Rubénerd!

From USA Today, even though it came out yesterday:

Instead of shoehorning the electric powerplant into a conventional GM compact-car platform, the next Volt will be purpose-built. That will allow the ability to better package the batteries and other specialized components, says Mark Reuss, president of GM North America.

Shows my ignorance, I thought it was purpose-built. The Honda Civic Hybrid isn't purpose-built, and it doesn't come with a premium price tag.

To me, this reads like a book coming out in hardcover for the people who really want it, then releasing the paperback for everyone else.

And now I've exhausted all my car knowledge, and have lost my train of thought.

So I was walking down our two lane street, when a large family car travelling in the opposite direction to me suddenly started careening towards the footpath. Next thing I heard was a loud crash as it hit the high curb a metre or two behind me, and the back of the car swung 90 degrees to hit a masonry fence, breaking off huge pieces. A chunk of plastic from the car and some small pieces of rock hit my leg, making a small tear in my pants.

The few of us on the footpath watched dumbfounded as the driver climbed out of the car without a scratch. We started talking about how if we'd been a few seconds slower, we would have been in a car fence sandwich. Would it have killed us?

It's cliche to say, but the next half an hour were a genuine blur. I don't even remember making my way to my regular coffee shop until I was almost there, and sat down to calm my nerves. The barista who served me asked if I'd seen a ghost! I guess... I almost did.

I really started to have doubts whether I was just dreaming when I noticed the man at the table next to mine was none other than the Mayor of Canterbury, our area of Sydney. Another weird occurance, the TV they have installed at the coffee shop was playing a hit music station (Channel V, or Max Brenner, or whatever), and I swear I watched the same music video play for more than half an hour.

But I digress. This all occured in the morning, by the mid afternoon crane operators were already at the scene repairing the electrical poles and clearing away rubble (photo above). The car was nowhere to be seen, though there was still plenty of debris littered across the footpath and down the road.

Coming back later this evening, I noticed the hubcap from the ill fated car was still next to the footpath. Creepy.

Needless to say, for much of the day I almost felt like a living ghost. I shouldn't be alive. Had I taken a shorter period of time to tie my shoelaces before bolting out the door, there's a good chance I (and the people walking in front of me) would have been splattered across the fence. I just... it felt so unreal walking away from an incident like that with only a torn pants leg to show for it. It could have been so much worse.

Not be overly melodramatic, but I suppose we all have our brushes with death at some point. Rather than feeling terrified that I came that close to being crushed, I should be feeling overjoyed and happy that nothing happened, and that I'm here to write this.

I don't care how cliché it sounds, this whole incident really made me stop and appreciate my life again. To quote Sting, how fragile we are.

This has nothing to do with computer science or software or anime, but when Alex Sadlier shared this in Google Reader I just had to comment on it.

I want the car culture to fall down tomorrow, and I no longer care who knows it. I want the end of single-occupant vehicles, and the end of suburbs that force us to drive 30 or 40 miles to get to a job.

Yes, yes and yes!

The Aussie Factor

First I want to get this disclaimer out of the way. With all my recent blog posts on airport searches and internet filters I may give the impression that I hate Australia. I don't, I'm just bitterly disappointed at all her missed opportunities and think she and her people are capable of so much more, if people in charge were competent and forward thinking enough.

Oh yeah, and if we got rid of the states. An entire country with less people than many cities doesn't need them and it only adds to the red tape, bureaucracy and waste of our already ineffective federal government!

I digress!

When the British first arrived in Australia, they held the promise of creating an egalitarian society without the rigid social classes and sense of entitlement so entrenched in much of the Western world at the time. Instead that potential was squandered in an attempt to realise the Aussie Dream of a 1/4 acre lot and two cars, at the expense of our land's native peoples, the environment and ultimately of sustainable living.

With only 4 million people, Sydney is larger in land area than New York City, is it any surprise services such as public transport can't be effective when people are spread so thin?

