Weekly Short Stories: 1984 Science Fiction, Part 5

Today I continue reviewing 1984 science fiction short stories I read from the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Second Annual Collection.  Although for much of the 1984 I owned two (shabby) used cars, my preferred mode of transportation was the bicycle, and the kind of bicycle I preferred you'd never see in a race: strictly basic Wal-Mart material.  Nowadays I don't even own one, and if I did, I'd be a lot more concerned sharing the road with motorists distracted by their gadgets than I ever was about drunk drivers.  And now my reactions to the next eight stories in the book...

NEW ROSE HOTEL by William Gibson

Brutal cutthroat industrial espionage of the not-so-distant future reigns here as the narrator, one of the "spies", flees death from the opposition after his team's attempts to lure a crucial geneticist from one company to another go disastrously. His description of discount hotels as "coffin racks" with the "rooms" being "plastic capsules a meter high and three long, stacked like surplus Godzilla teeth"...oh yeah, sign me up, I want to live there!   

THE MAP by Gene Wolfe

Gardner Dozois is very big on Gene Wolfe, but his stories just don't resonate with me...here's another one. On a fantasy world of the distant future, there is the river Gyoll and the decaying, dead city of Nessus...and a map. The quest is on to find whatever it leads to, but betrayal, murder and frustration are its only fruits.  I see nothing science fiction here, and frankly, not much of a story...maybe you'll have better luck with it...

INTERLOCKING PIECES by Molly Gloss

A woman with a dire medical need of a cerebellum transplant (needless to say we're speaking of the future) uses her high position to gain access to the donor, a man with a certainty of death after he voluntarily rejects another heart transplant.  It is this need to contact and bond between donor and recipient that stands out in this brief tale...

TROJAN HORSE by Michael Swanwick

Elin is a scientist whose brain was damaged during an experiment done in Earth orbit.  She has received a personality transplant...yes, I know this sounds weird...and is recuperating on the moon in a terraformed area under a dome, complete with a lake.  There is a woman, Cleo, living there and she had a similar transplant...and now she thinks she's God.  How she, Elin, and their mutual acquaintance, Tory...a "wetware" surgeon who is involved in both of their cases...relate forms the core of this story in which I, the reader, had some trouble discerning what was real and what wasn't, not always a good sign... 

BAD MEDICINE by Jack Dann

One of my favorite pieces so far from this anthology, this story is all about Native American traditions and religion, with Stephen, a white "seeker" kind of dude dabbling in different projects, agrees to go with his Indian friend John to where one of John's friends is undergoing a special ritual.  Part of the preliminaries involves everyone sitting in a confined, painfully-hot place called a sweat-lodge...it is here that the resentments and grudges building between some of the participants come to a head. An interesting story, but more along the lines of Stephen King's horror genre than standard science fiction...

AT THE EMBASSY CLUB by Elizabeth A. Lynn

This is a brief tale about caste systems, racism, and misogyny...especially toward young women, a clear analogy to some present-day regions in the world and their social structures.  A diplomat from Earth falls in love with a girl on Tanderai...one of those brutally stratified societies...and the two each undergo the consequences of their romance. Great ending, although crossing forbidden class lines between lovers isn't exactly a novel idea for a story...

PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE by Rena Yount

A few weeks ago I wrote a generally unread blog article titled "People Magnets" that describe how certain folks seem to automatically be set apart from others in terms of their looks and opportunities...this story transfers it all to a dreary science fiction future in which people pay through the nose for their offspring to be genetically engineered for looks, intellect, athletics, or whatever their interest is for them.  In turn, the bioengineered get all the good jobs and run society over the "norms", like Evelyn who wants her planned daughter to be bioengineered and neglects her own bright-but-normal son in the process.  Aside from another story about the "beautiful people", this is a disturbing study about how parents can become excessively obsessed about what they want their children to become...

THE KINDLY ISLE by Fredrick Pohl

On a Caribbean resort island, a large hotel has been shut down for years...a company has sent a representative to assess the place for purchase and renovation possibilities.  While there he discovers the presence of a missing scientist formerly involved in biological warfare research.  How these two stories come together steer the course of the story to the ending...for which its title is quaintly apt: another plate of lobster, please, for the sake of humanity...

Next week: more about 1984 stories from the Dozois anthology...

Our Chicago Visit to Its Museum of Science and Industry

Melissa, Will, and I on our final full day visiting Chicago, Illinois last month decided to divide it between exploring their Museum of Science and Industry and experiencing the top of Willis (formerly Sears) Tower.  We got on the Metra line...separate from the Chicago Transit Authority trains...to take us to the Hyde Park area south of downtown, where the University of Chicago lies to the west and Jackson Park, the site of our museum destination as well as a short strip of Lake Michigan beach, on the east side of our rail station.  On the train the conductor...unlike on the C.T.A. rails...punched our tickets like Tom Hanks did on The Polar Express, but alas, no words like "Believe" or "Learn" appeared on them.  And dang it, no hot chocolate either...but I still liked the more traditional train ride experience.  At the museum we first descended to a lower floor where the story of the U.S. Navy's capture of an intact Nazi German U-Boot (U-505) in August 1944 during World War II was elaborately presented...after the war they even took their prize around the country for display.  Then we entered a large room where we discovered the actual submarine...much, much bigger than I had imagined it to be (see first photo).  The Museum of Science and Industry has a lot of different areas to explore...we had to pick and choose, watching a planetarium-style presentation of what it's like to be hit by a tornado, reliving the great Apollo 8 moon flyby in 1968 with the spacecraft itself on display, exhibits about elements of life prolongation, the innovation of vertical urban farms, different types of bicycles (including an inexpensive-but-resilient cardboard bike, description in second photo), genetics (including a display showing newly-hatched chicks), the history of transportation, and electricity...to name a few.  There were countless stations for visitors to interact with, and we felt that...as was the case with our Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian museum visits last October...a full appreciation that what this place has to offer required a much greater investment of time than we were able to make...

