You’re looking at Apple Maps on a typical weekday morning. All that orange is slow moving traffic, and the red indicates all those roadways with stop-and-go, mostly stopped, traffic. The biggest traffic problems are all over I-4, the major expressway that’s been under expansion and construction for about a decade now. A lot of the expansion is finished, but the traffic problems are still as bad as before, if not worse, than when this construction started. At least with most of the construction finished up and the roadway now running straight and true, it’s not as horrific as the late twenty-tens. But still. The last major piece is the completion of pay-as-you-go express lanes that run down the center. Orlando already has a large number of toll roads (408, 414, 417, 429), along with the Florida Turnpike that runs through Orlando from Ocala down to Miami. And to really add insult to injury, the 528, which runs from I-4 east to the Space Coast has a full toll road with even more expensive express lanes in the center.

As I sit with my coffee and look at this I give thanks that I’m retired and no longer running a commute anywhere. And I do that many a morning. One day I’ll stop doing this, but I want to keep this small vicarious action up as long as I have the least little feelings about part time work in retirement.

Background: My wife and I, together, have been State Farm customers since 1985. That’s 36 years. My wife had been a State Farm customer going back to her college years when she needed car and apartment insurance. When we married we just combined everything under State Farm because it was the better deal at the time.

Through those decades I’ve gotten four tickets, the last one back in 2009 (and which I documented here: https://flic.kr/p/6tu5Ek ). With the purchase of our latest vehicle, a 2020 Acura MDX, I wanted to really baby the vehicle, driving as carefully and infrequently as possible. After a little over six months driving, that seems to have worked out fine as far as Acura is concerned, because we only have 4,800 miles on it, and when I took it in last Friday for its six month checkup, everything on that vehicle was still green, meaning very good to excellent. After having turned all my other vehicles into daily drivers, I wanted to really take care of the MDX. Which is why I thought it was such a good idea to sign up to Drive Safe & Save.

And for a while, it was. I was getting scores on the app all the way up to 100%. If I got dinged it was usually for speeding, such as traveling 40mph in the short road segment within Universal Studio before turning onto I-4, because Universal had marked it as 30mph. Most of the time I didn’t cross over.

But then a funny thing happened to the numbers starting in February. I started getting dinged for actions I’d never seen before, specifically turning and accelerating from a stop at traffic lights or going down the on ramp onto the expressways. Turns on roads within my neighborhood suddenly turned into these “dangerous” encounters, where if you were to interpret the raw presentation in the app indicated I was some wild and reckless driver. Except I hadn’t changed, but something else within the app or the app’s backend processing. I don’t know where, but the change was noticeable, with my overally score starting to trend down. I don’t mind being called out on something truly egregious, like excessive speeding (which I wasn’t), but turns and moving away too quickly when the light turns green? Give me a break.

Here’s an example of the last trip I made with this app active, and the final trip that made me remove it.

Note I’ve been dinged with one “bad” turn and two “bad” accelerations. Let’s examine the turn first, because that one is outrageous.

The right turn from Conroy onto Turkey Lake looks insane. If you believe the app I made a hard right turn into the oncoming traffic. In reality, the turn off of Conroy and onto Turkey Lake is a big intersection, and there’s a gentle curving turn lane which is shown on the map, and that’s what I always take (along with everybody else). Instead the trace shows a snap of my first traveling east, then immediately south. And in the wrong lane into heavy oncoming traffic. If I’d done that I wouldn’t be here right now writing this blog entry, I can assure you.

The other detail of this is just as bad.

Those little rockets indicate I was “rocketing away” from my stop. I don’t know how a regular acceleration from a full stop is supposed to be conducted, but here in Florida you pay attention to when you stop, and then move away reasonably quickly depending on how soon the driver in front of you moves, or if you’re first, how quickly you move. You linger at all and you get honked at almost immediately after the light turns green. This section next to the Mall at Millenia is full of stop lights. And lots of traffic. I have to move through this to get to Costco. And back again on the way home. And the reason you don’t see the trip back home is because there were zero events to show.

