I'M maintaining my tow vehicle

[wilyoung]

Originally Posted by floyd

If any one on this thread finds this post offensive, say so and I will immediately delete it.
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I still have this to drive under the radar...

I learned to drive in one of those. My mother's Coronation Red Metallic 1950 Ford. Automatic tranny - High school girl friend that was a whiz at shifting - I step on the clutch, she works the stick. What memories!

[wilyoung]

My partner bought a 2018 Honda Fit a couple years ago. 599 page users' manual. I was looking up something about one of the many automatic features, auto rear-end collision avoidance. There were about three pages of explanation on how it works and four or five on when/why it might not work as expected. You have to pay more attention than if the automatic "help" was not there. For instance, approaching an inside curve if a vehicle is approaching in the opposite direction on the outside of the curve (appears to be passing in front of you) the auto rear end collision avoidance may see that vehicle as being to close in front and beep or even apply the brakes sometimes. Very disconcerting! Or, if you have come to rely on it there are many situation that it will NOT detect dangerous situations. What good is that? Don't depend an all the electronic "helpers." Stay alert.

[jerrybob]

Originally Posted by AlanKilian

With all the self-driving capabilities being added to vehicles lately, there's GOT to be a country song about a guy who got left by his truck.

Oh I got tears in my eyes

Cause the girl in my arms

Is a Ford!

[RockyBob]

All these unnecessary, government mandated features you all complain about have cut the automotive death rate by more than half since 1972. Moving forward we can expect many more lives to be saved. Of course, those of you who “know” you won’t ever be in need of such features, well, you can dream what you want. My 2015 accident, entirely not my fault, demolished my car and trailer, yet my wife and I walked away from it entirely because of airbags and other mandated design features. We’d both be dead if we’d had a 1972 car.

As for complaints that taxes are too high, almost none of us know the cost of the transportation infrastructure we all use, but we all see that it has been terribly underfunded since the Eisenhower days. Before complaining become informed about the costs, and formulate a plan for funding those costs. You will undoubtedly see nobody’s paying as much as they should for the system we all expect. I had a co-worker, decades ago, who was all excited when our state passed a bill that lowered his car tabs by a few hundred dollars a year. When I asked him how the state’s lost revenue would be made up he replied “I don’t know and I don’t care. I get $400 back!” So much for responsible citizenship. Maybe that is our problem today.

[Glenn Baglo]

Yup. No free lunch.

[jgilliam1955]

Originally Posted by AC0GV

My f150 was a $60,000 truck in 2016. With all the mommy ware that is going to required in the future I can NEVER replace it. It would be $80,000 by the time it would need replacement. Cost per mile is going up also. Here are a few of the new expenses in the infrastructure bill.

SEC. 13002. NATIONAL MOTOR VEHICLE PER-MILE USER FEE PILOT.
(1) In general.--The Secretary, in coordination with the
Secretary of the Treasury, and consistent with the recommendations
of the advisory board, shall establish a pilot program to
demonstrate a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee—

SEC. 24209. REDUCTION OF DRIVER DISTRACTION.
(a) In General.--Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment
of this Act, the Secretary shall conduct research regarding the
installation and use on motor vehicles of driver monitoring systems to
minimize or eliminate--
(1) driver distraction;
(2) driver disengagement;
(3) automation complacency by drivers; and
(4) foreseeable misuse of advanced driver-assist systems.

SEC. 24220. ADVANCED IMPAIRED DRIVING TECHNOLOGY.
(c) Advanced Drunk and Impaired Driving Prevention Technology
Safety Standard.--Subject to subsection (e) and not later than 3 years
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall issue a
final rule prescribing a Federal motor vehicle safety standard under
section 30111 of title 49, United States Code, that requires passenger
motor vehicles manufactured after the effective date of that standard
to be equipped with advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention
technology.

This is scary & BS! Why do we need to blow into a tube every time we start our vehicle?