After leaving the museum, before returning to our Metra rail station, the three of us walked eastward to the beach area, which you can see in the third and fourth pictures.  Melissa said that Lake Michigan was very cold...not surprising...but there still were folks out in the water enjoying it all while a lifeguard watched over them.  At least with their fresh water they didn't have sharks, although rip current presents a danger there as it does on our Atlantic beaches.  We made our way back to the station and decided to have dinner at a downtown restaurant that Melissa's friend had recommended: The Walnut Room, on an upper floor within Macy's.  As we were seated for what would be an excellent meal, I looked southward out the window and, lo and behold, on the building across from us was a huge, beautiful mural of the late blues great Muddy Waters, finished three years ago by Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra...spectacular, of course my final photo is of that mural...

Later in the evening we three trudged on down the road to Willis Tower...sightseeing like this in Chicago was greatly aided by the fact that we all are seasoned walkers.  Besides, there's usually more to see and experience when you're moving more slowly.  I'll write about Willis Tower in a future article...

A Walk Through Chicago's Wicker Park

Wicker Park is a small commercial and residential area of Chicago, surrounding a little triangular park of the same name and located a little to the northwest of the downtown area, just west of I-90. Melissa and I probably would have missed it on our recent visit here were it not for our son Will, who made the journey with us, mentioning a few places he wanted to check out there.  It's a place known for attracting hipsters and being a little counterculture in nature, not exactly Greenwich Village but more working class.  After our excellent Architecture Tour on the morning of Monday August 12th, we got on the C.T.A. Blue train at Lake and Clarke and rode to Wicker Park, getting off at the Damen Avenue station.  Like myself, Will digs bookstores and coffee shops, so we checked out Quimby's on North Street and Myopic on Milwaukee Avenue for their books, after which we stopped off at Wormhole Coffee further down Milwaukee.  Quimby's Books more or less specialized in radical and counterculture-themed books and was big on poetry as well...I imagine that it would be the kind of place that the Goth Kids on South Park would hang out at.  Myopic, on the other hand, was loaded with many, many used books, fiction and nonfiction, and reminded me of the sorely-missed Book Gallery on Main Street many years ago in Gainesville...now that kind of bookstore I could relate to.  Wormhole was cool, the coffee was good, the alternative rock music was good and loud, and the barista there recommended Handlebar, a vegetarian restaurant further west on North, as a good place for lunch.  Handlebar's food was great, although I'm not a vegetarian.  I ordered their sloppy joe and a side of chili...both meatless and delicious.  After lunch the rain began to fall and we made it back to the train station before needing to take out our umbrellas...

Wicker Park...at least the North Street and Milwaukee Avenue section we walked through...seemed more to be oriented for tourists as the sidewalks were full of people who were obviously visitors and not just residents.  I imagine that Chicago has a lot of little enclaves like this, each with its own personality and attraction...but we simply did not have the time to explore around.  The brick buildings in various shades of brown were a lot shorter than the downtown Loop's skyscrapers, so for a change of scenery and atmosphere Wicker Park suited us just fine...

Our Recent Chicago Mass Transit Experience

After our recent visit to Marion, Indiana to celebrate Melissa's graduation, we set out across northern Indiana westward to Chicago.  Getting ourselves to southwestern Chicago's Midway International Airport to return our rental car involved some challenging driving through heavy traffic...Melissa was behind the wheel at this time and did an admirable job pulling off a most difficult task.  Once we were in the airport, though, the process almost effortlessly sped us forward as the Chicago Transit Authority, better known as C.T.A., had an onsite rail station for the Orange line, which quickly transported us to our hotel in the city's downtown "loop".  The only difficulties we had were first figuring out how to get our C.T.A. passes from one of the station's vending machines...an employee graciously and patiently walked us through it all.  And then, once that Orange train dropped us off a couple of blocks from our hotel, we had to work on orienting ourselves and finally set off in the right direction after a couple of false turns.  The next day we used our three-day C.T.A. passes to take the Blue line northwest to the Wicker Park area, which some believe is a Chicago attempt to somewhat emulate the Bohemian atmosphere of New York's famed Greenwich Village...skeptics might disagree with their success if that was what they were trying to do.  Then later that day we rode the Red line to a location where we boarded a free trolley to the Navy Pier.  On Wednesday we rode back to the same airport on the Orange line...had we been going to O'Hare we would have again used Blue.  The C.T.A. lines were much like the Washington, D.C. Metro...very fast-paced, a very scary looking track pit with electrically-charged rails, and no ticket punching or conductors in sight.  Tuesday we went to Chicago's Museum of Science and Technology via a different rail system, the Metra, boarding at the intersection of Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue and riding a more traditional train... with real conductors and punched tickets to and from our destination.  Besides the two extensive rail systems is an even more extensive bus system that we never got around to using during our limited stay there.  I was very impressed with it all, yet I realized that unlike getting around in Manhattan, where the constraints of space drastically restrict practical personal car travel, Chicago's downtown area has plenty of parking garages and lots of general automobile traffic...

