500 swings wide

Despite the distance between her car’s wheels being a mere eight (8) feet, Fiat 500 owner Gita L. Dietz enthusiastically swung her car into oncoming traffic in order to make right-hand turns seven times on her way to work (and seven times on her way back from work, later the same evening). Having apparently seen via a video application loaded onto her mobile phone the maneuver performed by a professional driver operating a vehicle with multiple wheelbases (a rig towing a trailer), Gita immediately decided to start doing the same every time she turned her car (which has a single wheelbase).

Friends and neighbors are concerned about the mental wellbeing of Ms Dietz; she tends to signal a turn in one direction before moving her car in the complete opposite direction, which is a lethally dangerous and totally asshole way to conduct oneself as the driver of a compact passenger vehicle. Competent drivers eschew such behavior and simply turn their cars in the direction they want to go without countersteering first. (For more information about some guidelines for how to turn vehicles, consider reading this page from the California DMV.)

[ americanifesto / 場黑麥 / jpr / urbanartopia / whorphan ]

its proper place

He slowed down, stopping on the side of the road. Baggage had shifted to the left-hand side of his vehicle, unbalancing it. With due care, he gently moved the items back into an equilibrium of sorts, allowing the right side of his mount to bear its equal share of the weight. Moments later, without his even realizing it, he found that the baggage had shifted again, whereupon he, again, pulled over.

And, again, he restored equilibrium.

He went merrily along his path for a while, paying close attention to keeping everything in its proper place. Someone swerved into his lane, however, a potentially sticky situation narrowly avoided. This time, only some of the baggage had shifted, not all of it, for he had tried hard to stay aware of where things were despite distraction. He pulled over and repositioned the things that had crept to the front and left of the vehicle.

Once more making headway, his vehicle balanced for the time being, he decided to pay closer attention to the moment when things actually started to shift. He felt it and, for once, stopped the inequilibrium before it became pronounced.

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