[jgilliam1955]

Originally Posted by ShelbyM

Is it a Toyota? Out for a Sunday drive in my wife's new Prius and it told me I'd been driving too long w/o stopping and didn't I want to take a break!!

HAHAHA! Last year a guy in a large class A has told me "My wife yells at me & now the lady in the dash yells at me too."

[ColoradoSwany]

Originally Posted by RockyBob

All these unnecessary, government mandated features you all complain about have cut the automotive death rate by more than half since 1972. Moving forward we can expect many more lives to be saved. Of course, those of you who “know” you won’t ever be in need of such features, well, you can dream what you want. My 2015 accident, entirely not my fault, demolished my car and trailer, yet my wife and I walked away from it entirely because of airbags and other mandated design features. We’d both be dead if we’d had a 1972 car.

As for complaints that taxes are too high, almost none of us know the cost of the transportation infrastructure we all use, but we all see that it has been terribly underfunded since the Eisenhower days. Before complaining become informed about the costs, and formulate a plan for funding those costs. You will undoubtedly see nobody’s paying as much as they should for the system we all expect. I had a co-worker, decades ago, who was all excited when our state passed a bill that lowered his car tabs by a few hundred dollars a year. When I asked him how the state’s lost revenue would be made up he replied “I don’t know and I don’t care. I get $400 back!” So much for responsible citizenship. Maybe that is our problem today.

Amen! We have two 2015 vehicles, both with the latest safety tech available at the time. Probably saved our bacon, or at least a few $$, more than once. Looking forward to a new tug in 2-3 years with even more tech and significantly better MPG. As we age, our driving abilities generally do not improve, so a little help can be a very good thing.

[Mr.T]

Originally Posted by RockyBob

<snip> All these unnecessary, government mandated features you all complain about have cut the automotive death rate by more than half since 1972. </snip>

However, there's been virtually no change since 2007. 1.36 deaths per 100 million miles in 2007 vs 1.37 in 2020. (source: Motor vehicle fatality rate in U.S. by year)

[Alex Adams]

Originally Posted by Mr.T

However, there's been virtually no change since 2007. 1.36 deaths per 100 million miles in 2007 vs 1.37 in 2020. (source: Motor vehicle fatality rate in U.S. by year)

2 factors there:
1) The top speed limits went from mostly 55 to 65 mph to 65 to 85 mph. Increase the velocity, you increase the force and you get more deaths.
2) The average mass of vehicles has increased substantially. Increase mass, you increase the force upon impact and you get more deaths.

F(orce)=M(ass) times V(elocity).

If the improved safety requirements were not there, the numbers of fatalities would have increased dramatically.

[Mr.T]

Originally Posted by Alex Adams

2 factors there:
1) The top speed limits went from mostly 55 to 65 mph to 65 to 85 mph. Increase the velocity, you increase the force and you get more deaths.
2) The average mass of vehicles has increased substantially. Increase mass, you increase the force upon impact and you get more deaths.

F(orce)=M(ass) times V(elocity).

If the improved safety requirements were not there, the numbers of fatalities would have increased dramatically.

I doubt it's that simple. The national limit (rural highways) went up to 65 mph in '87 and the whole national speed limit was repealed in '95. And, I was referring to the essentially flat-line of deaths per mile since about 2007.


:

[Jon in AZ]

If we just look at the last 15 years, changes to vehicle safety have mostly involved (1) improvements to the passenger safety cage, motivated by an array of new crash tests, and (2) additional electronic driver assist features beyond basic stability control and ABS, which have been around far longer.

Biggest changes to the driving environment include (1) the proliferation of smart devices, including both the touch screen interfaces that are part of the vehicle as well as smart phones, as well as (2) the ever-increasing congestion on all categories of public roadways.

Kinda seems like the latter have cancelled out any benefit from the former.