It's a car entitlement culture thingy

I've touched on this a few times on this blog, but basically the way I see it Australia, like the United States, has a car entitlement culture which has such a deep and profound effect on virtually everything. Cities can't afford to provide good public transport because they're too busy clearing huge swaths or land or tunnelling to build gigantic roads and other necessary infrastructure so individual people can sit in their gigantic cars and talk on their phones about how the traffic is so terrible and run over a few pedestrians and bike riders. As a result, nobody uses public transport because it's slow and ineffective. It's a viscous cycle that no politician for decades has had the balls to break other than token new tram lines or refurbished carriages.

It goes even deeper than a practical standpoint of "needing" a car. It's a rite of passage for 16 year olds to start learning to drive and to get their first wheels. As a financial result of growing up in Singapore, I'm 24 and the only vehicle I have a licence for is a Segway. It used to embarrass me. I don't care now.

I've only really talked about public transport here, but there are many other issues. With people living so far out, the idea of walking to work or school is out of the question for so many people which I can only imagine is having serious health effects. Many people somehow think living in a trendy apartment is still just a cheapie substitute to a "real" house. There's less space for parks. We can't use renewable energy to power trains because people are too busy burning a disgusting liquid in their cars that spills and causes disaster, not to mention chokes the air we breathe.

This isn't to say there aren't legitimate uses for cars, but for every person using one there are dozens who abuse them. You really need a gigantic car to go one block... by yourself... really?!

Put down the pot your hippie!

And yet if I say this to people, I'm called a daydreaming hippie or a stupid commie red socialist, or some less polite combination of the two! Anyway, call me what you will, I'm off to take the Singapore MRT two stops. If I miss the train, another one will be there in 2 minutes, and when I go on it there won't be any graffiti or broken windows either.

Ah the wonders of investing in your future!

Image credits

• Melbourne aerial photo by Wongm on Wikimedia Commons
• Sydney urban sprawl photo by Bunzip on Flickr
• Holden car photo by User:OSX on Wikipedia.
• Photo of baked cat pie with Guinness by Neal O'Carroll from the IntoYourHead show.

I had a thought this afternoon. Should Chrysler sell Toyota the Dodge brand name, given people will be trying to when they see a Toyota uncontrollably accelerating towards them?

Well that joke sounded wittier in my head. Wait wait, I can make it better! Suppose if its a technical problem, perhaps Toyota could ask Chuck Peddle to help them! Get it? Chuck... PEDDLE? HA!

When I was a kid I dreamed of being a stand up comedian. For the sake of audiences around the world, it's probably a good thing that never happened.

Taken with my iPhone earlier this afternoon and uploaded to TwitPic. Verdana abuse!

If I were a car driver, I could now add Samoa to the list of countries I could figure out how to drive in, because they drive on the right side of the road now. Wait, I meant right as in correct not as in the right-hand side. I meant they're now driving on the left-hand side. From the SBS Australia news site:

On Tuesday, Samoa will end a century-old tradition of European-style driving, on the right, to become aligned with its Pacific neighbours.

The controversial move will make car importation from Australia and New Zealand easier and cheaper.

But the move has been fiercely opposed, with thousands taking to the streets in protest and backing a law suit to have the change overturned.

Until recently I had no idea so few countries drive on the left. I'm an Aussie and grew up in Singapore and Malaysia, so guess I'm just used to it. Apparently aside from much of the Pacific, Indonesia, Ireland, the UK, Japan, Hong Kong and most of south-eastern Africa most of the world drives on the right.

I know I have my own biases, but I always thought driving on the left made more sense anyway. Most people are right-handed which means they have better control of the steering wheel, while their less accurate left hand is just used for the transmission.

What can I say, people say I tend to have left-leaning sympathies ;-)

Here's another Rubenerd Fun Fact for all you rabid Official Rubenerd Fun Fact fans. I know you're out there, I can hear you breathing. Oh wait, that's me.

