Roadgeek

As a teen, one of the ways I killed time with my very first PC (a 14-pound XT-class laptop) was to fire up Word Perfect and put together strip maps for upcoming roadtrips.

(Yes, I have always been a little odd.  Why do you ask?)

It seems that I may have had a rather remarkable predecessor in such an endeavor.   From Ananova:

The Plus Fours Routefinder was designed to be worn on the wrist - relying on good old-fashioned paper maps wound around wooden rollers, which the driver turned en route.[…]

The device was intended to allow drivers to navigate around the UK, but with so few cars on the roads it never really took off.

One evacuee’s tale is the subject of this blog post:

The six hours before dawn took us into the gridlock. Once we hit I-59, traffic was reduced to an average of one to three miles per hour. With no available gas in sight, the option of AC rapidly became too fuel-intensive to embrace. In heat close to 90 degrees we watched people around us start to wilt. With each hour, the situation became more unpleasant.[…]

As my cats came closer and closer to fatal heatstroke, we poured water over their heads to cool them off. Two almost died. People around us were obviously suffering in the temperature, including many elderly and infants. The various cars stalled out on the side of the road stood like scarecrows striking the fear of being left behind into our hearts. The worst place to be in a hurricane, bar none, is in a car stuck in traffic.[…]

In Mississippi, police blocked the off ramps, several cars at each. it seems we were not wanted or allowed to leave the parking lot that was Contraflow. Fear of the situation warred with rage at those whose panic was substituted for leadership. All the while, the radio spewed forth reports of how well Contraflow was working, alternating with self-congratulatory proclamations by the mayor.

I think it’s safe to say that government efforts in advance of “what might have been” as regards Gustav is far, far superior than what we witnessed for Katrina.  Disasters are messy, things will go wrong or take longer than we would like to resolve…but at least there seemed to be a plan and some level of competence to adapt the plan as circumstances developed.

However, that doesn’t mean that everything was perfect.

Like a few folks I am interested in why Mississippi prohibited evacuees from exiting the interstate (although my interest is that of a roadgeek, rather than a survivor).   I thought standards strongly encouraged emergency management folks to allow traffic to exit at least at a few points, in long contraflow situations.   I can imagine state troopers not wanting traffic to use ramps to bypass a bit of congestion….but evacuees do need to be able to access food, fuel, and facilities.

For folks interested in how planners think of handling hurricane evacuations, you might be interested in this document from Texas A&M.    Chapter 3 of the document discusses contraflow, including the recommendation that evacuees be permitted to exit at intermediate points from long contraflow stretches, and an observation that the merge at Hattiesburg on I-59 is really an suboptimal way to terminate contraflow.

And for potential future evacuees – remember, there are highways out there that are not necessarily interstates.  A bit of advance planning for alternate routes, and familiarity with map-reading would likely go a long way towards dodging interstate evacuation traffic jams.

If you were thinking about driving through southern Louisiana ahead of Gustav….maybe that’s not such a good idea.

Seen at the Times-Picayune:

The contraflow plan to open all lanes of traffic away from coastal areas to speed evacuation from Hurricane Gustav could begin Saturday night and no later than Sunday morning, state officials said this afternoon.

The state will for the first time use "dual contraflow," activating plans at the same time for Southwest and Southeast Louisiana.

Gov. Bobby Jindal encouraged residents in vulnerable areas to begin evacuating before the contraflow plan is put into effect.

Seen at PhotoBasement:

Seen in the Courant:

State police issued a total of 66,864 citations for speeding in 2007. During the first six months of 2008, state police issued 37,615 speeding citations, 16 percent more than the same period for 2007, Vance said.

The article is actually announcing the introduction of newer LIDAR (laser) units with faster acquisition times.  For some reason, the article doesn’t mention the recent expansion in the breadth of vehicles used in undercover speed enforcement, and the potential correlation with the increase in speeding citations.

Unexpectedly picking up a new county while on a business trip, because the boss said “I’ve heard about this great place to eat….”

Kendall County, Texas…done.

Before I head back to the “perfect storm” of quarter-end work, the processing of 7/1 business, and other “fun”, I can’t help but pass along the following quote:

We demand more energy and complain about high prices, but we restrict energy exploration and production. We embrace the promise of energy efficiency, but we are slow to make adjustments in our energy-intensive lifestyles.

That comes from an open letter that the AP reports has been sent to various leaders and political candidates by a group of “elder statesmen” including Henry Kissinger and Colin Powell, calling for something to actually be done about the emerging energy crunch, rather than the impotent energy-themed bickering currently taking place in political circles.

