Tag: cars

Would love to cross-reference this with demographic data

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Impetus: Kars 4 Kids conducts survey to determine grades of courtesy of all 50 United States

I came across this article that declared Georgia amongst the rudest drivers in America, so I was curious to what the criteria actually entailed.  Ultimately, the sample size was way, way, way too small at 2,500 correspondents considering the fact that the United States has a population of nearly 320 million, so I don’t think this is nearly that accurate of a survey.

Especially the ranking of Maryland, which somehow scrapes into the top-half of the spectrum as “friendlier” drivers, because the reality is that Maryland has some of the worst drivers on the planet who would rather let entire third-world nations die of genocide before letting you merge in front of them.

However, it’s still not entirely inaccurate either, and despite the strokes being very wide and broad, it’s still entertaining to see the obvious correspondence with stuff like population densities and demographics in relation to how certain places graded.

Continue reading “Would love to cross-reference this with demographic data” →

Oh, Georgia #607

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Impetus: Macon gas station runs promotion where cash buyers could get regular unleaded for 99¢ a gallon, resulting in massive lines, long waits, frustrated customers and ultimately police intervention

A few years ago, I went up to visit my parents, and I was driving around running some errands with my dad.  His tank was running low, so he said he needed to get gas, and proceeded to go to a station that he preferred, because it was the cheapest place.  We arrive at the gas station, and it’s an eight-pump station that is in fact ten cents cheaper than everywhere else, but every single pump is occupied, and there were a few other cars precariously circling the premises like a hungry shark stalking an opening.

My dad said that this was the norm.  I said that if he’s really hard up on the dollar he’ll save by going to this station as opposed to the numerous alternatives surrounding the area, I’d be happy to give him a dollar to go somewhere else.  Since I was the one driving anyway, we went to the Shell station down the street that was completely open, filled up, and was right back on track doing our own things, as opposed to joining the feeding frenzy at the cheap station, risking road rage, headache and fender benders all in the sake of saving, a literal dollar for ten gallons of unleaded.

Time, is worth more than money.  Piece of mind, is also worth more than money.  Definitively, for both.  And it astounds me that there are people that don’t seem to understand this.

Continue reading “Oh, Georgia #607” →

Not sure if fan of dumping V6s

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Impetus: Honda is dumping the V6 engine from the Accord, replacing with turbo-charged four

Despite its fairly vanilla existence, I’ve often held the Honda Accord in relative esteem.  The first time in my life that my family got a new car, it was a 1990 Honda Accord.  White, naturally, as Asian people loved cars that were either white or champagne color.  It was like the coolest event in the world back then, and the Accord seemed like a spaceship compared to the dated old Toyota Celica that it had replaced.

Years later, my family ended up getting another Accord, a 1998 model.  I remember this one, because I thought that the car was intended to be for me, but ultimately ended up with my dad absconding with it, when he was working away from home, out in Chattanooga for a few years, which led to a lot of sour grapes on my end.  For a while, my dad drove the shit out of it before he ended up barely driving it at all, and when he traded it in a little over a year ago, the car was nearly 16 years old and never crossed the 100,000 mile mark, which for a Honda is barely half its lifespan.  Along the way, my mom got a used 1994 Accord that she ran into the ground, but the point is that my family has had a lot of Honda Accords. 

Ultimately, I view the Accord as a trustworthy reliable car, in spite of its vanilla existence, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned more recently, it’s the de facto car of choice for Indian families; seriously, the sheer amount of Honda Accords in my apartment complex belonging to Indian families is almost an anthropological marvel.  But the Accord is a name that people associate with affordable, safe, and decently performing, and if I were at that stage of my life where I wanted a family-friendly automobile that I’d feel good about anyone driving and wouldn’t be too much of a chore for me to drive myself, the Honda Accord wouldn’t be the worst choice in the world.

Continue reading “Not sure if fan of dumping V6s” →

Too easy

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Readers formerly known as my six readers might know that I have this strange fascination with trucks full of food stuffs crashing on the highway.  And throughout the years, especially in Georgia, we’ve seen quite a smorgasbord of food overturned onto the roads, from hams, beer, potato chips, more beer and turkeys spilled in magnificent messes, due to mostly the negligence of the drivers of these delectable consumables.

And throughout it all, I’ve always had something to say about each such incident, mostly overly sarcastic remarks about how the food spilled onto Georgia highways could amount to one massive banquet had the food not been declared inedible on account of it spilling onto asphalt.

