I really don’t understand the people who treat the 17 like it’s a GTA level. I’ve seen more accidents on that road than any other anywhere I’ve lived. I think it being 4 lanes encourages risky behavior; hardly anyone acts like an aggro driver on the various 2 lane blacktop roads off of Skyline.
4 Likes
I just chug up and down it in the slow lane with the trucks. There are way better reasons to die than to try to trim 3 minutes off my commute driving like a maniac.
2 Likes
As long as the park itself is open to all, I don’t see that as a problem. Presumably the resident is already paying for street maintenance in the form of municipal taxes. There are neighborhoods near me where residents would not be able to park when they got home from work without this kind of parking restriction. Nonresidents who don’t want to pay the $5 can take a bus, an Uber, walk, or ride a bicycle.
1 Like
Whether or not there’s racism in Palo Alto’s stingy attitude towards its park (and I wouldn’t necessarily deny it)
I would say this is a clear case where the word “racism” could be interpreted to refer to structural mechanisms regardless of anyone’s personal beliefs about race, without really losing any of the meaningful implications.
I do find it fascinating that people are terrible drivers everywhere, but for such different reasons! I suspect those international drivers drive the way they do because wherever they’re from, it’s somehow optimal or necessary.
Drivers in NYC are rude b/c they have to be to be to get anywhere with e.g. so many pedestrians, obstructions, parades and road closures, weird parking rules, and one way streets around.
Drivers in Boston are rude, and also aggressive at low speeds, because the roads themselves are obviously out to get you, and you’re constantly trying to cope with that and deal with people who clearly should have known they were going to need to cross 4 lanes of highway traffic and take a left exit within a quarter mile after getting on the highway at rush hour.
Drivers in Texas are aggressive at high speeds because really, how else are you going to get anywhere in such a huge state?
Drivers on highways in PA are constantly surrounded by large trucks in narrow lanes in construction zones, just trying not to get crushed or driven off the road.
Those are the ones I’ve personally experienced most, I expect there are others.
I used to live in different places in the area and had the experience of both being refused with the wrong ZIP code and being allowed entry with the correct ZIP code.
Going in on a summer weekday was an ethereal experience. Acres of cut lawn. And almost completely desolate. It reminded me of some royal park from Barry Lyndon. (And the gate guardpost isn’t even manned on the weekdays.)
2 Likes
Lanesplitting on motorcycles is legal in California. I occasionally do the haul over Altamont on I-580 on a motorcycle and cutting down the line when traffic slows below about 35mph. It’s even more exciting than doing it in a Fiat.
Oh god. 17 is terrible. No one knows how to drive that stretch and the people who don’t know how to accelerate uphill and the people who get nervous driving next to trucks end up stuffing up traffic on every incline and the choices are fumble along with the trucks or drive like a maniac (and probably get punted into the barricade at some point). As much as I have an excess risk appetite, I’d much rather take 30 minutes and run down 9 when going to Santa Cruz. Particularly if I’m on a bike. Hopefully you get to telecommute more these days (particularly in light of the pandemic).
1 Like
I prefer working at the office. I can’t wait to go back. Plus I have a lot of audible credits stacking up now that I haven’t been commuting for a year.
1 Like
I think this exact thing every time I’m in Boston. Nicely put.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