One of my most vivid movie memories was the scene at the beginning of The Blues Brothers when Jake and Elwood Blues are trying to get some sleep in their ramshackle Chicago apartment...right next to an overland transit train line...with hilarious results when one passes close by.  A stretch of downtown Lake Street has the line likewise going above ground, and the trains loudly thunder through as in the movie...don't think I'd want to live on that street, either.  Another thing I noticed about riding the C.T.A. trains was how obviously-experienced riders would just calmly stand there not holding onto anything while the train would violently jerk as it started and stopped...at the same time I would be holding on tightly to the bar desperately struggling to maintain my balance....

I like the Chicago mass transit system, although as I mentioned before, were I actually living there I'd might as well just drive around in my own car.  But for brief guests to the city such as Melissa, Will, and me, it was refreshing to shed the burdens of driving and parking...then again, we all dig walking, something some other people might not find as enjoyable...

Gainesville's West 34th Street

West 34th Street is an interesting road in Gainesville.  It is my most traveled street, since my workplace is on it at the most southern point of the city...while my subdivision lies at Gainesville's far north.  The distance from my house to my office is eight miles, and in years gone by (from 1989 to 1995) I've ridden my bicycle to and from work on it numerous times.  Although I feel I'm still in good enough shape to resume this activity, I no longer trust other drivers to stay focused on the road and not on their "devices".  Yes, I've recently seen too many instances of cars in front of me veering off the road into the adjacent bike lane and I picture myself getting run over on my bicycle were I there.  Of course, there have always been distracted drivers, and besides, especially when on the road at night, there is always the risk of encountering alcohol-impaired drivers.  But even many drivers who have been drinking, in my opinion, usually don't pose as much of a risk as those who can't stop texting or checking their Facebook page while driving.  Still, it might be fun to get my wheels out again and try the old route every now and then...

Gainesville's West 34th Street is a section of State Route 121, a most curious state route.  Out of Gainesville and going south-southwest, it runs through Williston and eventually out to the Gulf of Mexico.  Northward from our fair city, it passes on into Georgia a few miles west of Jacksonville and then continues on as Georgia State Route 121.  But that's not all: after winding its way through the southeastern part of that state, this road crosses over into South Carolina...and, you guessed it, becomes South Carolina State Route 121!.  I'd like to say that it goes on and on like that, but just south of the border with North Carolina, approaching Charlotte, this very, very long road finally comes to an end...

If you are from out of town, you may have heard of the "Wall" on the east side of SW 34th Street just south of SW 2nd Avenue that various people over the years, mainly students, continually paint messages over...with one exception: the names of the five victims of the student murders in 1990 continue to be permanently displayed and honored on it...and in the street median facing that wall are five trees, each with a sign featuring the name of a victim.  This stretch of road, which is on the slope of a small hill, is also part of the Five Points Marathon/Half-Marathon and I've run down it three times...in 2010, 2014, and 2015...and plan to add to that list next February.  Also, further north lies Westside Park, the site of several races I've run...including the last one, July Fourth's Melon Run.  Going back south of the "Wall", about a half-mile down the road, is the Florida Museum of Natural History and the UF Harn Center for the Performing Arts...which incidentally is the starting and finishing point for those aforementioned Five Points races...

Although West 34th Street is a major city thoroughfare for Gainesville, my city's public transit service, which is continually boasting of all its routes and accessibility, has steadfastly refused over the years to add a route going down this important, well-traveled road.  If they ever did, I would definitely ride it...especially if I could ride home on it late at night after getting off from work...

Gainesville Needs a Bus Route Spanning West 34th Street

Florida's State Route 121 is a pretty interesting stretch of road.  For one, its name transcends state lines: as you go north on it into Georgia, you find yourself driving down Georgia State Route 121.  Then, as you keep going on, across the Georgia/South Carolina state line, you're then on South Carolina State Route 121.  It finally ends just a few miles south of the North Carolina border, not far from Charlotte.  Usually, the numbers of state routes change from state to state, but SR 121 goes through three of them.  It also goes straight through my home town of Gainesville, Florida, with the more commonly used name of West 34th Street. 

I live just a couple of blocks from Northwest 34th Street, in far northern Gainesville.  My workplace is on the far southern fringe of Gainesville, but on the same street: Southwest 34th Street (SR 121).  This is a very important, heavily traveled road that connects the northern to the southern part of the city.  Yet in the 37 years I have lived here, my city bus service has deliberately avoided servicing a giant area surrounding the middle part of this crucial traffic artery.  Instead of there being a route that goes straight up and down West 34th Street, one has to plot a very circuitous route to get from the north to the south (or the reverse) on it.  For example, were I to take the city bus from near my home to where I work, both of which lie on the same street, I would end up taking an hour and a half to cover the 7.5 miles on the bus.  Simply driving my car, though, is about a 20-minute proposition.  Guess which choice I make?  Even when I ride my bicycle, it only takes about 40-45 minutes max, and I own a very cheap, ramshackle bicycle!  But wait...even if I ran down 34th Street to my destination, I'd still beat out the bus!

