Terms Which Have Disappeared

[BlueTrain]

I buy my bridges from a dentist but not cheap. And that's the truth.

 

[scottyrocks]

What do people with cell-phones do when they terminate a call in a rage? Hanging up with force was a satisfying way of punctuating a distasteful call. Do people shove their cell phones into their pockets with great emphasis?

You grit your teeth an push the red button a bunch of times in rapid succession.

 

[scottyrocks]

I'm sure everyone who still says "gee" and "haw" still use that expression.

Originally, the typing class in school was "typewriting." Manual typewriters, too. But when was the last time you saw a typewriter?

I have mixed thoughts about cell phones--or more correctly, smart phones--in cars. I see a fair number of accidents in my commute, nearly all minor. But I'm certain that none are caused by cell phone use. As far as the distraction in having a conversation on a cell phone while you're driving, it's no different than a conversation with a passenger, maybe even less so. Actually holding the phone might be a distraction, though. But the ones staring at their little screen when the traffic is stopped are often still staring at it when it starts moving again. No, I believe all those accidents I see are because of aggressive driving, mainly tailgating, and nearly always in the left-hand lane of a "dual carriageway" parkway. I live in an area with a lot of Type A personalities and everyone is in a hurry. Commuting is a competitive activity, sometimes adjudicated. Obeying the speed limit is not tolerated, but that goes along with the general moral decline these days when anyone obeying the law is considered to be a fool. The funny thing is that now everyone drives in the left-hand lane and only uses the right-hand lane for passing.

I disagree. Having a cell phone conversation is a much more involved process than a conversation with a live passenger.

When your partner is on the phone, you are doing a lot of visualizing, and concentrating harder on what you can't see. That takes more focus away from the task of driving.

I try not to have in-depth cell phone conversations when I'm driving. It takes me out of what I am supposed to be doing, and I am a car and driving enthusiast.

 

[BlueTrain]

I'm none of the above and, anyway, I don't have a cell phone.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I don't even like to have conversations with another person in the car when I'm driving. Especially not with my mother.

"SLOWDOWNSLOWDOWNJEEZUZDONTGOSOFASTSPEEDUPFORCHRISSAKESIMLATEFORMYAPPOINTMENTWATCHTHEROADTURNHERENONOTTHERETURNTHERETURNTURNYOUMISSEDITWHATSTHEMATTERWITHYOUWHYAREYOUSTOPPINGWAITNODONTSTOPHERENOWHATAREYOUDOINGWITHTHATPIPEWRENCHNONONONOGSSKSTTHHGGSSPPPPP...."

 

[Zombie_61]

I disagree. Having a cell phone conversation is a much more involved process than a conversation with a live passenger.

When your partner is on the phone, you are doing a lot of visualizing, and concentrating harder on what you can't see. That takes more focus away from the task of driving...

Not only that, but with traffic noises, engine noises, and whatever might be coming out of the car stereo, people are often focused more on trying to hear what the person on the other end of the call is saying because the volume on their cell/smart phone will only go so high.

But none of that is really the issue. The "experts" say most people have simply become so accustomed to using their cell/smart phones everywhere--homes, in public, coffee shops and restaurants, shopping malls, etc.--that they tend to exhibit the same casual/relaxed behavior using them when driving as they do in those other places, and they can actually forget, albeit for brief moments, that they're driving a vehicle. And with less "experienced" or less "skilled" drivers this apparently happens more frequently.

...I try not to have in-depth cell phone conversations when I'm driving. It takes me out of what I am supposed to be doing, and I am a car and driving enthusiast.

I have zero cell phone conversations when I'm driving, in-depth or otherwise. Actually, unless I'm expecting a specific call, I rarely have cell phone conversations unless I'm at home. I'm not mentioning this because I think I'm better than anyone else or because I'm such a conscientious or law-abiding citizen; I just hate phones.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I don't even like to have conversations with another person in the car when I'm driving. Especially not with my mother.

