carefully around school buses.  I mean, they're full of children without seatbelts.  And usually the bus drivers are extra cautious, too.  But not this one.  So I honked at him.  He then turned right just behind me.  On red.  Jerk.

You can see the response I got to my letter about Seven Corners here.  The relevant quote is this:

The main reason we in No.Va. suffer from inadequate transportation solutions is that we have not increased revenues in 20 years. Again this year, many of us in NoVA tried to obtain support for new sources of funding, but we had little support from House members from other parts of the state.

This sounds to me like a plea from Democrat to support a tax hike.  Now, maybe that's not being fair, but doesn't that sound to you like a plea for a tax hike?

But I'm not buying it.  If you can't increase revenue without raising taxes when the population explodes (I don't know what the population was in 1986, but it sure wasn't what it is now), then it's not the fault of House members in the rest of the state (Republican, probably, since NOVA is the only Democratic part of the state commonwealth).  It's the fault of those who write up the budget.  I understand that increased population means increased costs, but it also means increased revenue.
And seriously, how much does it cost to put up a sign?  I honk at someone almost every day at that intersection because they cut me off from the wrong lane.  Do you think they'd put up a sign if I offered to pay for it?  That's probably illegal.  Maybe I'll ask Jim Scott.

How can the customer service line for the Department of Motor Vehicles be busy? I just got a bill for my property tax on the truck I sold last year. I called the county, and they said that the DMV has no record of the sale. So I guess someone forgot to write it down when I turned in my tags. And now I can't get through to the DMV. I do not want to have to go there in person. Although it might turn out to be easier.

And honestly, how does Virginia get away with a yearly tax on a depreciating asset? They like to talk about how wonderful the car tax relief they offer is, but they fail to mention how stupid the car tax is in the first place. If they want to tax the USE of the car to help pay for roads and such, I wouldn't be totally opposed. That would place the tax burden firmly where it belongs - on those who drive the most. But a tax on the car itself, above and beyond sales tax, is ridiculous.

Update: I'm currently on hold with the DMV. After a half hour of redial, I finally got past the busy signal and got their automated system. How the heck do I get a busy signal when I'm calling a computer? That's just a bad system.

Not only that, but when I finally got through, they launched into the recorded spiel about how much you can do on their website. How do they think I got the stupid phone number? So, as I was verbally expressing my disgust at their awful phone system, that very same phone system interpreted my words as me having trouble with their menu system. This is actually impossible, because they never gave me any menu options. At least my supposed difficulties got me straight into the customer service queue, which is where I wanted to be anyway.

Update II:  So it looks like I got it taken care of.  The CSR was completely incapable of answering any questions as to why they failed to take the vehicle out of my name, but at least she took it out.

By the way, if you ever find a Virgina driver's license, you can do all sorts of things.  They don't ask any identifying information beyond what's on the license.  That makes me feel safe.

Acura Integras Still Being Stolen - Jalopnik

Of course Integras are still being stolen while RSX's aren't.  One, the Integra was awesome while the RSX is just an Integra with a new name.  Two, the smart kids bought Integras to pimp out - a stock Integra blows the doors off a Civic with $10,000 of engine work.

My first car was a 1988 Integra RS.  I loved that car.  Then someone rear ended it, and Allstate determined it wasn't worth the repairs.  So my sister and I took the insurance money and a little out of pocket cash and bought a 1989 Integra LS.  We had that until my brother drove it into the ground.  They were great cars.  My girlfriend in college bought a brand new 2000 Integra during our senior year.  That was a fun car to drive, but not quite as much fun as the '89.

Anyway, it's too bad they're discontinuing the RSX.  Maybe if they brought back the Integra it would start selling again.