My city bus service goes out of its way to cater to the University of Florida student needs...I don't mind that because they pay for it up front with their fees.  But permanent Gainesville residents should have a say in the route and schedule creation process as well.  Were there a route that just ran up and down West 34th Street, I would make liberal use of it, to the point where I would definitely purchase a long-term pass.  With the current situation, nobody wins...

Interstate Road Closure Warning Largely Ignored

Yesterday my drive back from Hollywood to Gainesville, a distance of about 350 miles, was uneventful, and in the good sense of the word.  I was careful to avoid long stretches of driving, frequently stopping for coffee, food, gas, and even once the beach.  Except for a stretch of a severe rainstorm around Naples, the weather cooperated as well.  And the road, despite being plagued (or blessed, depending on your perspective) by Florida Highway Patrol squad cars laying in ambush for speeders every few miles, presented no problems with closures or detours.  Not, at least, until the very end of my journey, with me already almost back in Gainesville...

I usually leave I-75 in Gainesville at exit #390, which is the northernmost exit in town.  I was just approaching the exit immediately preceding it (#384) when I noticed a sign, with a Highway Patrol parked nearby with its blue lights flashing, warning that the Interstate was closed past this exit and that I would have to get off here and follow a detour.  I dutifully took note and left then.  As I was going down the exit ramp, though, I looked over and noticed that hardly anyone else was following the warning, instead choosing to drive on.  Then I looked ahead down the Interstate and saw the traffic, clearly backed up and at a grinding halt, going nowhere in a big hurry.  And I thought to myself, this is the epitome of distracted driving: signs warn you, a police car is out there trying to attract your attention, and you can even clearly see, just by looking ahead of you down the road, that it is hopelessly backed up.  And yet you still go on, like lemmings over a cliff!

I later found out that an overturned truck had shut down I-75 between exits 384 and 390, something that I had already suspected.  But I'm still scratching my head at the blind stupidity of some drivers.  I suppose the only way they would have left at the indicated exit is if the road ahead were physically closed off to them.  But there obviously hadn't been enough time to accomplish this.  Hence the largely ignored sign and flashing squad car...

I-75 Now My Preferred Route to S. Florida over Turnpike

For my drive down to Hollywood near Miami, I have completely abandoned the Florida Turnpike in favor of the more lengthy, but also more pleasant western route of I-75. I am presently sitting at a Starbucks just east of Tampa, in a pretty cool shopping area.  It suits me much more than those "islands" on the Turnpike like Okahumka, Fort Drum, or Canoe Creek. Besides, I'm not fishing around for money to give away just for the privilege of driving down that road.

The last time I took the Turnpike to South Florida, I left it as soon as I got into Fort Pierce and could easily switch over to I-95, the eastern route in the state.  And coming back northward home to Gainesville, I had opted on my last two visits for I-75.  So it's pretty set for me that this is the way to go from now on (unless I begin to fly down)...

Sidewalks Not All They're Cracked Up to Be

I have a problem with sidewalks. They are supposed to be relatively safe paths for pedestrians to travel down, away from the dangers of street traffic. But the fact that most sidewalks are concrete, with cracks, makes them dangerous in themselves. Especially to those with various disabilities that limit their mobility. I'm thinking chiefly of the blind, near-blind, and elderly feeble. With the elderly a bad fall, because of their aged, brittle bones, can have a fatal cascading effect, and a bad fall can be as close as the next crack in a supposedly safe sidewalk. Cracks are put there to keep the expanding concrete intact, but what often happens is that shifts in the underlying ground will cause one segment of the sidewalk to lift slightly in relation to the next, causing a tripping hazard where the two segments meet. But one doesn't need to have a disability to be in danger: I have come close to some pretty awful falls myself while running on sidewalks.

And I don't know why concrete is used for sidewalks, anyway. Why not make all sidewalks from the same asphalt generally used for streets? That material, which incidentally is much softer of a surface to walk or run on than concrete, is not subject to the same cracking under pressure and thus doesn't require built-in cracks.

Last year (and into January this year), part of my long-distance training course involved running on sidewalks part of the way. I will not be doing this again, though. I must take care of my body and try to prevent injuries, especially to my feet, legs, and knees. It makes me wince to see others pounding down sidewalks while jogging, especially when I know that they have alternatives to this. I know at least that I won't be wincing at myself!

Gainesville Still Not Bicycle-Friendly

Except for a brief period in 1987, I have lived in Gainesville, Florida since 1977. For most of that time I extensively used bicycle travel either for basic transportation, exercise, or leisure. I have recently been increasing my bicycle riding, largely in part due to a leg injury that sidelined me from running for a while. If there's anyone in Gainesville familiar with the road conditions for bicyclists, then I'm that one. And I sadly have to say that, in spite of this town's boasting of being so bicycle-friendly, it has a long, long way to go before I can agree with that assertion.

