Slog PM
Nov 17, 2022 at 5:34 pm
And on the fifth day, God said: All of this is yours.
Charles Mudede
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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
Whether or not it's illegal, it's crazy to ride a scooter on the freeway. Have you ever looked at the amount of debris on the shoulder? To say nothing of the reckless drivers.
What sort of dummy would ride a scooter on the interstate? A semi would make quick work of that.
Thunder Road, Chas
They haunt this dusty beach road
In the skeleton frames of
burned out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch, they're gone
On the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers
....
--the Bruce Springsteen
and then there's
the Sequel:
The Road.
Charles, that woman riding an e-scooter on I-5 is dangerous as hell, and the point you're trying to make is such a reach that I hope you did some stretching exercises before you wrote that.
Vehicles that drive 10mph slower than the prevailing speed on an interstate are six times more likely to cause an accident than those that keep pace with the flow of traffic (if you want to confirm the validity of the stats - just look up the study the Institute of Transportation Engineers did. Or that the Department for Transport in the UK did).
Charles is pulling our legs once again with his tongue firmly in cheek.
@5: “…the irony that she isn’t what makes her actions dangerous…”
Yes, that is indeed Charles’ point:
‘“…Thinking that it was a safe way to get there..." And what's wrong with that?’
What’s wrong with that, Charles, is that her thinking was wrong, and she needlessly put herself and other travelers in unnecessary danger by acting upon her mistaken belief. Our laws preventing scooters from entering high-speed, limited-access, dedicated roadways exist for right and good reasons, despite your opening sneer to the contrary.
“…she isn’t what makes her actions dangerous but the simplistic adherence to individual gas powered death sleds as the best way to move from point A to B.”
She wasn’t the danger to those children, but their simplistic adherence to unmotorized vehicles as the best way to move along a bike trail. Their serious injuries were their own faults. (How can scooters not be bicycles? They have TWO WHEELS!)
@7 Catalina Vel-DuRay: That is exactly why I won't drive my beloved Volkswagen on I-5 anymore. I can't unsee that horrible photo of the car that got crushed by a semi last November outside Mount Vernon. Too many B.C. truckers go over 90mph. Even traffic on once totally rural SR 20 is getting crazy anymore, particularly between Burlington and Anacortes.
Kari Lake looks just as mentally deranged as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert.
No wonder pro-Trumpist RepubliKKKan women are so rigidly anti-abortion; their uteruses are never actually used.
Obviously GOP offspring are crapped out during bowel movements instead of being traditionally birthed through the womb. This explains why the GOP has become so violently fetid since Nixon's resignation in 1974, and going exponentially further down the toilet ever since. The Party of Trump is full of shit.
Lots of car drivers here spouting made up imaginary "laws" about bicycles. As usual. And the Troopers are clueless about the law, too. In fact it is legal to bike (and presumably scooter electrically) on freeway shoulders unless prohibited.
From the linked KIRO story it appears the woman entered I-5 at a ramp where bicycles are not prohibited. The trooper picked her up at a location where bikes are also not banned, well north of the no-bikes zone of I-5. Looking at Street View, the MP 206 entrance (172nd St NE) has no signage prohibiting bikes. Compare the MP 199 entrance (Marine Dr NE/Fourth St) at the beginning of the bike-ban zone. You can find a primer about bike laws here: https://wsdot.wa.gov/travel/bicycling-walking/bicycling-washington/bicyclist-laws-safety
As to why a person would bike or scooter on a freeway: One reason is there may be no reasonable alternative route nearby. Another reason is safety. The nearest alternative route along this section of I-5 is Smokey Pt Blvd which is a 4-lane shoulderless automotive hellscape where drivers often approach freeway speeds. The freeway shoulder is safer, debris notwithstanding, since you can get a decent amount of separation from the cars, plus the rumble strips tend to ward off wayward drivers. Pavement condition on freeway shoulders is usually pretty good since hardly anyone drives on them. The pavement condition on surface streets is entirely undependable and often hazardous.
@11: Bored much? Are you among the first to gripe about the weather, here, too? You can always move away from the gray, dreary Pacific Northwest. Want sun? Try Southern California where there are consistently 70+ degree Fahrenheit outdoor temperatures daily, and there's next to no rain. Blue skies, moderate climate, palm trees, and you'll never feel the need for an umbrella again unless you're at the beach.
@16 crankybiker: WOW. Meet cranky Boomer. Smokey Point was already an automotive hellscape when I lived there, years ago! That the area has built up even more densely and traffic congestion is infinitely worse is beyond sad. When I last passed through, the Lakewood Resort lakes, what little vegetation, and the trailer park west of I-5 had long since been replaced by strip malls. Ever the profiteer to the north, Dwayne Lane finally got to slap down a car dealership where farmland used to be near the Stillaguamish River at the Arlington exit onto eastbound SR 530. The community may as well be renamed Smokey Point-Lynnwood. Snohomish County legislators apparently don't value farmland or open space. Too bad they won't properly address their infrastructure problems. Marysville can't really have a Strawberry Festival anymore without strawberry fields. What a pity.
Driving anything below the posted speed limit on freeway shoulders is dangerous, no matter how smoothly paved the surface!