Your expectation of esprit de corps amongst Z car owners took me back to ‘96 when I owned an Audi 4000cs Quattro. The A4 had just come out and was being purchased in large numbers not by Quattro aficionados but by d’bag yuppies looking for something German which wasn’t a BMW or ‘benz. There was no Quattro brotherhood…

There are recommended best practices for marking construction zones and managing traffic around constructions zones. The contractor didn’t appear to be following best practices here. The left turn bay can accommodate about 2 vehicles before everything else comes to a stop. Then there’s the gap in the barriers which…

Ohio or Florida?

The operators will pay for the cost, of course. It will be phased in because retrofits would be too much of a fight. The trucking industry is well-represented in Washington DC.

In 2015 there were 301 deaths or 1/3 of all deaths caused by motor vehicle/tractor-trailer collisions. From the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:

My knowledge on whistleblowers is second-hand (I dated a lawyer for whistleblowers). Her clients were typically federal employees. When a person becomes a whistleblower her life as she knows it ends. She becomes ostracized from co-workers who see her as a traitor. She can’t be fired for whistleblowing but because the…

You are more optimistic than I am. The other day I heard a venture capitalist say that capitalism and democracy would devour each other. His reasoning: the incumbents eventually accrue enough power to write their own rules.

Please choose another example of government picking a winner. You have cited an article from Lightbulbchoice which is hardly an impartial source of information.

Still not understanding how the government picked CFL as a winner. Did it purchase large quantities of CFLs? Did it write energy star regulations so that only CFLs could qualify? Did it impose tariffs on competing technologies? Did it in any way prevent GE, Sylvania, or other lighting manufactures from developing…

I’m not sure how the CFL and LED development example serves your point that government doesn’t always know what is best. CFL is a mature technology; LED is only now getting to the point where the 800 lumen bulb (equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent) is available, affordable and attractive. Government did the right…

Judging by the superstructure’s shadow I must say: no stars, sir — you got the sun’s azimuth way wrong.

Really I don’t care about the expense of complying with NCAP regulations because... average vehicle costs are going to go up with each model year no matter what and automakers were going to change styling anyway. But if you are concerned about costs then another consideration needs to be costs avoided, as in how many…

They could ease their pain by buying my ‘04 Golf TDI with 59k on the clock.

Lane splitting — for bicyclists — is legal in most jurisdictions as long as the cars are stopped.

Uber was in AZ because they got booted from CA. There ya go.

I think we know which one will win the race of 0 - 100.... percent depreciation.

Counterpoint: when accidents are litigated to determine damages, the courts usually assign blame by percentage. This is called either ‘contributory negligence’ or ‘comparative negligence’ depending on when you live. This standard exists because in the real world there’s no such thing as an ‘accident.’ The…

On the plus side: If cash for clunkers did retire 700k rolling wrecks then undoubtedly lives were saved. Low income people die in car crashes at higher rates than other demographics. Some of that is caused by high risk behaviors; some of that is the result of low income people driving the shittiest cars on the road.

On the plus side: the Aussies seem to have a much lower level of road rage. I was waiting for fisticuffs that never happened.

There’s nothing sadder than seeing one of these things in the wild. True story: saw a guy filling up one in a 4th ring suburb outside Washington DC. It looked awful — sagging butt and bald tires — and sounded worse — which may or may not have something to do with the 87 octane he was pumping. Made me sad. Got back…