It is true that Gainesville has its share of bike paths, but upon closer examination those paths tend to encourage north-south travel and are noticeably lacking in an east-west direction through the central portion of the city. The major east-west roads running through the city's center, i.e. University Avenue/Newberry Road, North 8th Avenue, North 16th Avenue, and North 23rd Avenue, are all deficient in bicycle paths. It is hazardous for bicyclists to employ these routes. Instead, one has to go north to 39th or 53rd Avenue or south to Archer or Williston Road to be able to travel down bicycle paths east-west. Lately there has been much discussion about proposals to make a bike path down NW 16th Avenue, but there is a significant level of opposition to any change.

Part of this opposition arises from the notion that spending public funds for bike paths is a waste of money since not that many people use bicycles as transportation. I find this argument circular: a lot of people don't use bicycles as transportation because there aren't the needed bike paths to make them feel safe! Another part of the opposition is more cultural: the country/rural "Deep South" culture is embedded in this area and tends to regard those choosing bicycle travel as being effete and highbrow. Then, there are also many thousands of university students from other parts of the state and country who are wed to their cars and have neither patience for bicyclists nor any desire to share the road with them. Finally, there is this strange, perverse notion that I have noticed among drivers that somehow being behind a wheel in a motorized vehicle makes their lives more legitimate than that of a bicyclist who is just as legally entitled to a place on the public street.

So I am still not at all satisfied with how far my Gainesville has gone to promote bicycle travel by creating strategically-located bicycle lanes. You don't have to put one down every road; just give bicyclists a way to design a course that allows them to reach their destinations without imperiling themselves at the hands of careless, selfish, and inattentive drivers!

Governor Scott Nixes Strange High-Speed Rail Plan

Whenever my sister travels by car from her home near Dallas, Texas to my father's home near Miami, Florida, she spends a very long time within Florida. As a matter of fact, she thinks that most of this cross-country trip occurs within Florida's state boundaries! Which brings up an important point: Florida may not be the largest state, but for its size it has to be the most elongated state. This makes traveling from one end of the state to the other something of an ordeal. For those either living in south Florida or visiting it often, that highly-populated area can be seen as rather isolated from the rest of the state. For that reason, high-speed rail sounds like a reasonable way to connect that area to the rest of the state. And we just had a federally-funded plan for high-speed rail here in Florida. But...

The plan was for this to be America's first truly high-speed rail, destined for opening in 2015 and funded through federal stimulus money. But then teabagger Rick Scott came along and squeaked his way into the governor's seat in a very close election last November. And one of his first actions as governor was to reject federal funding for the project and scrap it outright. What a jerk, right? But...

The $2.6 billion-planned high-speed railway was to be built spanning two central Florida cities: Tampa and Orlando. Two cities that are only 84 miles apart! C'mon, I live in Gainesville and have no trouble driving the 100-plus miles to either city. And Miami, which is about 340 miles from my home? Well, south Florida hasn't had any political clout in Florida since Bob Graham left the Senate. Never mind that a Miami-Tampa or Miami-Orlando high-speed rail system would have closed the distance gap and been used much more heavily: it obviously would have entailed a greater financial investment, and we're supposed to do everything nowadays on a shoestring budget. So now we have nothing.

I have many problems with teabagger Scott being my governor, but the fact is that he is my governor. This is at least one decision he has made that I agree with, though. But his reasons may not have been my reasons. After all, I'm sure that he couldn't care less whether Miami ever got high-speed rail access to the rest of the state. For that matter, I'm not sure that he could care less if Miami just slid into the sea...

Gainesville Traffic Circles

During the past few years, my current home town of Gainesville has fallen head-over-heels in love with the concept of traffic circles, having them inserted all over town in various types of traffic flow. There are large circles and small circles, each demonstrated here by a photograph. There is supposedly a two-fold rationale behind the "drive" for circles. One, they are supposed to enhance safety and reduce accidents. Two, they are supposed to enhance the flow of traffic and reduce stops.


As far as safety is concerned, perhaps there are statistics out there which imply that traffic circles are superior to traditional intersections in preventing accidents. But in a relatively large circle, such as the one pictured above, pedestrians and bicyclists are in a precarious position when trying to cross the street. In a traditional intersection with stop signs or a traffic light, a pedestrian can take advantage of the signs and signals to safely cross in front of stopped traffic. Not so with a circle, where they often have to walk out of their way, look very carefully, cross their fingers, and sprint across! Note the crosswalk in the photograph, a few paces away from the circle. Cars are supposed to yield to pedestrians here, but in practice they are in a relatively blind position coming out of the circle and are accelerating.

Being in a small circle has a different drawback. Cars entering circles are supposed to travel to the circle's right. This means that a driver wanting to turn left would have to go three quarters of the way around. In a large circle, this is obvious. But with a small circle, such as the one pictured below, I see as the general practice cars simply turning to the left in front of the circle. Now if there is another car entering the circle from the opposite direction, this creates the potential for a head-on collision.


Regarding the argument for enhanced and speedier traffic flow, I would agree with the use of larger circles. But one problem I have observed is that cars, instead of approaching the circle by cautiously slowing down, will often speed up to insert themselves in the circle between other cars. Not exactly safe! In those areas with small circles, traffic is usually pretty light. Here, four-way stop signs would do just as well while reducing confusion.

I understand and appreciate the efforts of those who want to improve our system of traffic with innovations, such as the traffic circle. But this innovation can often lead to confusion and leave out important considerations for pedestrian traffic.

Waldo and Lawtey: Speed Traps?

