I Wish ... Was Never Invented

[jldavid47]

AI

 

[COcheesehead]

With roundabouts, I confess that I'm a work in progress.

I got honked at in recently. I'm 100% it was my fault not understanding how those darn things work. When I mentioned how confusing they are in a conversation, a niece mentioned, when you are in the inner circle, you have the right of way. Upon, listening I'm thinking "What? There is an inner circle?"

I can look at youtube and drink to kool-aid and see the concept. But when in the fog of driving in one, there seems so much going on a one time. Anticipation, leap of faith that not going to smash into someone or get smashed, in the meantime signaling and finding which exit to use while drifting in a circle. Makes my head spin just thinking about them.

The car in the circle has the right of way. If you focus on that, you’re fine. So if someone enters the circle before you, you must yield to them.

 

[easysurfer]

The car in the circle has the right of way. If you focus on that, you’re fine. So if someone enters the circle before you, you must yield to them.

Thanks, lightbulb just got a little brighter.

Guess I need a hunger games mentality to get the circle. Been too careful tip toeing around all the moving cars.

 

[f35phixer]

-1000 for roundabout ! as someone said, ease of bad crashes....

Have you ever drove in Europe easy? Always always hope I'm following someone, god knows I'd go right ;-)

TV commercials is mine, hate them, thanks god for DVR fast forward.
Ya i know they are needed but SOOOOOO Many. Just use nightly news, towards end of cast, you get 3 'mercials and 1 ten second story.

 

[pacergal]

The car in the circle has the right of way. If you focus on that, you’re fine. So if someone enters the circle before you, you must yield to them.

The problem around here is more often than not, the cars going in one direction (either N/S or E/W) enter and go faster than speed limit, and just keep their line of traffic moving so those attempting to enter the opposite have to wait forever to merge in!

They are supposed to help with keeping traffic moving more than a multiple way stop light, but in busy traffic, it doesn't seem to work here.
There are two on the way to one of the freeways nearby. Not my favorite.

 

[Whisper66]

The US Tax Code. I am always frustrated by what it takes to figure the tax we owe. What a waste of people's time and money. I know it will never happen but I dream of a simple tax "code" with nothing but a progressive tax rate based on one's earned income plus a single flat tax on other income such as capital gains, dividends, interest. Never happen in the US...but one can dream.

 

[easysurfer]

-1000 for roundabout ! as someone said, ease of bad crashes....

Have you ever drove in Europe easy? Always always hope I'm following someone, god knows I'd go right ;-)

TV commercials is mine, hate them, thanks god for DVR fast forward.
Ya i know they are needed but SOOOOOO Many. Just use nightly news, towards end of cast, you get 3 'mercials and 1 ten second story.

Have never drove in Europe. Funny you should mention as I was just looking on Youtube on roundabouts' origin as when I go through them I think "This is nuts, must be like driving in France or something." Seems roundabouts originated in France. Also popular in the UK. As for the states, a mayor from Indiana is to blame (depending on your perspective). He fell in love with them while in the UK and made it his mission to get them to the states.

 

[Whisper66]

Drones - I love the technology but very concerned about abuse of it. A concern I've had since I first saw one is that it may allow people to easily use weapons distant from themselves which may make accountability very difficult. For example....

 

[scrabbler1]

Lots of good ones here. Put me down for Facebook, Twitter, leaf blowers, smart phones, and spam email.

 

[marko]

House gutters...invention of the Devil!

But you'll take my Keurig when you pry it from.......


But I have a good dozen roundabouts ("Rotaries" here in New England) within 5 miles and and they work great. Better than a traffic light stopping you with no one else in sight.

 

[scrabbler1]

Oh, like spam email, how about robodialers which make all those annoying robocalls?

 

[audreyh1]

Ha ha, I love roundabouts!

 

[Major Tom]

It started with the Beeper...the need for people to be "connected" at all times.

I think it started before that, with the telephone, or the telegraph even. We could keep going back in time before that if you like......!

 

[Northforker]

Income taxes

I wish we had a flat consumption tax with the following exemptions. Food , Clothing, and Shelter. EVERYTHING else gets taxed at the same rate. You can choose how much you pay in taxes by your lifestyle, got a big boat?, big tax! got a dinghy, little tax!

