Month: May 2008

Speed Cameras

Every time I go home to England I am surprised by the number of speed cameras on the roads. Pretty much every village has one, and every roadworks seems to have one too. Of course, it’s likely that most of them are fakes but 99.9% of drivers obey them. You can see some crazy fast driving on the motorway and then suddenly there is a camera sign and everyone is driving sanely until they are past it.

Something new this time was “average speed cameras”. The idea here is that there are two cameras and your average speed is computed between the two and you will be fined if that average is above the limit. I saw a couple of these, but really find it hard to believe that they are real. Is there a person reviewing all the images with a sliderule? I really can’t see a computer matching licence plates and speeds.

60,000 Miles

Carrie turned over 60,000 miles yesterday, and picked up a new new rock chip as a present. And when I say rock chip, I really mean rock gouge. From the inside it looks like a 1 inch by 1/3 inch oblong pit but outside it’s definitely a ball sized dip. It’s up in the top corner passenger-side so doesn’t obscure my view but I am a little worried about it spreading. Two MINIs owned, four windscreens and more rock chips than I can count. What do they make these windscreens out of – glass??

Hypermiling, sorta

Suddenly hypermiling is the word du jour so I thought I’d let myself get caught up in the fervour. Well, not really, but I have been mixing up my driving habits with some good results.

This morning the OBC was indicating 30.1mpg after 350-odd miles, something I have never seen all the time I’ve owned the ’05. Better yet, the low-fuel light was yet to come on so it looked like I would finally get my first ever 400 mile tank. But then I was stymied – by an Arco gas station selling premium at 3.925. I’d almost certainly be paying 20c a gallon more if I waited close to 400 miles and eventually the luxury of paying less than $4 a gallon won out. My actual mpg came out to be 29.1, my highest ever.

My new driving habits? Nothing earth-shattering, just trying to pull away more evenly, drive the speed limit on the flat and uphill, floor it like I own it on the downslopes.