Driving in the Sunshine State

[lakedaemonian]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State

My mom is gonna be 86. She gave up her car about 9 months ago when, post broken leg, she could not get in and out of it. My son inherited it, I got the insurance bill, AND I get to drive mom around 2x/week. Lucky ME!

More seriously, I am so glad she got out of the car. She still thought she was some bat outta hell behind the wheel, when she was just downright scary. Speed up, slow down, cut lanes without trun signals, cross land lines and back at random, etc. the world is safer with her not driving. And yes, when she was younger she was a good driver. But reality and perception diverged somewhere around 75 years old.


Hey don, what part of FLA are you in? I sometimes have fantasies of moving to Northern FL like Destin or similar.

My wife's grandfather is a great old fella.

He's well into his 90's and intellectually whip smart and completely independent(his wife died a few years back)...with an interesting story....genuine cowboy, destroyer escort commander in WWII, has a small college named after him, is still practicing law well into his 90's, and has a collection of genuine remington sculptures.

But he can't drive...but he continues to insist on it......it's the only thing that gets him all grumpy at his family.

Riding shotgun with him while he misses parked cars by millimeters is an adventure.

[shiny!]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State

Hey don, what part of FLA are you in? I sometimes have fantasies of moving to Northern FL like Destin or similar.

I don't know if you like dogs, but they breed some fine Old Southern Bulldogs in those parts. My avatar came from Greenwood, just a few counties over from Destin. Best dog I've ever had.

[don]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State

Hey don, what part of FLA are you in? I sometimes have fantasies of moving to Northern FL like Destin or similar.

I started coming out to South Florida about 10 years ago with my wife to visit her relatives. The last few trips I began hooking up with boxing people - trainers, promoters, ex-fighters, gym owners, etc. - and now have boxing friends from Tampa to Key West. (I gave a talk on Boxing & the Great War last weekend at the Florida Hall of Fame Induction Weekend in Tampa - a nonstop boxing bacchanalia for insiders) So the move really works for me.

Florida, like California, is bifurcated north and south, with equally Cali-like prejudices for and against each. South Florida has more ethnic diversity and is an easy drive to Miami for us. Northern FL may be a bit more old Florida, the one locals will tell you was lost in south Florida. We would never consider living in Southern California, where my co-author lives, and so it goes . . . to each his own.

[don]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State

And even worse....driving at night in the rain.....

Back in 2003 I was driving home at night and in the rain in a petrol truck with an external, low mounted, side petrol tank stuck at a red light in a T intersection.

At Green light I moved through the intersection and got T-boned by a little 75+ year old lady who hit the petrol tank head on.

The initial hit was as bright as a light bulb flash.......within a minute I managed to get out of the vehicle and get little old lady out of hers...within approx. 2-2.5 minutes both vehicles were on fire from end to end.

Nobody got hurt, but little old lady shouldn't have been driving.

A Big +1

[don]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State

Riding shotgun with him while he misses parked cars by millimeters is an adventure.

Before my father-in-law had his stroke it was white-knuckle time riding with him as well. Waiting to cross a busy 4 lane street his patience apparently ran out and so did he - right into traffic, horns blowing, brakes squealing. Somehow he made it. Seeing that up close and personal, sans brakes or steering wheel, was a bit too much.

The coda: after his stroke, which left him mentally impaired and paralyzed on his left side, my mother-in-law held out hope for over a year that he would return to drive again. Never underestimate the need for a driver for those who don't.

[lektrode]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State

...Seeing that up close and personal, sans brakes or steering wheel, was a bit too much.
...

boy do i know that feeling... every time she's driving...

not to change the thrust of the discussion, but whats your general observation/opinion on the condition of the roads over there these daze? (esp vs Cali's)

when i was last over there in 2002, returning after the winter i spent in the keys (88-89) eye was quite impressed (fave and not so fave) on just how much road/bridge/overpass work had been done - and florida never has been a state to cheap-out on its highways (just AMAZING some of the flyovers and cloverleafs etc tween ft lottatail and miami)... so wondering how its all been kept up? (since some states seem to have bottomless funds for new construction, but when it comes to maintain of existing.... not so much)

all in all tho, not sure if i had to chose, whether i want to be on the right coast or the left - northern cal/sierras vs southern cal/mammoth would be another comparison, i'd suppose

but if'n i was to go back, the keys is the only place i'd consider - big pine or sugarloaf being my faves

[srivatsan]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State

Previously I used to be frustrated driving around elderly folks but nowadays its turned into pity for the state they are all in. Pardon me if I am wrong, I do not think they want to retain independence more than that there is none to help them out for bare necessities of life. I consider driving is the Most Dangerous activity I do everyday. Apropos, they should not be driving, period.

Driving License must be re-validated for everyone for a period of 5 years and may be every two years beyond 65 including driving vision testing. Would this take care of budget deficit ? Just kidding...

To be fair, while there are a large number of seniors driving who shouldn't - at the same time many of them don't really have much alternative.

It is easy for us who can still drive safely to complain, but these individuals are trying to retain their independence. Waiting hours for a bus and/or paying $10-$20/ride for 'Senior Transport' only seems fine if it is someone else doing it.

In a real sense, what you're seeing is yet another example of the consequences of low density/sprawl.

[srivatsan]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State

With regard to cell phones, you are SO RIGHT... How many times I moved to a different lane or direction just to avoid them... I am teaching my wife to drive and at the same time, teaching her how to read other drivers of their driving quality without looking too much away from your own driving.

I knew about your loss since you once posted the news clip too. Any time I see some stupid drivers, I am reminded of consequences and keeps me honest too. I too have bluetooth in the car and people know that I am driving when I pick it and we end it right there. Its only for real emergencies.