But this incident, with a truck full of watermelons spilling onto the I-85/I-985 split up in Suwanee?  I got nothing.  Sometimes, there are some things that just write themselves, or the pictures do all the talking, and when a truck full of watermelons dumps its entire load onto the highways, resulting a temporary but complete closure of the road so that GDOT crews can basically sweep red sticky sweet slush and rinds off of the road, there’s really not much to add, without the humor going very inappropriate in the process.

What a visual though.  It’s absolutely everything that you’d expect to see upon hearing a watermelon spill.  I’d imagine that if I were trying to leave the city northbound, and then came to a complete standstill for reasons unknown, I’d probably eventually become livid.  But upon the even the eventual crawl through of ground zero, and seeing wet roads, red slush and rinds all over the shoulders, I’d probably end up laughing maniacally at the ironic reveal.

Whatever though, add it to the list!  Watermelons.  Might make a decent dessert option in the never ending buffet of food lost to the Georgia highway system.

Obvious answers to obvious questions

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

CBS46 Atlanta asks: How will MARTA ridership change with I-85 open? In spite of Keith Parker’s diabolical efforts to destroy roads, induce sinkholes, and cause agonizing gridlock throughout Atlanta roads to boost MARTA ridership, the answer to the question is about as obvious as finding out Cobb taxpayers will be on the hook for some Braves-related expenses despite countless promises that they wouldn’t.

Errbody ‘gon get their asses back in their cars and back on the streets and in no time, clog up I-85 and sit in traffic rather than ride MARTA.

I mean, the proof is already in the pudding, as it’s not even been one full day, and MARTA stations are reporting a wealth of available parking spaces, despite the fact that just weeks ago, ridership was up massively and warranted the need for additional parking.  In that regard, I actually kind of feel bad for MARTA, because they seemed to go all-in with trying to improve service and become the commuting savior the city needed, even if they probably were the ones behind it in the first place.

But $3.1 million reasons existed why the I-85 repairs were going to get done ahead of schedule, and I have to imagine a guy like Keith Parker is incensed with the notion that such a generous bonus came into play to get people to actually do their jobs in an expedient manner.  He did so much, destroying roads, causing gridlock as well as improving MARTA ridership, and now the whole plan kind of goes to pot now that I-85 was repaired as fast as it was.  It wasn’t even adequate time for riders to reinforce and get used to MARTA being the norm, and their asses are already back in cars, preferring to slog through traffic and have the freedom that cars bring, rather than ride MARTA.

Continue reading “Obvious answers to obvious questions” →

This is probably going to be a thing

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Do you know what professional athletes like aside from money?  Attention.

Sure, there’s a correlation between attention and earning money, but when the day is over, professional athletes still love to gain attention, whether it is good or bad.  It’s why you hear of former pros doing random things when their playing careers are over, presumably just to see their names get published somewhere for some reason.

One of the easiest ways to gain attention for professional athletes is to do things that other professional athletes don’t do.  And when professional athletes left and right are flaunting their wealth, and boasting their ridiculous homes, expensive accessories and overpriced cars, it’s easy to get noticed when you go against such a common grain.

So when top QB draft pick Mitchell Trubisky, rolled into the Chicago Bears minicamp in an old 1997 Toyota Camry, people did notice.  That tends to happen when a guy makes it into the NFL and is expected to immediately cash in their signing bonuses and get themselves a six-figure vehicle, because let’s be real here, like 99%* of top-10 draft picks tend to do that.

Continue reading “This is probably going to be a thing” →

Who knew how loudly money spoke?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Shocker of the year: I-85 announced to be opening Monday morning, tremendously ahead of schedule

Funny how predictable things become once money is introduced into the equation.  Back when the bridge originally collapsed, there were rumblings about how it would take until Thanksgiving to repair.  Eventually people realized that cities can’t necessarily operate efficiently with a massive chasm in the road, so the timeline to repair was suddenly bumped to early June. 

And then the Georgia Department of Transportation put a big fat $3.1 million dollar incentive reward in play if the contractors responsible for the bridge repair could finish before Memorial Day weekend, May 26-29.

A surprise to nobody at all, the bridge repairs are not only going to beat the Memorial Day reward deadline, they’re going to beat it by nearly two full weeks.  How interesting that a potential reward has sufficiently motivated people to do their jobs.

Whatever though, regardless of the pathetic display of greed exhibited by this whole debacle, I’m just glad that I-85 is going to be repaired sooner rather than later.  I know other people have had it way worse than I have, but it’s definitely made some trips way more tedious and time-consuming than they should be if GDOT weren’t such irresponsible slugs leaving their flammable shit underneath bridges with the crackheads.