TAG | Tech that kills! |
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| by Mike Bantick | |
| Thursday, 21 August 2008 | |
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Page 2 of 3 To quote Sir William; “No other man-made device since the shields and lances of the ancient knights fulfills a man's ego like an automobile.” And so it seems as I cycle to and from work along the boulevards of Melbourne, observing some nice cars sitting in peak hour traffic. There is a lot of money invested in our automobiles. What did I do? Over the course of a number of days, riding too and from work at some of the safer areas of the trip, I observed peak hour driver habits. Along Lakeside Drive Albert Park – international readers will recognize this as the home of the Australian Grand Prix – and on Glen Eira Rd in Caulfield the bike riding is relatively safe. The Google Maps links above were there to distract privacy advocates into continuing their complaint letters to Google about Street View, while I tell the rest of you that I glanced into every car that went past me on these roads. On these stretches of roads it is a comfortable to make a sneak peak into the cosy interior of cars (sadly, mostly single occupancy - come on people, Car Pool!) as they pass relatively slowly. On other stretches of the trip the need to watch out for opening doors of parked cars, cars pulling out of intersections, pedestrians, the occasional dog, cat or swan make it otherwise impossible. The results, well, they may be unscientific, but alarming, given that it is against local laws to use mobile devices whilst driving. Before I get to the actual numbers, some other observations made over the years of cycle commuting. * BMW vehicles are too difficult to drive. Indicator controls are obviously too complicated to be utilised at appropriate times. * Holding your phone on your lap whilst texting in traffic, in an attempt to hide the act from observation, does not work, or make it any safer. * Pedestrians lost in an MP3 induced, tunnel vision world of their own, are not impervious to collisions as they step out from sidewalks. Yes but has the habits of the average car commuter changed since the 2003 TAC observations? - Onwards to Page 3. |
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