What This All Means

• I’m in a unique position to have a pretty good idea how all of this is working together. My 50 years of software development, going back to when I was a junior in high school in 1971, give me a unique perspective and an instinctive feel as to how software should be working. And my “feels” tells me that based on my recollection of the travel I took compared to how it’s being judged, shows that there’s some serious measurements and/or machine judgement flaws (i.e. “bugs”). And it’s gotten worse over time.
• There is no way to appeal any of this. The only path to appeal anything is a one-eight-hundred number to appeal speeding, but speeding isn’t my problem here, and hasn’t been for some time. It’s turns, starts, and on occasion, stops. There’s no way to provide feedback to help correct the interpretation of whatever it is the Start Farm puck is measuring.
• I can’t speak for others, but if you keep seeing this often enough you grow paranoid, and driving becomes not a pleasure but yet another task to be endured. I’m retired, and I retired to get away from commuting into work every day. That was a task to be endured, followed by working at the facility with its hard-to-deal with rules. I worked at what is known in Orlando as the IDE, which is controlled by PEO STRI. The IDE is the most developer hostile environment I ever worked at, and was another reason for me to retire and never go back.
• Because I came to distrust the app so much, I began to distrust State Farm as well. In other words my dissatisfaction with the product was negatively coloring my satisfaction with the company. It was more than once that I thought perhaps I should just chuck the entire State Farm package and go find insurance elsewhere. There’s no guarantee I’ll always stay with State Farm, but I need to make that decision rationally, not irrationally because of my growing anger with one of their products, “Drive Safe & Save.”
• Considering the paranoia and anger this product generated in me, it wasn’t worth the extra $20 to $30/month I was saving on car insurance. I’ll spend that money to get back my peace of mind and enjoyment of driving.

Words can’t begin to describe what a relief it was to ditch all of that, and how much I immediately began to enjoy driving again. Products like this just aren’t worth it.

On a small private airfield in central Florida sits an old prop-driven aircraft, a Convair CV 240 passenger airliner. When I say old, it was first built in 1947 and ended manufacturing the year right after I was born. So yeah, that’s old. I came across this airplane in 2012 under interesting circumstances. As fate would have it the owners who were trying to restore it were at the same restaurant I was at and we just happened to cross paths. One thing led to another and I was invited to go out to observe the aircraft as well as go through their small aviation museum they were putting together. I took my photos and then everything seemed to slip into the background. Later that year I had my left knee replaced, and then early the following year I was hit with my layoff and the long string of events that followed.

I drove back out Saturday into the same general area to go to what used to be a local business that sold planters and other items, such as plant dollies that went under the larger planters. The place was out of business and completely empty. My wife and I recognized that the airstrip with the Convair was just a little ways down the road so I drove us there and went to see if the airplane was still sitting there. It was. I got out with my Pen F and 1.2/17mm and collected a few more photos of the plane. Unlike the first time, there was no-one around and he plane was completely buttoned up.

Of all the parts of the 240 the most intriguing to me are the radial piston engines. These engines were developed during WWII and reached their heigh day right towards the end of the war, right when the very first jet engines were introduced. They were big and powerful and did incredible yeoman duty in both the military and civilian air sectors. There’s a part of me that wishes I had the time and money to pull one out, refurbish it back to working order, and then just crank it up and watch it work.

And if you’re wondering how many passengers this aircraft could carry, it was 40 passengers, all in one class. Would you look at those big, wide, comfortable seats? The only way you’ll get anything like that today is in first class.

This used to be a working machine, carrying its passengers in relative safety and comfort a half century ago. There are very few left flying, run by collectors. Those that aren’t are sitting like this one, bleaching slowly in the sun.

There is now a row of shiny new Tesla chargers in a back parking lot at Waterford Lakes in Orlando. Not being a Tesla owner myself I have no idea if they’re a super-charger. It’s been something of a six month project to get them installed in the second half of last year, and then they were blocked when Waterford Lakes held its traveling Christmas Carnival in that same back parking lot.

Why they would put them in such an out-of-the-way location is beyond my mere capacity to understand these things. I’m assuming that you drive your Tesla up to one, hook up the charging cable, then wait for the Tesla’s battery to fully charge. Then you detach, put the cable back, and drive away. The reason why I wonder why they’re so far in the back is that Tesla chargers have been undergoing a bit of vandalism as of late, as well as ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) treatment, wherein a big honkin’ truck driven by a big stupid redneck parks in a slot and then walks off. But seeing as big stupid rednecks are also a bit lazy, it’s probably a good idea. Otherwise they’d (gasp! horror! shock!) have to actually walk a bit to get to anything in the shopping center. So maybe there is some method to this madness.

The sign next to each of the chargers says parking is limited to 30 minutes, so I can only assume that the Tesla will be reasonably charged (perhaps fully) in a half hour.

Sometimes I come across a motorcycle that I feel an instant appreciation for. I don’t ride, haven’t since I was 14 and put one down while I was living in Atlanta (came away with scraps and a bruised ego). But there are certain brands and models that just look so good standing still that I have to stop and take a picture. Or two.

Photos were taken with a now-ancient Olympus OM-D E-M5 (the original and still working quite well) with the “modest” M.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8. Images post processed in Silver Efex Pro 2 on a Macbook Pro.

I need to stay away from John Scalzi’s “Whatever” blog, because once again I find myself writing a reactionary post to one of his, “The Tesla 3 (and Why I Probably Wouldn’t Get One).” To be fair to John, it isn’t his post so much as many of the responses to his post, some of which I’m sure are trolling. Whatever…

In no particular order, and not pointing out any specific commenter, here’s my response.

