Another car on the W&OD

[txgoonie]

The GPS defense? Unreal.

[Brent]

@txgoonie 57555 wrote:

The GPS defense? Unreal.

Florida.

[Subby]

Stop reading comments sections on the web. Stop reading comments sections on the web. Stop reading comments sections on the web. Stop reading comments sections on the web. Stop reading comments sections on the web.

[baiskeli]

Florida Man is everywhere! He does all kinds of amazing things, in Florida and across our nation. Florida Man has super powers! He does things other people don’t. He often uses is not-average level of intelligence in his feats. You can see what I mean by googling “Florida Man” or following him on Twitter (FloridaMan). His latest exploits, from Google:
[h=3]Florida man rearrested after punching deputy in jail lobby

Report: Florida man secretly videotaped naked stepdaughter in bathroom while looking for pelvic tattoos

Florida Man Robs Gas Station While Applying for a Job There
[/h]

[DaveK]

The best police crash report I’ve ever read included the following (paraphrased):

Driver 1 turned right on red and struck Driver 2. Driver 1 turned because GPS told them to Turn Right Now.

Not joking.

[bobco85]

After receiving numerous calls from trail users, a police officer on a motorcycle caught up with the vehicle, a Chrysler 300 sedan, in Glencarlyn Park.

I just don’t get it. Multiple things here:
1. In order to get onto the trail, he had to drive up onto the curb or use the pedestrian ramps at Four Mile Run/Columbia Pike.
2. While he was on the trail, his “lane” had bright yellow dashed lines in the middle of it (just like the bike trails in Florida) that he ignored.
3. He followed his GPS without exercising good judgement.
4. He didn’t register that, “hey, a whole bunch of pedestrians and cyclists seem to be standing on the side of the road staring at me; maybe something is wrong.”
5. It scares me to think what speed he was driving since that section has a couple of curves that are difficult to see around. It seems like he was going slower than that drunk driver from McLean, but still.
6. On his entry point, what more can be done to help prevent any future incidents like this? While I would advocate for a flexpost bollard to be placed in the middle of the trail where the stop sign is, I do think that spot could lose a lot of the asphalt and a “No left/right turn” signs on Columbia Pike could help.

[DismalScientist]

#1 is wrong. There is a covenient driveway-type ramp northbound trail access.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@bobco85 57564 wrote:

3. He followed his GPS without exercising good judgement.

I can imagine precisely one scenario where GPS would advise such a turn, and that would involve the driver selecting the little bicycle or pedestrian icon when putting the route into Google Maps. That part of the scenario is pretty easy to imagine, but for that to play out the way it did would require an almost unbelievable lack of situational awareness on the part of the driver.

So actually that whole sequence of events seems pretty freaking plausible…

[jrenaut]

To be fair, anyone who can drive a mile down something that is so obviously a bike path has already demonstrated an almost unbelievable lack of situational awareness.

[txgoonie]

@DismalScientist 57566 wrote:

#1 is wrong. There is a covenient driveway-type ramp northbound trail access.

Well, sorta. There are two access points, but neither is wide enough to accommodate the width of a car. One set of tires would still have to go up a curb. http://goo.gl/maps/Wilse

[jabberwocky]

…people are idiots. Remember your mom asking you “if your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?” Well, if a GPS directed them off a bridge, 20% of the population would totally go for it.

[Tide19]

@Subby 57558 wrote:

Stop reading comments sections on the web. Stop reading comments sections on the web. Stop reading comments sections on the web. Stop reading comments sections on the web. Stop reading comments sections on the web.

What did these people do before there were internets to troll? Send a lot of letters to the editor? Randomly interrupt conversations at the local tavern?

[Drewdane]

@Subby 57558 wrote:

Stop reading comments sections on the web. Stop reading comments sections on the web. Stop reading comments sections on the web. Stop reading comments sections on the web. Stop reading comments sections on the web.

Oh, I don’t know – I rather enjoyed the “Never mind the Bollards, here’s the Sex Pistols” comment!

[ShawnoftheDread]

@Tide19 57587 wrote:

What did these people do before there were internets to troll? Send a lot of letters to the editor? Randomly interrupt conversations at the local tavern?

Yes and yes. Think Ignatius Reilly, Myrna Minkoff, and Cliff Claven.

[lim]

this reminds me of a guy who drove off a cliff and landed on someones roof saying, ‘the gps told me to turn right’

[Author]

Posts