It's illegal in most jurisdictions for civilians to operate single vehicles with more than 300 axles.

Thank you.

Photo of Adelaide traffic above by Cold Citrus on Flickr.

Todd Tyrtle shared an interesting article on Google Reader this morning about the myth of cyclists causing more accidents than motorists. I've always thought the claim was dubious.

Dr. Chris Cavacuiti, a Toronto physician who cycles competitively, started doing some research into how most bike-versus-car collisions happen while recovering from a nasty bike-versus-car collision. His findings:

While there is a public perception that cyclists are usually the cause of accidents between cars and bikes, an analysis of Toronto police collision reports shows otherwise: The most common type of crash in this study involved a motorist entering an intersection and either failing to stop properly…

As someone who lives most of his life as a pedestrian and public transport taker I can completely believe this. The number of times I've been clipped by cars and have almost been run over when I have the green light at a pedestrian crossing just isn't funny any more. Well, it was never funny but you get the idea. I look both ways when crossing the street, but cars are much faster than my reflexes and I am. What also irritates me is how often people don't indicate when they're turning; it only takes a tiny flick of the wrist for the driver but apparently that's too much effort for most. This is true in both Adelaide and Singapore.

The problem for people like me and bike riders like Todd is we're expected to put up with lousy drivers because cars are an "entitlement" when they should be seen as a privilege, and as such bear a certain level of responsibility. Demerit points don't discourage reckless driving because they just punish actions rather than dealing with the underlying entitlement problem which I think is endemic to our society, much like binge drinking. I could get onto the selfishness of drunk drivers, but I've decided to keep that Pandora's box closed!

There are some people who legitimately need cars, but that shouldn't excuse everyone from having one and driving them inconsiderately. Safe drivers as well as bike riders and pedestrians are affected by such people.

Not that I'm biased against car companies or anything, but I think this latest television advertisement from Holden (Australia's General Motors subsidiary) is pretty terrible, even by their own standards.

In the beginning we're introduced to their new car the Cruze, named as such because cars are automatically cooler if they use single words that aren't spelt properly. After showing us the bog standard four door design they advertise as being "small" along with plenty of stock footage of random people smiling, we're shown a person filling up their tank at a petrol station, then an image of a solar car similar to the one in the photo driving past while the voiceover says:

[The Cruze] uses less fuel, without feeling like you're driving an experiment.

My jaw dropped.

Yes, heaven forbid a car manufacturer -- who's parent's company overseas is declaring bankruptcy because of their failure to satisfy the market -- "experiment" with new technologies using alternative sources of energy instead of creating yet another petrol internal combustion engine driven machine! I didn't think it would be possible for a car company to present environmental sensitivity and alternative energy as negatives, but Holden pulled it off.

Despite what Holden is saying in this advertisement, we do need car manufacturers which are forward thinking enough to experiment and to see the impact of their products in the medium to long term rather than just trying to repackage yesterday's technology and ideas into new bodywork and pass it off as real innovation.

Their dismissal of these things pretty much ensures that if I ever need to buy a car in the future, it ain't going to be a Holden. As I say so often about Microsoft for example, I'm sure they have some extraordinarily talented people working for them, I find it quite staggering that this is the best they can do. It may be a backhanded compliment, but what do they say about real friends telling you the truth instead of sucking up by agreeing with everything you say and do?

Excuse me, I'm off for a nice long walk.

Seems like even as early as the 1950s we knew we couldn't just keep building cars to solve our transport problems, but our own laziness, greed, sense of entitlement and ultimately short sightedness means we're still dealing with these problems at the start of the 2010s. Whooptie do.

The photo depicts a "Traffic jam at Venice Boulevard and La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, Calif. in 1953", now in the public domain in the US.

I get the feeling my favourite honorary (is that the right word?) Canadian Todd Tyrtle would have something to say about this too!