The Model 3 Itself

I’m a Prius owner. My first Prius was a red 2009 model that, by the time I traded it in 2012, I’d racked up nearly 80,000 miles on. 80,000 very happy, issue-free miles. This is the same period that saw the accelerator pedal fiasco and subsequent recalls. In spite of this I’m still loyal to Toyota and have the attitude that a bad Toyota is a better vehicle than just about anyone else’s “good” vehicle. I was satisfied enough with the 2009 Prius that after months of looking at many other brands and models I bought not one, but two, 2012 Priuses, using the 2009 as a trade-in on mine (I got $18,000). Since that time I’ve managed to put a mere 61,000 miles on mine, while my wife has just 55,000. I don’t know what my wife averages MPG-wise, but I average in real day-to-day driving of between 50 and 55mpg, more on the freeways than the surface streets (in spite of the claims of the other way by Toyota). All of this after nearly four years of 2012 model year ownership. We intend to keep these Priuses until either they just die or else something better comes along.

That something better might be the Tesla Model 3 or its follow-up. There’s a lot to like about the Tesla as well as the man behind Tesla. I appreciate both the 3’s styling as well as the technology. After owning the Prius for as long as I have, I’ve grown immune to the openly hostile and deeply uninformed criticisms, just like the same class of critiques aimed at the Tesla. I would consider buying a Model 3 because it would fit quite well into where I live here in Orlando Florida. The range is more than enough to visit either coast along I-4, and the climate is such I don’t have to worry about cold effecting the battery. The only reason I won’t buy an Model 3 is timing; financially I’m not in the market for a new car, and I’m not well-heeled enough to consider any vehicle an impulse purchase. But, if the Model 3 had been available in 2012, at least one of the Prius would have been a Tesla Model 3.

Mass Transit

One of the commenters decided to troll the others with a comment on mass transit. Here in America, mass transit is a mess. In other parts of the world, not so much. An example of excellent mass transit is Japan. Since December 2013 I’ve traveled to Japan four times, all on multi-week business trips. I’ve visited Tokyo, Osaka, and Sapporo. I’ve traveled quite a bit on Japan’s rail system, from the Shinkansen on down. They are all excellent to ride on. Japan does have considerable cars in its roadways, but it also has a rail system that moves considerable numbers of people quite efficiently.

One interesting feature is how the larger train stations are integrated into the central city proper. The Japanese have built huge malls over and around those train stations, and they’re always packed with customers. Examples I’ve experienced are Sapporo, Shinjuku (Tokyo), Ikebukuro (Tokyo), Tachikawa (Tokyo), and Osaka.

If you can’t find the right train, there’s plenty of busses and taxis. And if you can’t get somewhere directly, you can walk; things are close together. We used to walk a lot in this country, especially from bus stops to places of work, worship, and residency. We don’t anymore and it’s contributed mightily to our obesity problem. In all my travels, I’ve noticed far fewer overweight Japanese in a comparable urban setting than anywhere similar in America.

America needs mass transit badly, and it needs a far deeper commitment to it than we currently give it. Mass transit fails in America because we want it to fail.

There was one comment about how western cities grew up around the freeway. One western city in particular, Los Angeles, had an extensive street car system that served the core of the city quite well until it was purchased by National City Lines, whose owners included Firestone, Standard Oil (now Chevron), and GM. This led to the General Motors “streetcar conspiracy,” which in turn led to the dismantling of many city transit systems. We had a foundation for mass transit building up the first half of the 20th century, but it was essentially destroyed by Detroit. And when it became obvious we needed mass transit in those same cities where it was allowed to die in (such as Atlanta, where I was born), we’ve paid dearly in the second half of the 20th century rebuilding mass transit systems that have yet to reach the coverage of the older systems that were dismantled.

Finis

I don’t know when it will happen, but the pure ICE (internal combustion engine) auto is coming to an end. Whether it’s meeting ever stringent carbon emissions, or the rising cost of the auto itself (inexpensive is now around $15,000), or changing demographics and desires, the pure ICE is either being replaced by hybrids and electrics, or it’s being eschewed completely by people who just don’t want the hassle and expense (gas, insurance, maintenance, tolls) of owning a car and prefer mass transit. There’s going to be a huge stratification in the next two to twenty years, where a good majority of people are going to give up their cars, leaving only the very well off to afford electric vehicles. We don’t have the resources (which includes the space to park them) to own and operate automobiles. I’ve been driving and owning my own car since I was 16 back in 1970. In spite of this, given a set of choices, I’d much rather own an electric, and if I were living in a society with decent mass transit, I’d give up my car and go back to rail and walking. I’d be a lot better off physically and financially.

I purchased that 940 used, with 54,000 miles, from the Volvo Store in Winter Park Florida in 1996. It had come in off a lease deal.