Recently, I've had the occasion to drive back and forth between Gainesville and Jacksonville a few times. On the way to Jacksonville, I hit US-301 in Waldo (a few miles northeast of Gainesville) and drive to I-10, which takes me into Jacksonville. Along US-301 there are two towns, Waldo and Lawtey, that have been designated as "speed traps" by the American Automobile Association. There are even billboards outside each city warning motorists that they are speed traps. But are they really?

Both Waldo and Lawtey are small, sleepy towns (especially Lawtey) that have that one major federal highway running through them. US-301 is a major road connecting Jacksonville with central Florida. Large semi-trucks continually thunder down it. It is normal for the speed limit in the countryside to be 65 mph. But within the city, it's necessary to bring it down (in Waldo to 35 mph and in Lawtey to 45 mph). Gainesville certainly does this with US-441, with a 30 mph speed limit in the University of Florida area. The only problem with Waldo and Lawtey is that drivers tend to ignore the reduced speed limit signs and speed through these towns, which are only trying to protect their own people.

Lawtey and Waldo have statistically handed out more tickets for their population than have surrounding communities. But a Waldo policeman, recently interviewed, stated that they don't pull drivers over unless they are driving more than 10 mph over the speed limit. And there are a series of signs on each side of both Lawtey and Waldo clearly warning of the coming reduced speed limit, as well as a clear statement: "speed limit strictly enforced".

Critics of these two towns argue that they are taking advantage of their strategic location along US-301 to nab passing motorists for the purpose of increasing their own revenue. And while the result make accomplish this aim, I believe that they are completely justified in enforcing their speed limit laws.

It is very frustrating to me, as a driver, to decelerate upon entering small towns along major highways while cars around me plow on through at the same speed, as if they were on the Interstate Highway System. It is even more than frustration when I witness drivers of large trucks doing this. If I were a citizen of Lawtey or Waldo, I would stand up in applause for their policies. Instead of them lightening up on their enforcement of speed laws within their boundaries, other cities in the area should emulate them and also strictly enforce speed limits. Not if someone is going just a little over the limit. But those cases when drivers hurtle through, not respecting the importance of slowing down through populated municipalities, should be enforced. Regardless of whatever the AAA says (or however many billboards opponents put up). Perhaps if this were the norm instead of the exception, we would see a reduction in traffic accidents and fatalities.

People these days are way too impatient in most everything they do. They are in a big, big, hurry to get from Point A to Point B. Not that they won't completely waste their time once they get to Point B! But God help anybody who slows them down one iota!

Put Self In the Other's Place

Sometimes, when I turn left at a traffic light with a lead signal, the right-turnoff lane has a car in it that is just itching to turn, even though it still has a red light (in Florida, right turns on red, after first stopping, are generally legal). When the street that both of us turning on has one lane available, that car simply has to wait. But when there are two lanes, the car turning left is supposed to take the left-most lane and the car turning right can take the right lane. But often, a car turning left in this situation may need to quickly get into the right-hand land. This happens so often that, when I am in the position of the car at the red light wanting to turn right, I habitually wait for all of the cars with the lead to finish turning left. Perhaps in a strict legal sense, the lane I would directly turn on to is available to me. But regardless of the law, in ambiguous situations like this, the best policy is for me to put myself into the place of the other driver and ask myself how I would then like to treated. Simply employing a little courtesy and offering to yield to others can not only defuse frustration and road rage on the part of those other drivers: it can prevent accidents! And it will put myself into a more reasonable, patient mindset as well.

Over the course of a day, we find ourselves in many different types of interactions with others. Each interaction has a type of etiquette that, if not followed, has the potential to offend someone. And since people come from all walks of life and different cultural backgrounds, sometimes it’s not easy to figure out the best course of action in different situations. Once again, when this happens, like in my previous traffic example, the best policy is to just put ourselves in the place of the other and then act according to how we would like to be treated. I believe that simple courtesy is a universally understood and appreciated commodity. Exercising it would go a lot longer toward furthering the interests of world peace than marching up and down a street carrying a protest sign.

And when someone comes up with complaints and accusations against us, we naturally like to react automatically in a defensive and assertive manner. Without giving up that right to defend ourselves, may I suggest throwing into that “automatic reaction” mix the idea of trying to see things through the other guy’s eyes as well?

Interstate-75 Entrance Ramp Gripe

At Exit 390 of Interstate-75 (at NW 39th Avenue in Gainesville, Florida), the southbound entrance ramp lies alongside the southbound exit ramp. There is a big sign saying “WRONG WAY” for the benefit of anyone accidentally trying to enter I-75 South using the exit ramp. Only one problem: the warning sign is clearly visible to everyone correctly using the entrance ramp as well, creating the false impression that they are going the wrong way! You would think that they could have either placed this sign in a place that was hard to see from the entrance ramp or placed a flap on the side of the sign that would have blocked it from view (of correctly-entering drivers). I’ve seen this sort of thing in other places as well. I am used to this entrance, but other drivers aren’t. It can make for a very confusing situation for some. I for one would not relish the thought of being about to enter a freeway with traffic barreling down it at 70+ miles per hour, head-on in the wrong direction. But that’s the message this foolish sign placement conveys! I would have thought that simple common sense would have dictated that you don’t put a “wrong way” sign in a place where people going the “right way” can see it!