I like the statement I’ve quoted above.  The “energy problem” isn’t one that can be solved just by tracking down new sources of existing forms of energy, or developing new “alternative”  energy sources and infrastructure.  At some point, Americans will be obliged – by fiscal realities at least, if not by prudent foresight – to realize that the lifestyle some (many?) feel entitled to is unsustainable.

Political grandstanding isn’t going to fix the problem.  People resisting being inconvenienced while publicly wishing that others would change their behavior also isn’t going to change anything.

The answer is going to involve reaching a public consensus on what should be done, and then acting upon that consensus.  Part of what’s involved in that consensus will not please some groups, while other parts of that consensus will displease others.  But at least corrective action would be taken, which is appreciably better than the status quo of talking about the problem without making changes until those changes are forced upon us.

The article mentions that the open letter includes about a dozen recommendations of action that should be taken sooner rather than later.  Unfortunately, a quick bit of googling didn’t turn up an actual copy of the letter.  I’d be interested in seeing what those recommendations actually are.

Of course, my quick web-search did turn up a web forum where a couple of posters quickly alleged bias in the letter due to the political affiliations of the sponsoring group and some of the elder statesmen…and where others quickly responded with vehemently opposing political thoughts.

Typical.

Maybe I should dust off an old Thomas Jefferson quote:

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.

I think having record-high fuel prices at a traditional vacation week has really focused the media attention on national energy policy (or the lack thereof).   Many of the interesting articles I

have encountered in the past few days have been energy-themed.   Consider:

WSJ.com’s Deal Journal:

[JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon] On oil, which recently hit a record $143 a barrel: We almost deserve $4 gas. We knew in 1974 that we had a serious issue but we don’t have the political fortitude to do anything about it. That’s the issue, not Russia.

New York Times article, “Asleep at the Spigot”:

Over the last 25 years, opportunities to head off the current crisis were ignored, missed or deliberately blocked, according to analysts, politicians and veterans of the oil and automobile industries. What’s more, for all the surprise at just how high oil prices have climbed, and fears for the future, this is one crisis we were warned about. Ever since the oil shortages of the 1970s, one report after another has cautioned against America’s oil addiction. […]

“Much of what we’re seeing today could have been prevented or ameliorated had we chosen to act differently,” says Pete V. Domenici, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a 36-year veteran of the Senate. “It was a bipartisan failure to act.”

CNN:

Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to look into what speed limit would provide optimum gasoline efficiency given current technology. He said he wants to know if the administration might support efforts in Congress to require a lower speed limit.

(Haven’t we tried the national speed limit before?  And, wasn’t it so poorly enforced and blind to local circumstances as to foster an entire culture of disregarding traffic laws?  You’d think that improving enforcement of existing traffic laws and improving education on optimal speed:efficiency ratios would be more effective.)

Wall Street Journal on GM’s plans to bring a mini-car intended for foreign markets to the U.S. (subscriber link):

General Motors Corp. said it is giving a higher priority to deciding whether it will bring the next-generation Chevrolet Beat mini car — a vehicle it sells overseas — to the U.S. market in the 2012 timeframe.[…]

GM is conducting major surgery on the product plans it had set for the next decade, scrambling to react to falling demand for vehicles that consume a relatively large amount of gasoline. The next generation of GM mini cars, on which the Beat is based, is slated to debut in several global markets in coming years and should be capable of at least 40 miles per gallon.

And meanwhile, regarding the ethanol kool-aid, from The Guardian:

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian. […]

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government’s claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

OK, now that the media…and presumably the American public… is aware of some of the issues of our addiction to petroleum, one wonders if political leaders and the public have the stomach to make some of the more difficult changes that will be called for.

This should be interesting to witness.

And now, I’ll go back to my weekend project of improving my “summer office” (the basement) for telecommuting.

This week brings us to Chicago:

This is the northern terminus of the Stevenson Expressway, I-55, at US 41 (Lake Shore Drive) a bit south of downtown Chicago.

Most of the ends of interstates I’ve encountered in the US tend to be rather anticlimactic.  However, at least I-55’s north end benefits from the distinction of ending on the shore of Lake Michigan, at a road that is remarkable in its own right (Lake Shore Drive).

Oh, and that would be Chicago’s McCormick Center at the left-hand side of the image, in case you were wondering.

This wee brings us to Thailand

(View in Google Maps)

This is the new (opened in 2006) Dipangkorn Rasmijoti Bridge, a.k.a the Mega Bridge.  It carries the Industrial Ring Road across the Chao Phraya River, and connects Bangkok with the Samut Prakan Province.