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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...

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...

Thanks, Vikki!

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)...

Is a truck stop parking lot full of independently owned rigs soon to be a thing of the past? This article was noted in the forums yesterday...  Independent truckers see end of the road Owner/Operators are definitely getting beat up by fuel prices, and they have no relief in sight.  On Feb 12 (as I noted a few blog posts down), I paid $3.239 for diesel at the Sunoco station I've been using since 1996.  This past Friday, the same station was at $3.599 - a 36 cent increase in 2 weeks. The O/Os quoted in the article have a point.  Trucks are still the primary mode of direct cargo delivery in the United States - a CSX locomotive doesn't pull up to your home with an overnight package or to the supermarket with that week's shelf stock.  Boeing 747s can't bring things like steel girders to a highway bridge construction site.  And if the economy and fuel prices force the independent truckers completely out of the picture, we will indeed be left with higher prices for everything if only a handful of large fleets remain...

Yesterday, there was a rather unusual weather front that passed through NJ... ahead of some heavy downpours of rain, the temps soared into the mid 70s.  Today. we're back down to the normal-for-February 30s...

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...

The younger you are, the easier it is to take technology for granted. Whether you are cynical or, like me, more easily entertained, I find mapping services like G-Maps or Mapquest simply astounding. The people who have brought together these tools over the last 10 years are brilliant...

In order to be courteous to a fellow human being, one first has to be aware of them… to notice the reality of them… isn’t that correct? The dictionary uses the locution “consideration toward others” to define politeness. Let’s consider this for a second, shall we?..