Adaptability of Humanity

The other day, I saw one of my old Twilight Zone favorite episodes: To Serve Man, written by Richard Matheson (it also came out as a short story). The gist of this story is that aliens landed on Earth and had all of the answers to the pressing human problems of the time, particularly in the areas of war and food. And they presented their high-tech solutions to humanity as gifts! Within weeks, while the Earth became covered with a web of alien-”manned” stations, the entire human race became complacent and dependent upon the newcomers. Even to the point of embarking on vacations and research trips to other worlds on their spaceships. The episode’s protagonist, toward the end of the story, reflected to his partner how quickly humanity adapted to new things and incorporated them into what they called “normal”. And that hit me as one of the more profound things I’ve heard from this series.

In 1969, when Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, the whole world watched in wonder. By Apollo 14 few were paying attention, walking on the Moon having become passé. In the nineties, when Clinton was President, having the life of even one American soldier in peril was regarded as a national news event. How quickly people got used to hearing about the rising casualty figures during the Bush years!

And look at how quickly people are adapting to new technology that speeds everything up and interconnects us with multimedia! Eager customers camp out overnight to buy an I-Pod and find out a few weeks later that there are better products available. How quickly large segments of our population got used to the Internet in the late nineties, and then how quickly the laptop computer became a required piece of equipment for college students! If you’re riding the wave of technology, this may seem pretty cool. But if you are on the outside looking in, it looks as if the world is passing you by.

It is easy, with the seeming omnipresence of computers and the Internet, to simply assume that everyone has access to them and uses them. But many people do not use computers at home, and many have no intention of ever starting! Even among those who do, there is the constant pressure to upgrade in order to keep up with the latest innovations.

The idea that we can possess machines that speed things up and open up opportunities for us to reach out, either through communications or transportation, should make those who benefit from them happier, wouldn’t you think? But, since humans are such an adaptable species, what happens instead is that people adjust to the new reality and as a result just become more impatient and demanding. I remember when most of the cars on the road had standard transmissions, requiring a clutch pedal and manual changing of gears. At an intersection, when the light turned green, everyone would go through the gradual buildup of speed that standard transmissions required. But with the advent (and eventual dominance) of automatic transmissions, drivers now simply react with impatient annoyance to any manual-shift drivers they find themselves behind.

I wonder, if the global warming phenomenon keeps worsening, whether people will finally band together to heroically solve the problem. Or will they just adapt to the worsening situation as it develops, treating it as “normal”? Sadly, it looks as if the latter may be our destiny! Wouldn’t it be the ultimate paradox if, as was the case in To Serve Man, our adaptability turned out to be our downfall!!

Flying Cars and Chairs

Many years ago, on Art Bell’s late night radio show, I heard a story about a man living in the Los Angeles area who wanted to fly. Only he wasn’t a pilot and had no plans to be an airplane or helicopter passenger, either! No, instead he got a lawn chair and a bb gun. Then he tied several helium balloons to the chair and strapped himself into it with a belt. This individual then released his contraption with him in it. And it rose. And rose. And rose. And rose. Before too long, he was several thousand feet up in the air, drifting downwind for miles! I’m not sure how long this odyssey lasted, but this man finally began to use his bb gun to gradually bring the chair down by carefully shooting one balloon at a time. And from what I heard, he did successfully land! Have any of you heard of this incident? Or is it just an urban legend?

I don’t see why one would necessarily have to sit in a chair to perform this feat. It seems to me that one could rig up an apparatus on their back and attach the balloons to it, instead. Then, the experience would be more like parachute riding in reverse!

Sometimes I wonder why we aren’t living in that futuristic society predicted in the not-so-distant past, where, instead of being bound to the ground, people would be driving airborne cars instead. But then I look around me and see how people drive “on the ground” and am instantly shaken back into reality. The only way I see this “flying cars” system happening in the future is if the second-to-second control of the car is handled through computers, with the passengers more-or-less just sitting back and enjoying the ride. And I understand this technology is already available on the ground!

Bicycling

When I was a kid, I was not a bicycle rider. We had one old bike in our utility room, which I sometimes practiced trying to ride in the back yard. But it wasn’t until I was seventeen that I actually purchased an inexpensive bicycle (all of the bikes I’ve had were very cheap) and began riding around. And for the next twenty-some odd years, I was hooked on riding bicycles.

Like I said, I never invested much money in bicycling, nor did I ever join a bicycling club. So, some others might say that I wasn’t “serious” about this hobby. But I saw bicycling as more than a fun activity: it was a totally legitimate form of transportation that I often used for going back and forth to work, school, shopping as well as for enjoying the outdoors. There is a certain take on life that one gets when riding slow enough for the surrounding scenery to imprint itself more deeply, both in terms of sight, sounds, and smells. A bicyclist has the opportunity not only to look around at things off from the road much more than a motorist: he or she can also stop “on a dime” and get off the bike to explore a suddenly interesting area that comes up. Or just walk the bicycle though (and park in) areas that no motor vehicles are allowed. Also, in the past I’ve enjoyed riding my bicycle past long lines of stationary traffic, whether due to rush hour conditions or for a University of Florida football game (or Gator Growl, their annual homecoming pep rally/show).