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State

It is always a hard choice about taking away an older persons license.

But I can think of something worse.

Having someone not quite a senior yet go through a manic depressive phase and never being diagnosed with bi-polar in 58 years think that she is perfectly fine.

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State

Supposedly women begin to lose their night vision at 18.......

[lakedaemonian]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State

boy do i know that feeling... every time she's driving...

not to change the thrust of the discussion, but whats your general observation/opinion on the condition of the roads over there these daze? (esp vs Cali's)

when i was last over there in 2002, returning after the winter i spent in the keys (88-89) eye was quite impressed (fave and not so fave) on just how much road/bridge/overpass work had been done - and florida never has been a state to cheap-out on its highways (just AMAZING some of the flyovers and cloverleafs etc tween ft lottatail and miami)... so wondering how its all been kept up? (since some states seem to have bottomless funds for new construction, but when it comes to maintain of existing.... not so much)

all in all tho, not sure if i had to chose, whether i want to be on the right coast or the left - northern cal/sierras vs southern cal/mammoth would be another comparison, i'd suppose

but if'n i was to go back, the keys is the only place i'd consider - big pine or sugarloaf being my faves

I'd agree the Florida Keys are fantastic......although I found it much easier to get from A to B on a bike....as heavy, slow traffic in a car means you're stuck....but on a bike it's easy to pass

Having said that back in 99 we were on our way from Key West to South Beach for a wedding...we stopped for lunch in Key Largo and I got a horrific case of food poisoning from a Cuban sandwich the day of the rehearsal dinner. I managed to survive and attend the wedding(I was a groomsman) and reception with no memory of it whatsoever....although the photos of me looking grey and zombie like are priceless.

The only thing that gets me about South Florida and the Keys in particular is my perception of a lack of permanence. Seeing the swath of damage from Andrew years later really stuck with me.

The upside I see is my Kiwi dollar would EASILY buy TWICE as much house in Florida than NZ at the moment.

[srivatsan]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State

Recently, I am seeing a spate of cars with halogen lights (?) and I too have astigmatism and it kills me everytime. I found that contact lens work better for astigmatism than glasses. But then one cannot wear them for all day/night either... If you can afford, new set of rear mirror has electrical component that can remove the glare of the light and therefore make it slightly less visual confusion. Just my personal experience.

54 here, too. Driving at night is hard with astigmatism- all the lights have little double images, it's too much visual confusion. Glasses with anti-reflective lenses help a LOT.

[c1ue]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State

Previously I used to be frustrated driving around elderly folks but nowadays its turned into pity for the state they are all in. Pardon me if I am wrong, I do not think they want to retain independence more than that there is none to help them out for bare necessities of life.

Independence for seniors is closely correlated with life expectancy. For many seniors, a decline in independence leads directly to declines in health. Some of the ways: eating less/too little because of the difficulty in shopping, cooking, and cleaning up leading to less energy, which in turn leads to less exercise, then back again. Difficulty in transport leading to less social activity which increases isolation and emotional balance.

Unsafe driving is bad, but driving too slow is not a crime unless you are on an interstate.

Merely because a senior is driving slow and is annoying you is no reason to be attacking the rights of a senior - who is safely driving - to do so.

[globaleconomicollaps]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State

Previously I used to be frustrated driving around elderly folks but nowadays its turned into pity for the state they are all in. Pardon me if I am wrong, I do not think they want to retain independence more than that there is none to help them out for bare necessities of life. I consider driving is the Most Dangerous activity I do everyday. Apropos, they should not be driving, period.

Driving License must be re-validated for everyone for a period of 5 years and may be every two years beyond 65 including driving vision testing. Would this take care of budget deficit ? Just kidding...

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=208065

Impaired Driving On Weed: An Answer


Bloomberg asks:

Here’s the problem with these laws: There are questions about how, and at what level, cannabis use impairs driving ability. For a patient in one of the 17 states where marijuana has been legalized for medicinal use, how are you to know when it’s legal to drive? After consuming marijuana, should you wait 12 hours to drive or one day? When will your THC level be below the 5-nanogram threshold? The answer is complicated.

Of course it's complicated.

It's complicated for alcohol use too. But we don't care. We're more interested in posting up big numbers of "busts", along with the fines, forfeiture, jailings and fees that all of this police-state tactical response produces. Roadblocks, random sobriety checkpoints and similar are more intended to "show force" than they are to actually get impaired drivers off the road.

If we manage to decrease the crash rate somewhat while applying the boot to the neck of the citizens then that's a nice side effect.

This is exactly backward.

There are already commercially-available reaction time testers that measure actual hand-eye coordination and thus impairment. They map very well to driving ability and are roughly like a small handheld video game.

Equipping police departments with these would provide actual evidence of impairment and be cause-neutral. Whether your impairment was caused by weed, booze, lack of sleep, prescription pills or simply old age, you either can react quickly enough to drive competently or you cannot.

The test is objective and maps to the actual skill required to operate at a reasonable level of safety.

This means, of course, that it would "catch" a lot of people who shouldn't be on the road but are, and many of them would be caught for reasons other than "intoxication" per-se. But this is how it should be -- we should be insisting on a basic level of ability irrespective of how it is achieved or what substance(s) you might have -- or not have -- in your body.

This has not been adopted by the States and local "peace officers" because we no longer have peace officers -- we now have "law enforcement" which is only interested in the public peace as a side effect rather than as the goal of their job.

As a nation, as a people, we can and must do better.

The jackbooted statist parties (Democrat and Republican) won't propose and work to pass this. They clearly consider public peace a side effect rather than a goal.

But the Libertarians have no excuse in this regard.

[doom&gloom]

Re: Driving in the Sunshine State