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Tag Archives: Travel

Yesterday I drove 6 hours, to Sacramento and back for a decade birthday of my brother-in-law and the way there was during rush hour out of the bay area.  For what I am about to say, I do have a certain bias; few people would say that I drive slowly  rather to the contrary.

 

One of those things that I can feel my blood pressure rise around are individuals who are not keeping up with the traffic flow.  I have found that these people frequently drive a Prius.  In conversations with Prius drivers they talk about working to get even higher mileage by limiting acceleration and therefore not necessarily keeping up with the car in front of them.

 

This is for all those Prius drivers;  Have you thought about how self centered you are, how much more total gas you are causing everyone else to use?

 

Let’s take a commute along an expressway as the first example.  Assume that the extra gap between the Prius and the car in front would at the normal density of cars on the road hold 3 additional cars.  When a Prius goes through an intersection on a green light with traffic behind him, there will be 3 cars (or however many would fit in the excess gap) that don’t make it through the signal before it turns red.   These 3 cars will then idle at the signal burning gas until it turns green, let’s say 30 seconds for the signal to keep the math easy or a total of 90 seconds extra idle time.  This becomes true for most of the signals on a commute.  If there are 10 signals the virtuous Prius driver has added 900 seconds of extra commute time to the collective everyone else who is driving.  900 Seconds is 15 minutes. How much gas is this?  Except that it is worse than this.  Those 3 cars that didn’t make it through the signal because some Prius had left a big  gap, then mean that 3 less cars make it through the prior  signal.  At the 10th signal, there are 10 signals each with 3 cars that have had to wait.   The total additional idling at signals for a 10 signal model with 30 seconds per signal cycle yields an added delay to the collective commute of 4950 seconds or 82 minutes.  Mileage may vary depending on signals (count and duration)  and Prius gaps.

 

Let’s take a freeway during rush hour.   Let’s assume that the traffic packed, but moving at 30 miles per hour.  Let’s assume that each normal car uses 53 feet of space for itself and the gap in front of it.  This yields 100 cars per mile.  The reality is that there is usually less space and higher density. If traffic is heavy like this for 5 miles.  Our 3 car Prius gap is roughly 159 feet, or about 3.5 seconds of time.  The Prius is delaying 5 miles, or 500 cars by that ~3.5 seconds which is roughly adding 30 minutes of driving time to the overall commute with each of the 500 cars behind the Prius suffering.

 

Do the desires of a few outweigh the needs of the many?  Think about this the next time you see a car not keeping up with the car in front, and notice what type of car it may be.  Are you one of those drivers?

 

Patrick Lynch

Patrick Lynch Photography

Sierra Fall Colors

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In a small village in Chile, where a majority of the inhabitants speak Mapudungun, the native language of the Mapuche people, my mind effortlessly, eagerly, mutes the buzz of spoken conversation and voices soon give way to other sounds–shrill chirps and the soft flutter of wings, the squeal of angry tires on asphalt and the steady mechanic pulse of engines and machines. I notice the people walking next to me, their shoulders stooped from the weight of their weekly groceries, their bodies swathed in brightly colored fabrics that scratch my bare arms as they shuffle past. I am overwhelmed by my senses, which became heightened the second I stopped processing what was being spoken, and everything seems to move in slow motion. I can smell the small wilted jasmine on the pavement and the putrid stench of sewage and drek from the landfill on the outskirts of town; I can feel the muggy air, feel the beads of water stick to my arms, my t-shirt clinging to my skin.

Although I am fluent in Spanish, I am a complete stranger to Mapudungun. On my trips through Chile I often passed through small villages that were largely indigenous, which meant I could not rely on spoken language to interact with people. So I paid close attention to nonverbal cues like voice modulation, eye contact, and body language to make sense of what went on because those were the only things I understood.

I’ve found this skill to be incredibly important. Not only does it make me quite popular at intimate parties–I’m talking about my rad charades skills here–but it’s taught me a lot about empathy, perception, and social bonding. After returning from my travels in South America I thought it’d be a long time before I’d get to appreciate that connection, that mutual understanding between two people who communicate effectively without having to say a word, again.

