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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Author
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Topic: So how many hours do you spend in traffic each week?
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 06-21-2013 02:15 PM
About 30 minutes on the bus each way to and from work five days per week, so about five hours. I occasionally have to work Saturdays, but that doesn't happen very often these days, and very occasionally on a Sunday, probably about once each year now.
Scott, why can't you think, listen to the radio, read or whatever, on the train or the bus? I always go through my e-mail on the way in, usually on a smartphone, sometimes on a laptop. Laptops are difficult if the bus is full enough for somebody to be sitting next to me.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 06-22-2013 04:36 PM
quote: Mike Blakesley
Leo - just curious, why don't you like automatic transmissions?
The feeling of being out of control of the decision as to when to change gear. If I'm approaching a steep hill 100 yards in the distance at, say, 25mph and accelerating, an automatic gearbox will change up as I approach it, leaving the engine struggling until either it realises what's going on and changes back down again, or I override it. Likewise, if you're approaching a hairpin bend, it's going to leave you in the wrong gear for accelerating away from the other side in most situations. They're OK for urban driving on the straight and flat (e.g. driving two blocks and then stopping, repeated for 5-10 miles or so), but on roads that are twisty and/or of varying gradients, they just make the job of driving a lot harder, for me at any rate. It's probably because I just don't have much experience in them (learnt to drive in 1994 and didn't drive an automatic for the first time until 2009), and with a bit of practice would instinctively get used to when to leave it in D and when to use it in override mode, effectively as a manual but without a foot-operated clutch.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 06-23-2013 10:17 AM
I'm guessing that your Morris 1100 didn't have synchromesh, and therefore not only was the gearbox manual, but you had to double-declutch as well. My first car was a 1979 Ford Fiesta (the very first year of the mk. I, and built at Dagenham), which had a weird sort of half-assed synchromesh. You didn't have to double-declutch when moving sequentially up the gears, but you did when changing down or moving up but not sequentially (e.g. if accelerating heavily away after overtaking a tractor and then changing directly from second to fourth after pulling back in). I still instinctively double-declutch now, even though with today's gearboxes it's totally unnecessary. I once drove my cousin's Morris Minor Traveller (late '60s, but can't rememeber the precise year), which he lovingly restored over several years. It even had a magneto and a starting handle for use if the battery was flat! That had no synchromesh whatsoever, and so you had to double-declutch on each and every gear change.
quote: Claude S. Ayakawa
Commute time would be about an hour and a half but I did not mind because I used to tune my radio to my local public radio station and listen to classical music and their many excellent news programs that helped reduced the stress of driving through rush hour traffic.
I tend not to listen to music while driving, because I'd be afraid of concentrating on it too much and not on the road enough. One of the things I like about driving in the US is there are lots of talk radio stations to choose from, that are stimulating enough to lessen the boredom of chugging through miles and miles of desert freeway, but not demanding enough of your attention that you can't switch off from them if you suddenly need to. In Britain there are only two national speech stations that you can receive pretty much anywhere on the road: BBC Radio Four, which is a highbrow speech/documentary/drama station (if it's broadcasting something interesting, great, but more often than not it's a self-righteous, preachy documentary about global warming, or a depressing play laced with feminist propaganda), and Radio Five, which is 90% a sports coverage station (if it's cricket or Formula One I'm fine with it, but otherwise no thanks).
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Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 06-23-2013 11:32 AM
quote: Leo Enticknap
I've never had a problem changing the side of the road on which I drive, unless the steering wheel side of the car is 'wrong'. I once took my own car through the tunnel to France, and that was really stressful, because if you're driving on the right and the driver's side of the car is also on the right, you're nearest the kerb, with limited visibility and having to rely on your offside wing mirror a lot.
I had the same kind of experiences. Taking my own car across the channel was a really bad move. The last time I had to drive there, I took a rental and that worked a lot better, although I was kind of anxious at first to drive with the steering wheel on the "wrong" side.
quote:
I actually find it a lot more stressful as a pedestrian than as a driver in countries that drive on the right, because I'm instinctively looking in the wrong direction before starting to cross a road!
Since we're in the majority, we reserve the right not to paint "look left" on every curb ![[Wink]](wink.gif) .
quote: Mike Blakesley
Leo - just curious, why don't you like automatic transmissions?
Although automatic transmissions are getting more regular around here, they're still in the minority.
My girlfriend's car has automatic transmission, I tend to drive "with a stick". I don't have a real preference, if you're used to drive with manual transmission, you're almost on automatic pilot, switching gears is something that's almost a subconscious process.
The most annoying thing while switching from MT to AT is the tendency for your left foot to hit hard on the brake while trying to locate the clutch every time you want to stop.
I don't have a real problem with the "lack of control" for flat or slightly hilly terrain, most modern automatic transmissions seem to be reasonably intelligent. The only exception is mountainous terrain, even if you put it in "3" or "1", the lack of control in those situations can be frustrating.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 06-23-2013 02:29 PM
quote: Leo Enticknap
I'm guessing that your Morris 1100 didn't have synchromesh, and therefore not only was the gearbox manual, but you had to double-declutch as well. My first car was a 1979 Ford Fiesta (the very first year of the mk. I, and built at Dagenham), which had a weird sort of half-assed synchromesh. You didn't have to double-declutch when moving sequentially up the gears, but you did when changing down or moving up but not sequentially (e.g. if accelerating heavily away after overtaking a tractor and then changing directly from second to fourth after pulling back in). I still instinctively double-declutch now, even though with today's gearboxes it's totally unnecessary. I once drove my cousin's Morris Minor Traveller (late '60s, but can't rememeber the precise year), which he lovingly restored over several years. It even had a magneto and a starting handle for use if the battery was flat! That had no synchromesh whatsoever, and so you had to double-declutch on each and every gear change.
The 1100 had syncromesh, except on first. It was an odd car in many ways, transverse engine, front wheel drive, positive earth electrics, the gearbox was underneath the engine, with lots of rodding between it and the lever. It also had an odd suspension system which had to be de-pressurised before doing any major work, and then pumped up again afterwards.
The Toyota which I learned in had a short lever with a very positive change; the 100 was horrible in comparison, very sloppy, and often difficult to get into a gear. I was once driving home and when I changed gear at a junction the lever came away in my hand! I managed to shove it back in and get into second, but didn't dare to move it again, and so had to drive the whole way home, which fortunately wasn't far, in that gear. The following morning I went to the local garage who told me that it was quite common for that to happen on the 1100, the lever was held in by a stell plate with two bolts in it, and those bolts often work loose. Great.
I never wanted to drive, I only ever learned at the insistance of mother who wanted taking to places such as the old 'Orange Luxuary Coaches' station in Brixton. I think I drove less thann 1000 miles in the several years that I had the car, and when car and mother both expired at about the same time I stopped driving. I absolutly hated it, and the roads are even worse now than they were then. I'd far rather leave somebody else to do the driving.
I don't know what 'double-declutching' is, though I have heard of it.
The old British Rail Diesel trains from the '50s had an interesting gearbox; I don't know why a smaller version of it wasn't designed for cars. It's a Wilson constant mesh epicyclic box. There are four gears, in the top one all of the gears are locked together and there is a direct 1:1 drive through the box. The other three gears are provided by three epicyclic gear systems, with the one to be used selected by tightening a brake band around it. To change gear, other than to fourth, one brake band is loosened and another is tightened. As suggested by the name, all of the gears are constantly meshed. There's an automatic wear adjuster thich takes up any slack in the brake bands. It's a very simple system, and seems to work well.
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