I know, this would put a million lawyers and tax accountants out of business, actually that would be a positive thing! Politicians would lose a lot of pressure from lobbyists for exemptions if there weren't any exemptions!

 

[audreyh1]

I think it started before that, with the telephone, or the telegraph even. We could keep going back in time before that if you like......!

Agreed! Remember decades ago when some teens would get their own telephone line? They were on it all the time! Just like cellphones today.

But yes the beeper/pager was an intrusion for when you were away from you desk. I hated it so much because it was work “emergencies”.

 

[Calico]

Social media

 

[Dash man]

Have never drove in Europe. Funny you should mention as I was just looking on Youtube on roundabouts' origin as when I go through them I think "This is nuts, must be like driving in France or something." Seems roundabouts originated in France. Also popular in the UK. As for the states, a mayor from Indiana is to blame (depending on your perspective). He fell in love with them while in the UK and made it his mission to get them to the states.

I learned to love roundabouts when stationed in England back in the 80s. Some in the cities were four lanes wide, maybe more. They were huge. Once you learn to use them they’re easy.

 

[W2R]

What do I wish was never invented?

Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and all those other anonymous, sultry, robotic, invariably female voices and presences that invade my electronics. To me they are annoying and sometimes even an invasion of privacy, even if others think they are oh-so-handy, delightful, and sexy.

I do my best to shut them all down. It would be marvelous if one could simply command, "Alexa, go away and never return!" "Siri, I hate you! Get lost forever!" "Cortana, buzz off!"

 

[Qs Laptop]

I learned to love roundabouts when stationed in England back in the 80s. Some in the cities were four lanes wide, maybe more. They were huge. Once you learn to use them they’re easy.

Agreed that roundabouts are great when you get used to using them. Here is a busy exchange near me that I travel on a couple times a week. It features five roundabouts, several flyover ramps, clover leafs, etc. My path takes me through four of the roundabouts.

 

[NgineER]

-1 roundabouts. Although I encountered a couple that have stop signs going into them, utterly dumb and useless.

Vinyl siding - ugly and when put on older homes it completely eliminates all the beautiful details that were incorporated in the home design. Loss of beautiful trim and details.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Yield signs on freeway onramps. In Pennsylvania it's a thing. And even when there isn't a yield sign, drivers pretend like one is there. Never had that problem in California.

 

[Gumby]

Here in CT, we have stop signs at the entrances to some of our highways, and there usually is no merge lane, nor any shoulder. The picture below is from the Merritt Parkway. The car going by on the highway is likely going >70 mph.

 

[CaptTom]

Funny, we always called them traffic circles. I'd also heard "rotary." It wasn't until I started watching Britcoms on TV decades ago that I heard them called roundabouts. Somehow that term crossed the pond and now everyone here in the US calls them that.

Whatever you call them, they're far superior to traffic lights. All you need to do is know how to merge into the flow of traffic from a Yield sign. If you can't do that, I think there's a larger problem. That was part of the driving test for my license! I do get stuck behind people like that from time to time, and it really fouls up traffic. How did they even get their license?

Admittedly I've seen poorly designed roundabouts. NH has a few which have two lanes at each entrance. Get in the wrong one and you're a real hazard. On the flip side, if you get stuck behind some slowpoke "from away" you have a chance to blow by them when they hesitate about which lane to use.

Tip and charity prompts at credit card machines
Twitter and Facebook
24 hour news
Clickbait headlines
Billboards (nothing makes an area look trashier)
Golden Parachutes for failed CEOs

I agree on all counts, except billboards. Maine has essentially outlawed them along the highways. It's stupid. We're a tourist state. On long trips in unfamiliar areas billboards are very informative. And after driving for 100 miles and seeing nothing but trees, a few billboards can help keep you alert. It's not like the few trees they block your view of are any prettier than the rest.

Yield signs on freeway onramps...

Here in CT, we have stop signs at the entrances to some of our highways....

I'm confused. Stopping at the end of an on-ramp is suicide. The ramp is there to allow you room to accelerate so you can merge safely. There are exceptions, like where the highway is particularly congested and limiting entering traffic using stop lights at the ramps eases the flow on the main road for everyone. I've also seen stop signs where construction or other restrictions prevent a safe merge.

 

[Gumby]

You should come down here and give them a try. It's exhilarating, especially at night.

 

[Walt34]

"Exhilarating" sort of like nighttime carrier landings?