You don’t have to be a 4WD owner to drive like a moron. Even Prius owners do it sometimes.
The other contender this week was red Mercedes TLH 385, zooming down Jasper Road with at least one indicator and brake light not working, tail-gating and generally driving like a maniac on Wednesday night.
Also seen this week: multi-level parking for bicycles.
I’ve been doing so little driving that it had been a full month since I’d bought petrol. But that came to an end the other night, when the fuel gauge was finally getting very close to the big E.
So I pulled into the nearest service station, a Shell. Despite what they’ve been up to over the years, I still have a soft spot for Shell; they were the petrol stations in the old Lego Town sets when I was growing up, before Octan took over.
I started filling up. Then I noticed I wasn’t pumping Unleaded, but something called Shell Unleaded 95.
Unleaded 95? What was it? 5% ethanol or something? No, that should have been cheaper, and this was actually 6 cents higher. Obviously it was still called Unleaded, so it couldn’t be too different, but what was I pumping into my car?
I pondered what to do. There was no normal Unleaded at this particular pump. And there was another car right behind me, so I couldn’t go back. I decided to try and play it safe and stop at $20 of fuel, then see how the engine reacted.
It seemed to drive okay, which was a relief. When I got home I Googled it. Turns out Unleaded 95 is also known as Shell Premium Unleaded, and is a high-octane version of conventional ULP, allegedly giving better performance.
Like I care. From reading the propaganda about it, I somehow doubt my old “bathtub on wheels” is getting any benefit out of it.
But hey, at least it didn’t screw-up my engine.
What’s the deal with those little car licence plates? Particularly on big cars which have plenty of space for normal licence plates. I seem to see them a lot on SS Commodores and 4WDs.
Surely the point of licence plates is to make cars easily identifiable, in which case allowing smaller plates where they’re not needed makes no sense. I can understand why cars with a smaller spot for the plates might need them (judging from the VicRoads web site they came about because of this being the case with some European models) but why on bigger cars?
Is a small plate on a big car a sign that the driver wants more stylish, minimalist plates, or thinks they stand less of a chance of their number being noted/photographed if they drive like an idiot? Hopefully camera and character recognition technology is such that it doesn’t really matter.
What “Keep left” sign?
Whatdyamean, “Keep Left”?
Tram stop? What tram stop?
It doesn’t apply to me.
I’ll go where I want.
(Sorry about the pic quality.)
With Easter almost upon us, the usual people are complaining in advance about how the price of petrol will shoot up when hordes of people take to the roads for the long weekend, with the oil companies mysteriously wanting to cash-in.
Well, duh. What do you expect? This is how the free-market economy works. And we (collectively) have made it this way. We’ve given the oil companies virtual control over our economy by spending up big on roads and cars for decades so most people are dependent on petrol. And the oil companies, in case nobody noticed, are private companies aiming to make a profit. We want petrol. We’re willing to pay more. So we do. Who can blame the companies involved for wanting to make a buck?
On the bright side, perhaps the prices dampen demand, reducing congestion and carbon emissions. Well, we can only hope.
(All that said, if I use up my half-a-tank and have to re-fill at $1.30-something, I’ll be spitting chips too.)
PS. Lunchtime. I noted a big queue in Haigh’s Chocolates as I walked past on the way to work this morning. I assume they don’t jack up their prices at Easter, though I guess they easily could. Oh, and those who’ve switched from petrol to LP Gas recently shouldn’t be smug today.
Bullbars have a legitimate use in some rural areas, where threats such as kangaroos and other wildlife can do significant damage to a car and its occupants.
In urban areas though, they’re a menace, significantly increasing the chances of injury and death to other car occupants, cyclists and pedestrians. Given that 90 percent of 4WDs never leave the bitumen, and many of these have bullbars, maybe it’s time that someone invented a strong, yet easily detachable bullbar which could be taken off the vehicle when it’s being used in suburban areas. Have a period of phasing out permanent ones, and then start fining people for using them in the cities.
(Alas I was not quick-witted enough yesterday to get a picture of the 4WD a lady had driven into the tram superstop in Collins Street. It’s times like these you want to go and knock on the window and ask if she’s going to West Preston or Box Hill, show a Metcard and help yourself to the passenger seat.)
Insurance companies are talking about reducing insurance premiums for people who don’t drive much, on the basis that they’re less likely to have accidents and cause pollution. I’m not sure why insurance companies inherently care about pollution, but bring it on!
But hey, I can say that — my average driving in the car has dropped to about 50km per week while Marita’s staying during her house renovations. Surely for it to be revenue neutral, it would mean people who drive a lot would see premium increases?
In fact there are arguments for also bringing rego costs down, with the income moved onto fuel taxes, which would not only help reduce driving, but also help reduce the use of inefficient cars.
Meanwhile Toyota has found that 90% of 4WDs never leave the bitumen. Are we really surprised by that one? But with petrol prices on the way back up, I suppose 4WD owners will be paying for it in dollars, even if most haven’t worked out yet that they’re also in more danger on the roads, particularly from single-vehicle accidents.
And at this point I might just note that last weekend I spotted:
Idiots come in all shapes and sizes.
I mean, okay, maybe you need the truck to do whatever work you’re doing in the adjacent shop. But why completely block the footpath with it, forcing people onto the street to get around it? How about finding an actual spot on the street?
Irritating enough for able-bodied pedestrians like me. Doubly irritating for people with kids and heavy shopping. Triple for prams, wheelchairs, the blind.