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This looks like it's going to be the week to get out there and take some spectacular fall scenery drives here in the Northeast. We had to drive from State College to Pittsburgh yesterday and the colors are really starting to come out. With expected temperatures in the 40's for the rest of the week (I had to scape the windshield twice already) the colors should explode this week...

We'll be making the return trip home from Richmond to State College, PA in a few hours and I'm looking forward to the wild ride as we tackle not one, but two loops. That Griffon roller coaster at Busch Gardens has nothing on the defensive driving I'll be engaged in on the Capital and Baltimore Beltways. Time for  a Sunday drive!

I'm taking the Alternate Route on the road for the next couple of days as we head down to Richmond, VA for an AAU basketball tournament. That means a short excursion on the Capital Beltway around D.C. sometime around 6PM...

Many states, Texas and Florida chief among them, have promoted the development of defensive driving courses. States have incentivised the private sector to develop these tuition based training facilities, by offering what amounts to moving violation credits. In many jurisdictions, this means you can have that speeding ticket wiped out in exchange for going to school...

I was talking to Vikki (pilot of the red Pete on your left) the other night, and she told a story that emphasizes a point I made in my CarSpace Guide Driving With The Big Rigs - specifically item number 4. Vik said she was hauling a piece of construction equipment on a flatbed.  She was slowing down for a traffic light when another vehicle not only changed into her lane, but did so while slowly coasting, causing Vik to really lay into the whoa pedal.  At that point, Vikki said she heard the terrifying sound of a tie-down chain snapping due to the change in weight transfer force.  "All I could think of was that bulldozer joining me in the cab," she said.  After a barrage of bad language into the CB, Vik pulled over and replaced the chain before proceeding. The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles includes the following stat in its driver's manual: - stopping distance including reaction time from 55 mph in a car is 190 feet - stopping distance including reaction time for a loaded tractor-trailer with hot brakes is 430 feet Before you make that lane change to "jockey for position" at the red light, make sure you have not cut the available stopping room for a much larger vehicle behind you.  Unless of course, you like the idea of potentially being pushed into an intersection of cross traffic at speed.  Or as in the situation Vikki had, if the other chains had not held, you could cause serious injury or death to a trucker without ever making vehicular contact.

In the July/August 2008 issue of Road King (a magazine dedicated to truckers and trucking), there's an article about actual road music.  I'm not talking about FM, satellite, CDs, or your iPod...  I mean sounds made by the road itself.  It was accidentally invented in Japan by a man who inadvertently scraped some pavement with a bulldozer.  When he drove over the grooves, he noted that it made  specific sounds. Researchers took the concept to the next level and there are now roads in Japan that are specifically grooved to create 30-second "music clips".  Such roads are marked with a big musical note on the pavement, as shown in the picture. Let's see...

Yes, that annual assault on the highway by families with freshly-dismissed-from-school kids in the backseat playing those corny road trip games or poking each other until a parent bellows "Don't make me come back there!" In the current issue of Road King magazine, there's an article reminding truckers that the assault is near, and to be careful of those drivers who may be in over their heads.  In the article, Roehl Transport's Brian Hammond, the orientation and driver development manager, mentions something I have been saying for ages... "[Hammond] often wonders why there aren’t similar licensing requirements for driving the RVs as there are for semi-truck drivers."  I don't know about you, but when I see some old guy trying to handle a full-size Winnebago on any road, I get FAR away from him.  If the stricter CDL is required for people who generally still have their reflexes, you have to wonder why retirees are allowed to pilot similar sized vehicles with just the ability to pay for the thing. If you are planning to partake to the roads this summer, keep the same things in mind the article advises truckers.  Expect everything.  Yes, that car will dart out in front of you.  Yes, that van will speed through the puddle and splash water 10 feet in the air before you can close your window.  Yes, your kids will only want burgers and fries the whole trip.  (OK< that last one really isn't a driving concern, unless you just passed a fast-food joint and the next exit with one is another 80 miles.) But above all, be patient.  If you're sitting in traffic like this, just relax.  Everyone around you is also sitting in that traffic and their need to move forward is no greater or lesser than yours.

Back in November, I made note of an upgrade to NJ's cell-phoning-while-driving law.  Driving and using a handheld cell phone would become a primary offense on March 1 2008, and it would be beefed with an anti-text-messaging ban as well. The results are in. In February 2008, the last month of the previous rules, NJ courts handled 1300 cell-phone tickets.  In March 2008, add another zero - thirteen thousand.  In fact, that's almost as many as the preceding 12 months (16,000 from March 2007 to February 2008)...

I took this picture this week from a window at work overlooking the parking lot. I've touched on this before in earlier blog posts, but this is getting ridiculous.  Why can't people park between the lines in a parking lot? Is it really that difficult?  Considering I can center my 96-inch-wide Dodge Ram dually in these spaces with no problem, why can't these much-narrower-car drivers figure out where their vehicle is?  I do something very simple when I park...  I open the window and look.  Then I spend the extra 30 seconds to re-straighten when needed.  And yes, I open the window in cold, rain,...

Defensive driving is predictable driving. When other drivers know what you’re going to do, it’s easy for them to keep a safe distance. On the other hand, when your actions behind the wheel take other drivers by surprise, they may not be able to react fast enough to avoid a collision...