Zatchmo wrote:
Problem is still that one problem can be solved and I don't see a solution to the other. Barring filling in potholes, I suppose. If any politicians want to make some quality false promises, I would go with that one.
jixson wrote:So yes, escorts are annoying as hell, making one stop would necessarily make them less annoying, but the cars pose a much greater safety risk.
Woops I meant to say "wouldn't necessarily". I guess I misread this whole "one stop" idea, I assumed it would still be on the backhills. Moving it to the corner of Tech and Frew would be nice. However, I'm also saying that I feel the cars are a larger problem and solving the escort problem will not make push practice safer. I am much more concerned with safety over convenience. Granted, I don't immediately see a clear cut solution to the parked cars, but there definitely has to be a better way
Just to chime in from a driver's point of view: I've gotta agree that the cars bother/worry me more than escorts, in multiple ways.
1) As much as the back hills suck what with the potholes, spazzy streetlights, and other orgs right next to each other, there is a very narrow 'sweet spot' where the road is less crappy, and in a fairly straight run. At rolls its clear no problem--at push practice (as mentioned before) its essentially the line behind where the cars are parked.
2) When (not if--this is Pittsburgh) my windscreen does fog up, I just rely on the flashlight to steer towards. Generally thats fine, but the problem there is that the people actually holding the flashlight rarely put it exactly at the far end of the smoother stretch, and occasionally they actually end up holding it close enough to the parked car side that I'd be going unnervingly close to cars or trucks just sitting there. I'm not trying to say that this is any fault of the flashlight people, it's just that, particularly with trucks on the back hills, it could easily turn into a problem.
2b) Another important distinction between parked cars on the back hills and escorts rollin through: Escorts are annoying, and often semi-blinding, but at least I always know where they are. Dark cars parked (therefore with no headlights) are significantly harder to see, fogged or not.
3) I can just shut my eyes when I'm sitting on the sidewalk and cars or escorts drive by with their brights on, but (depending on how grumpy I already am from push practice etc so far that night) I sometimes worry that they don't actually know how close they drive to buggies. Being close to the ground is fun for driving, but just because they can see the pushbar doesn't ensure they see the nose of the buggy where my head is.
The other thing I wanted to mention is that, because I'm aware of all of these things/problems/concerns and I've seen Basketcase in the Froom, if I do get shoved at a weird angle and I have to correct, I always go away from where cars are. It usually puts me on the least fun part of the road, but personally I'd rather that than hit or get wedged under a car.
Short of getting the back hills miraculously repaved, I don't really know a solution. Moving the Escort stop might be helpful, but since we usually need to take a break between chunks of push practice anyway, I'm less vehement about that. If there's any possibility of making the back hills small-car-only parking, that might help some, but I've got no idea where to even start with that--particularly since quite a few orgs use trucks to drive their buggies from their rooms to the hills each night.
Thats my 3 cents. Once again, sorry for the overly long post.
Quickrete fairy, WHERE ARE YOU?
I think most orgs are responsible enough to get their buggies out of the way before the escort comes, yelling or no.
The road is a bigger issue. If it didn't suck, driver could more easily stay away from the cars. the potholes kill everyone, too.
I hate bending steering parts, messing up perfectly mediocre wheels, and concussing my drivers.
I wonder, since I've heard from everyone in the world that pennDOT is corrupt, how much would it be to grease them into paving the road? any rich alum wanna take that on?
Zatchmo wrote: Problem is still that one problem can be solved and I don't see a solution to the other. Barring filling in potholes, I suppose. If any politicians want to make some quality false promises, I would go with that one.
So, you're going with the guy who's promise is literally "nothing will change" because that's achievable. Brilliant.
Zatchmo wrote:Problem is still that one problem can be solved and I don't see a solution to the other. Barring filling in potholes, I suppose. If any politicians want to make some quality false promises, I would go with that one.
My point was this election matters to the buggy community. I was just stating my concerns based on what the candidates said at the debates. It wasn't all negative though, as Turi and Kelsey's proposed "Healthy Rewards Program" includes pushing as a recognized form of exercise to count toward earning reward points.
I agree that cars are a more pressing safety concern, but escorts undeniably slow our practices and keep us out later than we need to be. If we want nicer back hills, I fully support doing what Tommy said:
My point was this election matters to the buggy community. I was just stating my concerns based on what the candidates said at the debates. It wasn't all negative though, as Turi and Kelsey's proposed "Healthy Rewards Program" includes pushing as a recognized form of exercise to count toward earning reward points.
Sounds like someone has a thing for the candidate or hates the other guy based on organizational association. Both, in all reality. In any case, student government isn't going to get our roads re-paved, no matter how much they talk about buggy.
Tried it. I have the iphone app (haters, take your mark...). All last year. NOTHING. It's a publicity stunt, I routinely bottom out my car on bad ones in squirrel hill, they have NO intention of fixing any of the roads here.
