Hullo everyone. Just a few rambling thoughts here. I been outa'town for
a week (teaching in Halifax) and I returned to find 284 email messages
waiting for me... Gasp! (No, that's gasp, not Gaspe. The Gaspe is part
of Quebec and Halifax is in Nova Scotia.) This certainly is a prolific
mailing list. I'm about to make it yet more prolific.
So yesterday the three of us went to Cape Cod for the day, Sharon, myself,
and Percy, the intrepid Spitfire. Let me tell you about New England weather.
When we left Waltham, it was about 70 degrees, bright and sunny, and "they"
were predicting sun for the rest of the day, so we left the top down. About
halfway to the canal, it got cloudy, and cold. Roll up the windows and
turn up the heater... It was a delightful trip but by the time we drove
home we had seen fog and a cold north wind and some rain, so we did the
whole return trip with the top up!
Let me tell you about New England drivers. I can only question if the rest
of the country is like this too. Speed limits in Massachusetts are 55 mph
(except for parts of the Mass. Pike which are 65). These are admittedly way
too low, and it's a common feature of local roads in Mass. that speed limits
are 5 to 10 lower than they "should be". Mind you, I never bother with them
most of the time, and when I'm driving the Caravan I tend to be one of the
more aggressive commuters (tho' I hope not antagonistic), but then, that's
because I'm often on Interstate-like roads where the speed limit is 45 and
cars' speeds are evenly split between 45 on the nose and 65. But when I'm
in the Spitfire, I don't feel the need to rush off everywhere at 20-over.
(Oh, Percy will do it just fine, thank you, turning only 3700 rpm at 75 mph
in OD 4th and getting in the upper 30's for mpg too.)
We drove to "the Cape" on I-95/Rt.128 and Rt.45 and I-495, all high-speed
multilane highways, and I did all of it over the speed limit (including
passing a clearly-marked state police car :-} ) but for most of the trip
you'da' thought I was standing still. My pass/be-passed ratio was probably
around .1 or lower. What makes people follow others at 30 feet at 65 mph,
on a recreational outing and a reasonably open road that *isn't* rush-hour???
What makes someone zoom up behind someone else at 80+ mph, obviously about
to run out of road but for all the world apparently *not* at all aware of
the obvious, then have to stomp on the brakes, then cut off others to cross
two lanes of traffic in a mad attempt to get in front??? Why is it that
half a dozen cars will group together in a tight combat formation at 65+,
and stay that way for miles on end, when the next similar grouping is mayby
1/2 mile ahead and there little save open road between the groups??? Why
do some drivers sit on your tail no matter what speed you do, speed up to
get away and they follow, slow down and even hit the brakes to make them
pass you and they slow to 45 with you??? And why does that same vehicle
always have his high-beams on???
Let me tell you about the mauling (spelled m-a-l-l-i-n-g) of America. Well,
actually, the problem isn't shopping malls, and it isn't new. But it is
insidious. To tell you the truth, we were hoping to do some fishing, but
we didn't want to drive out to the outer Cape where there are some nice
fishable ponds in the Cape Cod National Seashore. We figured we'd likely
find something closer (even though Massachusetts is heavily populated) if
we looked hard enough. Sorry, but that was not to be. Every nice lake
or even small pond we could find (without going to one of the state parks)
was ringed with houses and private property. Hmmph. Some of them were new
too, though some were obviously older. It struck me while driving through
parts of Falmouth that except for the external appearance of all the houses
with gray wooden siding, we might as well be driving though Waltham. What's
the point of having a rereation area like Cape Code, essentially a natural
resource, if you don't keep it that way? I'm not against private property
and economic growth and all that, but the problem is, all too easily we
ignore the hidden costs. 20 or 30 or 50 years ago there must have been
some nice fishing in those lakes, and all the citizens of Mass. or anyone
else who could get there could take advantage of them. Then someone built
those houses and those shopping areas, and those developers made some bucks
on the deals. Well we certainly didn't get our share of it in compensation
for losing those lakes for fishing. And our children (if we had any) didn't
receive their share, though they also lost something. Somebody made their
fortune(s) at our (and others') expense. The trouble with prosperity is that
when the economy is great, the environment suffers. Then when the economy
turns worse, no one wants to (or even can) afford to pay attention to the
environment, so it suffers again. Just drive through southern New Hampshire
then ask yourself "Does the world really need another Ames, with its 8-acre
blacktop parking lot? And *here* when there is another 2 miles up the road?"
But some developer tried to make some money by hiring YABO (Yet Another
Bulldozer Operator) to clear away the trees there, and some banker tried to
make a few dollars by backing the plan (and frequently within the past 10
years took his bank down the path to closure). Coming back from Woods Hole
last night, I observed a !BRIGHT! glow in the distance through the fog.
I wonder what that is? - can't be a town, there's nothing but Buzzards Bay
over there...ah, it's the lot of a Nissan dealer. A short while further
there was another glow...the lots of adjacent Toyota and Mazda dealers. :-(
Those of us who enjoy driving, especially the simpler pleasures of going
somewhere in style (even if just the Lucas variety of style) need to be
vigilant lest we lose all the decent places to go. Those of you fortunate
enough to live where everything hasn't already been turned into an asphalt
or private-property jungle need to be vigilant too, because it creeps up
on you unawares. It's always "justified" because we gotta have jobs, right?
At what cost? Aren't there better ways to use people (our most precious
resource) and our money (the only resource we ever really bother to count)?
I've said enough. Thanks for listening. Vote carefully (and if you manage
to find a good choice, let me know about it.)
Jim Muller
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