Then a couple weeks ago my friend invited me over to his place for a family barbecue. Over the years I had heard bits and pieces about them, but apart from meeting his siblings and a cousin or two they had largely remained a mystery. Needless to say I jumped at the opportunity to make new friends and bond over food and drinks (my favorite type of bonding!).

He warned me that I’d probably feel a little awkward being there since they mostly spoke to each other in Vietnamese (this was especially true among his parents, uncles and aunts, less so among his cousins). Fueled by genuine curiosity about his family–and perhaps more importantly the idea that it’d kinda sorta be like traveling again (it had been 10 months since I had really traveled…I was desperate and my wanderlust demanded some sort of gratification)–the prospect of spending an evening being the odd one out didn’t bother me.

And you know what? I had a great time. We ate some yummy food (my friend’s sister had made tasty spring rolls and his cousins had grilled delicious meats), drank stuff and enjoyed each other’s company.

As it got cooler we arranged ourselves around the bonfire. It was here, during frequent lulls in the conversation and occasional calls for “another round of drinks!”, that I felt for the first time in months that feeling of being lost yet grounded at the same time. My brain, numb to the unfamiliar sounds of Vietnamese, began picking up on other clues to try to infer what was being said.

Many of my observations focused on social codes and cues. I paid particular attention to how my friend’s family signaled their acceptance of me as a viable member of the group. I noticed that as the night wore on they became more comfortable with my being there because they would “code-switch”, shift between Vietnamese and English, more often in an attempt to include me in the conversation. This could have been out of politeness, but I’ve gathered from similar experiences that if the group wants you there, they’ll make an active effort to involve you in whatever it is they’re doing.

Alcohol, a common facilitator of social bonding, also played a small role in their recognition of me as a friend (as opposed to a stranger). For example, I poured the first drink for myself but after that a cousin would fill my glass and invite me to drink with him. I realize that the culture of drinking differs across societies and generations, and what the family members demonstrated may again be nothing more than politeness, but I saw it as their way of signaling that I was being included.

Was I out of my comfort zone? Hell yeah. But if traveling has taught me anything it’s this: I don’t want to live a life where I’m not pushing boundaries or breaking down the walls that keep people away from getting to know me; I want to be okay with feeling a little uncomfortable or awkward in new situations; life is supposed to be messy and confusing and nobody really has shit figured out in their 20’s no matter what your high school counselors tell you and even if they do that’s okay you rock anyway. So yay! to having new experiences without having to travel very far and yay! to learning more about how (differently) you see the world when you shut up for a couple of hours. I guess my high school counselors were right about one thing: actions can speak louder than words.

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Friday Harbor is on San Juan Island in Washington’s Puget Sound. In Flight Sim X, a flight simulation, Friday Harbor is the default airport. I have been flying from that airport for months without knowing where San Juan Island is located. Imagine the excitement when I learned that we were a ferry jump away from Friday Harbor when on a Road Trip in August. Imagine my disappointment when we missed our ferry and had to settle for Orcas Island.

Hmmm.. Talk about disappointment.. until while walking around Eastsound on Orcas, that we ran into this:

 

Orca (1 of 9)

 

It just happened that this was the weekend for the annual “Fly In”. The pilots there were rather disappointed that there were so few planes this year. It turns out that the weather proceeding the event had been pretty bad and most pilots were not willing to take a chance on the trip just for bad weather. You can get a fair idea of the weather from these pictures.  By the way, I think there were over 50 planes there.

There were some “Experimentals”, planes that people build themselves. I spoke to one guy that took 10 years to build his, spending quite a bit of money. He said you can now buy the plane for $60,000. I think he assessed his investment as over $110K. But much of what he put into the plane was not available when he started.

 

Orca (2 of 9)

 

There was a fair bit of low pass flying which was the excitment of the FlyIn ..

 

Orca (3 of 9)

 

Until the real fun began as this pair of T-6s made their way down the runway and started some very nice formation flying.

 

Orca (6 of 9)

 

Their low passes were thrilling to watch/hear/feel !!

 

Orca (8 of 9)

 

Here is the view of Orcas Island Ferry Port as we were leaving.

 

Orca (9 of 9)

 

Ask me what I now think about missing a ferry…

 

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