It was the second family Volvo. The first was a 1988 Volvo 240 wagon that was a replacement for a Nissan Van back in 1991. That Volvo was my wife’s and the perfect professor’s car, back when my wife was still an English professor at Valencia East.

The 940 would go on to take us on vacations around the country, including the infamous (within the family) camping vacation to Moonshine Creek North Carolina. While there, Max, still something of a very young dog, got loose from the camp. My youngest daughter went into hysterics, thinking that Max had gone off literally over the hills above the campsite. But I knew better. I walked down towards the creek that ran though the campsite looking for him. Sure enough, he’d gone splashing through the creek, then had stayed long enough to play with some of the kids, and taken off further into the camp towards people. And food. Sure enough I found him walking slowly towards me, with an embarrassed look on his face, smacking his lips, and with steak on his breath. To this day I have no idea if, or even where, he might have gotten into steak, but there were some comments later from others in the camp about how an older couple had somehow lost their lovely steak lunch which they’d left right next to their grill…

I knew where to find Max that day because I knew Labs and what motivated them.

But I digress…

The 940 served family yeoman duty right up to the point where I bought my Kia Sorrento in 2002. By that time the 940 was fully paid for, and still going strong. I tend to drive my cars until they fall apart from rust. The 940 was going to be my oldest daughter’s college car when she started as an undergraduate. The car was heavily neglected up in college, but was tough enough that when I got it back I managed to fix the really serious problems that had developed. Then my youngest wanted it for her college car, and so back out it went. And that’s where it stayed until her move to Denver.

The car was so old I gave it to Goodwill. Although it was still drivable, it had more value (financial and social) as a donation. She’d picked up a second used car, this time a 2014 Toyota Yaris fleet car with 36,000 miles on it. The 940 at that point was so old that whatever she did to it was irrelevant and costly; it was better to sink any money into a new vehicle.

When my second daughter first got the 940 she decided to put stickers and other decorations on it. For example, in 2009 when she came home, the back of the Volvo looked like this:

On moving day the same tailgate looked like this:

A lot of just faded off stickers, some added, some changed. A small story in and of itself of the changes my youngest has gone through over the last six years, and something of an allegory about how dreams and ideals, especially those we form in college, will fade due to contact with reality and time…

The car itself was finally, literally, coming apart. Windows were failing to stay closed, and the various seals were leaking around the exterior, making it problematic during Tallahassee’s heavy downpours. The final straw was the idea of trying to get it to Denver. It sure wasn’t drivable that far, and even if by some miracle it had made it, Denver and Colorado have car inspections, something Florida does not. There was no way in hell it would have passed. With all the money that would have needed to be spent, a new used car was needed to replace the Volvo.

Of all the cars I’ve ever owned, I have to say I’ve gotten incredible value out of the Volvos, and the 940 specifically. The Toyotas are a close second, especially the Priuses we’ve owned since 2009. No matter how long we own the Toyotas, I don’t think I’ll ever own another car with that kind of shear ruggedness, especially in the face of indifference to service that the car suffered over the last ten years with both girls.

By the way, the car had far more than 209,813 miles on it. The trip odometer stopped working reliably at about that time some five years ago.

All this marks the end of an era. There are no more of us in Tallahassee, and no more reason to make the trek up there.

Trains are a vital part of the Japanese transportation infrastructure. Train stations dot the islands, especially in the major urban areas like Tokyo. One example is Ikebukuro station, right next to my hotel.

Ikebukuro station is a huge train an subway station in Japan, one of many. It’s composed of multiple tracks and loading platforms, overlaid by a huge department store mall (multiple stores in the mall). Both Japan-wide trains as well as subway trains are constantly rolling into and out of this station. The only trains I didn’t see at this station were bullet trains. Maybe next Christmas I’ll ride one of the bullet trains of Japan. But for this trip I took express trains as well as subways from where I worked in Japan. On my last day I took a special express from Ikebukuro to Narita Airport.

Visiting my orthopedic surgeon so he could have a look at my left knee. I’ve been dealing with pain down my left leg that I now have under control with a prednisone six day dose pack. Since the pain was effecting everything including the knee, and I needed to see him anyway for my yearly, I went in. The knee is fine and after a day on the prednisone the pain is basically at bay, but not gone.

The office is at Florida Hospital. I knew that there was a SunRail station right at the hospital, but I’d forgotten about it until it came sailing past the doctor’s office complex when I stepped outside. I spent a few minutes with the camera walking around the station. While I was there a south-bound train showed up and made a stop. Right now it looks like a single train is made up of three passenger cars and an engine.

It’s good to see Orlando step up to the next stage of mass transit. Unlike other cities our light rail will be all above-ground. That’s what happens when the land is flat and sandy. Now if we can keep off sinkhole prone land.