I am glad that my home town of Gainesville, Florida is a relatively bicycle-aware community that has invested a lot in make the town bicycle-friendly, especially with its bike-paths. But I’ve noticed during the past few years that we seem to be plagued with an increasing amount of aggressive motorists whose actions dramatically increase the danger of accidents to bicyclists. Distracted drivers, another increasingly disturbing phenomenon, often weave off the road and onto specially designated bicycle lanes. It can get a little scary these days riding along the side of the road on a two-wheeler!

For the past few years, I haven’t ridden my bicycle very much. Part of this is due to the exigencies of living, but part is also due to just getting out of the habit. Bicycling is a very good cardiovascular activity that can build up leg stamina as well, without exposing the legs and feet to the strains and potential injury that other higher impact activities like running carry with them. I’m thinking of getting my old bike out and riding around a bit (while being very wary of the local aggressive and distracted motorists). But although running can be a bit of a shock to the body, I’m continuing with that as well.

Minnesota Bridge Collapse

The day before yesterday, during early evening rush hour traffic, the I-35W bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, suddenly collapsed, dropping traffic on it sixty feet down to the river and into it. As of this writing, searches for bodies are still ongoing, but there are already four confirmed deaths in this terrible tragedy, with the number expected to rise. When something like this happens somewhere, it’s not just a local problem, but one that has national ramifications. The Interstate Highway System, begun under the Eisenhower Administration during the 1950s and constructed over the next twenty-some-odd years, is beginning to age. And, other than resurfacing, or repairs to obviously damaged sections (the area of I-75 that runs through Gainesville is especially prone to sinkholes), what has really been done to assure that the integrity of these roads has withstood the long march of time? In particular, what about the countless overpasses one crosses, not just going down one of these Interstate Routes, but also those, many in number, that other roads cross the Interstate with? To be sure, the stress on a short overpass wouldn’t necessarily be as severe as one spanning a big river, but some of the larger interchanges in big cities contain some extreme examples of road design. In the middle of these enormous, intricate confluences of highways, there are usually long stretches of road that are elevated (sometimes very high up), giving them the equivalence with a bridge going over a river, as far as stress factors are concerned. The day after the collapse, I saw on WGN-Chicago that Illinois Governor Blagojevich had ordered a special statewide detailed inspection of Illinois bridges, and I suspect that this sort of reaction will be duplicated throughout much of the country. But that still leaves the question of whether bridges and overpasses that are decades-old shouldn’t just be torn down and rebuilt after a specified period of years, just as a matter of course. After all, car manufacturers urge owners to get various parts of their vehicles replaced after a specified period, so why not the same with crucial sections of road as well? The bridge that collapsed Wednesday was forty years old and had passed previous inspections. Which brings up another question. Since I’m only a layman and not an engineer, please forgive my ignorance if I ask how one can determine and certify the safety of a bridge or overpass on the strength of inspections, anyway.

I suspect that, after the news of this tragedy begins to fade, first from the headlines, and then from the news altogether, that any common sense proposals to effectively renovate our highways, especially where bridges and overpasses are concerned, will be quietly tabled or watered down to a point where they are meaningless. In the meantime, my heart goes out to those directly affected by this Minneapolis bridge collapse as well as their families and friends.

Bumper Stickers

Bumper stickers are an example of symbols that people identify themselves with and exhibit publicly in order to give themselves a sense of relevance in society. Whether it’s one’s favorite sports team, a candidate for political office, or just a view on the issues (like “I’m already against the next war”, “Your ‘choice’ takes my life” (anti-abortion), or “Your ‘heritage’ is my slavery” (against use of the Confederate flag)), they identify not only themselves, but whoever happens to be driving the vehicle as well, with that particular point of view. And that may cause others who disagree with the sticker’s message to feel uncomfortable driving that car. That is one pitfall of slapping stickers with messages on cars. There are others as well. This is supposedly a free country, with the First Amendment apparently guaranteeing freedom of speech, but I once heard a policeman say that he and his colleagues, when on patrol, would be much more likely to pull over a driver whose car carried provocative bumper stickers than one that didn’t. The reasoning was that such a car might be more likely to contain illegal controlled substances. Also, if somebody puts on a sticker trying to persuade the public to vote a certain way or adopt a certain opinion about an issue, then he or she had better drive in a competent and courteous manner, else the other annoyed drivers may just automatically lean toward the opposing point of view! I remember just before the Presidential election of 1988 being very abruptly cut off in traffic by a driver in a car which had a “Dukakis for President” sticker on its back fender. I’d already decided how I was going to vote, but if I were teetering as an undecided voter, that just might have put me over into the Bush camp (and I resented that driver, since I was supporting Dukakis, too!).

I, for one, don’t want drivers behind me to get so distracted trying to read my bumper stickers that they lose their train of concentration behind the wheel. And there are some drivers who can’t resist the temptation, once started, of plastering sticker after sticker on their car. To me, when I see a car like this, it reminds me of Ray Bradbury’s Illustrated Man, whose main character, played by Rod Steiger, was cursed with “skin illustrations” covering every square inch of his skin below his chin (except for a mysterious blank spot on his back). As for me, I have a small UF Gators decal on the back windshield, and that’s it. Personally, as long as people who want to slap stickers on their cars don’t do it to the point where it interferes with their vision as drivers, then I really couldn’t care less about the content, unless, of course it contains extremely offensive language or overtly hateful material aimed against certain groups.