"SLOWDOWNSLOWDOWNJEEZUZDONTGOSOFASTSPEEDUPFORCHRISSAKESIMLATEFORMYAPPOINTMENTWATCHTHEROADTURNHERENONOTTHERETURNTHERETURNTURNYOUMISSEDITWHATSTHEMATTERWITHYOUWHYAREYOUSTOPPINGWAITNODONTSTOPHERENOWHATAREYOUDOINGWITHTHATPIPEWRENCHNONONONOGSSKSTTHHGGSSPPPPP...."

Um, "C14H19NO2", maaaaybeeee?

 

[scottyrocks]

I just hate phones.

Yep, I'm more of a face-time person, myself.

 

[Fading Fast]

I don't even like to have conversations with another person in the car when I'm driving. Especially not with my mother.

"SLOWDOWNSLOWDOWNJEEZUZDONTGOSOFASTSPEEDUPFORCHRISSAKESIMLATEFORMYAPPOINTMENTWATCHTHEROADTURNHERENONOTTHERETURNTHERETURNTURNYOUMISSEDITWHATSTHEMATTERWITHYOUWHYAREYOUSTOPPINGWAITNODONTSTOPHERENOWHATAREYOUDOINGWITHTHATPIPEWRENCHNONONONOGSSKSTTHHGGSSPPPPP...."

My dad and your mom shared this horrifically horrible trait in common. I let a lot - a lot - go by with my father as it was the only path to survival, but after I started driving, I gave him an ultimatum (helped that I had moved out and was paying my own way by then), he could drive or I could drive (he could choose), but if I drove, no comments on my driving from him.

He huffed and puffed, but I didn't let him blow me down. On more than one occasion, I had to pull the car over, start to get out to change seats to get him to stop. We finally reached an uneasy modus vivendi where he'd make quiet grumbling noises (but not say anything) and shift in his seat aggressively and I'd ignore that. He's been dead just over 25 years and I can still feel the anxiety I got driving with him.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I couldn't drive with my mother when I was learning -- the constant stream of anxious babble was intolerable. I had to go practicing with one of our neighbors, and was still so nerved up from my experiences with Ma that I flunked the test three times before I finally passed. To this day I tense up whenever I take my mother anywhere.

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ My dad wanted you (amidst the billion things he wanted you to do driving) let the car brake naturally and slow to a stop in an even consistent manner. Great - that's reasonable advice, good for the brakes and nicer on the passengers. But a new driver is still dealing with the bigger issues and can't focus on all the little nuances that come with time and practice. There was more than one occasion when my dad was enjoining me to "let it brake naturally" or "apply consistent pressure" that if he had been out of the car, I might have driven over him.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Gumption"

I just used it in another thread and realized that you don't hear it often, but growing up, it seemed reasonably common.

 

[BlueTrain]

Neither my father nor father-in-law ever made comments about the driver, although both were rather talkative, as I sometimes am. I rode around with my father a lot when he was working (as a truck driver). He was easy-going as a driver and easy-going in general. My father-in-law was just the opposite.

 

[Stearmen]

I couldn't drive with my mother when I was learning -- the constant stream of anxious babble was intolerable. I had to go practicing with one of our neighbors, and was still so nerved up from my experiences with Ma that I flunked the test three times before I finally passed. To this day I tense up whenever I take my mother anywhere.

I had to drive my mother to a lot of doctor appointments during her final years. I got where I could mostly tune her out. I am the type, if someone cuts me off, my road rage consist of me using a choice word or two, then it is over, and I feel fine, basically a momentary on switch. My mother would always escalate the situation to the point that I was still arguing with her thirty minutes later! My dad on the other hand, my learning to drive consisted going to an empty parking lot, putting the car in gear, driving around in a couple of circles, then he said, "OK lets go home," and I proceeded to drive us all the way home! Must have worked, I passed the written test by only one point, but passed the driving part with a perfect score!