[Glenn Baglo]

Originally Posted by Mr.T

However, there's been virtually no change since 2007. 1.36 deaths per 100 million miles in 2007 vs 1.37 in 2020. (source: Motor vehicle fatality rate in U.S. by year)

Well, thats one statistic. What about injuries per 100 million miles?

[parmm]

Be glad you don't live in NYS. We pay sales tax on every vehicle you buy, new or used. In my county it is 8.5% with the county collecting 4% of the 8.5%. Doesn't matter how many times the car, van, or pickup is sold or how old it is. And we pay $0.4045 on every gallon of gasoline (add to that the federal tax of $0.184 / gallon) we buy. And diesel is $0.3865 every gallon (and $0.244 every gallon federal tax).

But then I remember the taxes that the Germans have to pay. And the British. And our friends to the north - the Canadians. We have it really good in this country!!!

[Alex Adams]

Originally Posted by Mr.T

However, there's been virtually no change since 2007. 1.36 deaths per 100 million miles in 2007 vs 1.37 in 2020. (source: Motor vehicle fatality rate in U.S. by year)

Except last year was an anomaly. It's been acknowledged that people were engaging in riskier behavior including regularly driving over 90 MPH. The rates from 2009 to 2019 were 13 to 21 percent lower than 2007 and 2020.

[Perryb67]

Originally Posted by Mr.T

However, there's been virtually no change since 2007. 1.36 deaths per 100 million miles in 2007 vs 1.37 in 2020. (source: Motor vehicle fatality rate in U.S. by year)

Originally Posted by Jon in AZ

...................

Biggest changes to the driving environment include (1) the proliferation of smart devices, including both the touch screen interfaces that are part of the vehicle as well as smart phones, as well as (2) the ever-increasing congestion on all categories of public roadways.

Kinda seems like the latter have cancelled out any benefit from the former.

How many people owned phones and checked/wrote their messages in 2007 vs today. Apple introduced their iPhone on June 29, 2007 and today's phones have even more abilities. We've come a long ways since the Blackberry was released in 1999 for driver distraction.

Perry

[floyd]

Originally Posted by AlanKilian

With all the self-driving capabilities being added to vehicles lately, there's GOT to be a country song about a guy who got left by his truck.

Try this ... It is old but....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2H_itzkk9s

[Mr.T]

Originally Posted by Alex Adams

Except last year was an anomaly. It's been acknowledged that people were engaging in riskier behavior including regularly driving over 90 MPH. The rates from 2009 to 2019 were 13 to 21 percent lower than 2007 and 2020.

The year to year data has noise, but it's still a pretty flat line from 2007 to present -- For example the all time low rate of 1.08 per 100M miles was in 2014. Next lowest was 1.10 per 100m mile in 2011, 2013, 2019. 2010's score was almost as good at 1.11 per 100M miles. There's a graph here, the red line is per mile data.


My objection is the certainty people often have regarding the cause(s) of changes in the fatality rates. What about the health care system improvements, and the introduction of paramedics affect on the data from the 1970's forward? Surely that's a huge factor. What about the affect of increased DUI enforcement (and testing methods) plus stiffer penalties for DUI over the years? What about younger people causing a disproportionate share of accidents and the the increase in the average population age?



Perhaps the increase in 2020 fatality rate is not from large increases of people regularly driving over 90 mph, but its because hospitals and paramedics were overwhelmed from the pandemic? Or maybe it's just noise in the data? Lots of things to consider...
:

[parmm]

Originally Posted by floyd

Try this ... It is old but....

With all the miles I have in both 5 axle rigs and 8 axle double bottoms, I don't need no truck driving songs. But there is one I would love a copy of - "Up on Highway 17". Heard it on a Canadian station out of Hamilton, Ontario way back in the early '80s. It was about driving in the snow and ice across Hwy 17 up in Canada. I did my share of snow and ice.

[floyd]

I know this is off thread but...


I just discovered what the arrow on the end of the quote line is for!
LOVE IT!!