kevinapex: blog 
kevinapex's blog
cars, cars everywhere are cars!
Published Jul. 17, 2008
Can anyone who lives in this area really say they have seen a reduction in traffic with the current high gas prices? I confess that I am a bit hypersensitive to automobile traffic, not because of any sort of pompous environmental militancy, I just don’t like to drive and I view the automobile as a necessary evil in today’s culture. If I could give up my car I would, but I concede that there are few alternatives.
I’ve made some effort to cut down on my driving, mainly via telecommuting and occasionally taking the bus, but it is not always easy and I realize for some people it is next to impossible. That said I am still amazed at the volume of traffic I see at all hours and in all places. I am also dismayed at the way people continue to press the petal to the metal in parking lots, at intersections and even on backloads.
While walking the dog in pedestrian friendly Apex I am always encountering drivers who at best view me as an inconvenience when I have the audacity to need to cross a street, even if there is a pedestrian crossing signal.
I was crossing the street in the RTP this week and a guy gunned it almost as if he meant to try to run me over. In another recent incident I was nearly run over by a guy in a huge SUV towing a boat as it speeded down a single lane road with a 15 mph speed limit. He gave me a nasty look for being in his way.
On a recent Saturday my wife and I drove to Dunn to visit her mother in the hospital and we both were stunned at the volume of traffic at every point of the trip. There are still plenty of big cars and most have single riders in them apparently in big hurries to get somewhere important.
My conclusion is that all this talk about people changing their driving habits is mostly hot air. $4.00 a gallon hurts, and maybe people are holding off buying large SUVs and taking long vacation trips, but it still isn’t high enough to alter the day to day driving most of us do. I think the public is toughing it out and assuming that the prices to drop again like they did after the last oil crisis. I will admit that I do not think a return to cheap oil will be a good thing for this nation in the long term.
Thanks!
close4 Comments
(1 votes) hanna to blow through triangle saturday
(1 votes) drilling for oil a hot topic at gop
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Good blog.
GOLO member since July 20, 2007
July 18, 2008 4:47 a.m.
I vote for NOT ONE MORE FOOT of new HIGHWAY. Build subdivisions, but not new four lanes, not new highways, not widening existing roads, but let the traffic choke itself out, open mass transit lanes, bike paths on the side, and let the roads come to the dead end they are...covering millions of acres of good land, where nothing grows.
GOLO member since January 20, 2008
July 17, 2008 11:33 p.m.
GOLO member since July 4, 2008
July 17, 2008 10:44 p.m.
GOLO member since August 22, 2007
July 17, 2008 10:34 p.m.
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