 

[Zombie_61]

I was fortunate that my Dad was very patient with me when he taught me how to drive. When I was very young, on weekends I used to accompany him to the place where he worked and I remember having some sort of smallish hoop that I pretended was a steering wheel; I'd sit in the passenger seat and mimic what he did while he was driving. When he felt I was ready he put me on one of the company's forklifts, told me how to shift it and how the clutch worked, and cautioned me to not run into anything. I'm sure he was watching me, at least initially, but I never saw him because I was so focused on being careful and not running into anything because I didn't want to get him in trouble. At some point when I was about 14 years old I graduated to his car. There was a commercial area not far from home that was deserted on the weekends, so he'd take me there so I could practice driving. And as I became more proficient, he'd let me drive home as well. He made the occasional comment to help me improve, but never yelled or got upset even once. And when the time came for me to get my first license I easily passed the written and practical tests the first time.

Mom was a different story, only because she couldn't critique my driving. She had driven only once in her life when a couple of friends decided they were going to teach her how to drive; Mom backed the car out of the driveway, straight across the street, and into a ditch. So, yeah, not in a position to comment on someone else's driving.

 

[BlueTrain]

Aside from sitting beside my father and observing everything he did in the car or truck (at work) all the years prior to getting my license, my father didn't teach me how to drive and I never once drove the family car.

 

[scottyrocks]

During driving lessons with my Dad, he made me as nervous as a three-legged stool at a Weight Watchers meeting, so me driving with him in the passenger seat weren't my best performances.

I was lucky enough to be able to take Drivers Ed in 11th grade, something usually didn't happen (everyone else did it in 12th), but my Dad knew the two guys who ran the Drivers Ed dept in my school so I was in.

The class was divided into groups of four. I was always in the car with the same three girls. In the space of one 45 minute period, the three of them would do their cautious, lurching (at first) stint, and then, with 5 or so minutes left in the period, I'd get in and he'd tell me to get us back in time. :laugh: I wanted to drive more, but understood the situation, and in that 5 minutes I got to drive like a real (sort of) adult with no (undeserved) criticism. Nice difference from my Dad.

I had, unbeknownst to my parents, driven a few cars since the age of 15, so I basically knew what I was doing by the time I got to Drivers Ed.

 

[tonyb]

There will be a day when driving skills will be as practically obsolete for most of us as horsemanship.

I couldn't say just when I learned to drive. The Old Man had a habit of plopping a kid on his lap to let him or her steer the car down lonely and relatively straight stretches of country road. I had the benefit of seeing my two older brothers struggle a bit in mastering the manual transmission as their 16th birthdays approached. (I had little trouble with it myself.) Without confessing too much, I can say that I was a somewhat experienced driver well ahead of being a licensed one. Which is not to say I wasn't occasionally a hazard to others sharing the road, once I had my license. Judgment, you know, or want thereof.

I have little doubt that getting around in personal vehicles will be safer when the human occupants are no longer at the controls. Truth is, getting around in cars has been getting progressively safer, overall, for several decades now. Several factors account for this -- safer roads, safer cars, less tolerance for drunken and other reckless driving habits, et cetera. Them's the facts. Still, too many people suffer serious injury in car crashes.

Unlike many, I have no objection to red light cameras and unattended radar speed enforcement. I won't be happy should I ever be cited for such a violation, but I won't feel picked on, either.

It's been among my blessings to have lived so much of my life in the American West during the age of the automobile. My fondest memories include long car trips through the mostly wide-open spaces. And I enjoy the driving itself. But I accept that with something gained something else will likely be lost. C 'est la vie, as we say in the trailer park.

 

[BlueTrain]

I'm almost positive the purpose of a red light camera is to produce revenue and some are timed so as to increase the revenue.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm almost positive the purpose of a red light camera is to produce revenue and some are timed so as to increase the revenue.

Hey, all that state of the art tactical gear costs money.