What's 3 things you must have if you were stuck at home in a blizzard? (inspired by me, stuck in a blizzard)
I think this is quite possibly my favorite road sign in New York:
You can find this decaying sign on Seagirt Boulevard just before you cross the bridge to Atlantic Beach in south Queens.
But the real question is: what the heck does this sign mean? You’re already in the middle of New York when you pass it; that arrow could be pointing in any direction and still be accurate! And if it’s referring to Manhattan, it’s definitely pointing in the wrong direction.
If it said Atlantic Beach or Long Beach or Nassau County or Long Island, it might make some sense…but as it stands, it’s just a simple wooden sign with an arrow pointing to “New York.” And when was the last time the DOT put up signs printed on wood??
To be totally honest, this is actually my favorite road sign in New York. Forget the silly “How sweet it is!” and “Fuggedaboutit!” signs…
“Welcome to Brooklyn: Home To Everyone From Everywhere!”
…that’s the absolute best description of Brooklyn I’ve ever heard.
-SCOUT
Terror in Taipei: Computex taxi drivers watch live TV, video chat while cruising originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Originally posted at The Social
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Mention a city that Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is so closely associated with, you'd be right, - but it better be Manhattan. Grizzled streets with winsome tourists agape at skyscrapers. Long gone diners of meals gone by still offer the hungry and thirsty coffee. Broadway neon ooze the electricity powered by promise and opportunity. Say what you will, New York will always draw the young and vibrant.
Nice video demo on the Viper SmartStart remote car starter on the iPhone.
Image via Crain's
People love to complain about the parking fees at Costco in the East River Plaza, where leaving your car for two hours costs $4.70. But the fee isn't Costco's decision. “We get a lot of grief for the parking lot because it costs $4. It is not our parking lot, by the way,” a store spokesperson told analysts today. In the same phone call, Costco officials said that the store gets good neighborhood traffic during the day, but that they've found New Yorkers just don't want to hop in the car after work to pick up bulk necessities.
If the obviousness of that statement makes steam come out your ears, then you'll enjoy this response from the Wall Street Journal's Marketbeat blog:
Not to be too snarky, but as we're sure Costco is aware, New Yorkers don't tend to travel around in cars. Instead we opt for an elaborate system of subterranean railroads that convey us hither and yon about the city. In these trains, we are often crammed cheek-by-jowl with our fellow travelers, with little room for the pallet-loads of cashews and toilet paper that suburbanites are at liberty to load up on.All good points, but come now: How could Costco possibly have known before it opened that New Yorkers don't drive?
The Weekly Carnage is a Friday round-up of motor vehicle mayhem
across the five boroughs and beyond. For more on the origins and purpose of this
column, please read About the Weekly Carnage.
"The Great" Joe Rollino, killed by driver on January 11 in Brooklyn
Photo: Staten Island AdvanceFollowing Up
Other News
* Based on latest available reports
U.S. commuters spend an average of 50 minutes in their car each day, and that leaves a lot of room for improvement. Make the most of your commute with these 10 tips.
Photo by mattlemmon.
Most people set up their car's mirrors in a way that keeps the edge of their own car in their vision, mostly to provide a sense of perspective. This limits the amount of 'blind spot' coverage provided by your mirrors. Car and Driver suggests a new alignment technique supported by the Society of Automotive Engineers that covers more angles with your side and rear view mirrors. When we first highlighted this tip, several commenters asked what's wrong with just looking over your shoulder as you change lanes—technically, nothing. But if you're willing to commit a little practice time to a new mirror setup, you might find yourself more in control of what's happening as you're speeding down the highway. (Original post)
The Frugal Dad blog suggests taking a second look for commuting discounts, including asking around your firm's HR types to see if any discounts or even pre-tax buy-ins are offered for public transportation, parking, or other commuting costs. If you happen to live in San Francisco, commenter JeffK suggests seeing if your employer might reimburse you for your bicycle commute. Photo by 91RS. (Original post)
Those estimates of driving time that online maps provide? They don't always know your commute like you know your commute. If you must be on time, avoid stress, or maybe just want to try a different route, check out Google's traffic mapping on desktop, iPhones, and Android units, give Bing's experimental maps a go, or, in larger cities, try a service like Commuter Feed, or simply run a Twitter search to see if drivers at a stand-still have shared their misery with the wider world. (Original posts: Google traffic maps, Commuter Feed)
Blogger and web PR thinker Steve Rubel likes to make otherwise unusable time useful, primarily by listening to audiobooks relevant to his trade and queuing up articles for reading with the Instapaper service. If you're similarly willing to give up drive-time radio for something a bit more, well, mind-expanding, we've explored a few options cheaper than forking over bucks to Audible or iTunes. BooksShouldBeFree neatly organizes the public domain offerings, BooksFree offers a Netflix-like rental service, and you might be surprised to learn that iTunes can make any audio file you find into an audiobook. Keep in mind, too, that your local library likely has a good selection of audiobooks available. (Original posts: BooksShouldBeFree, BooksFree, iTunes/audiobooks).
It's the best fuel economy you can get, and the side effects aren't that bad, either. The Sietch Blog answers all the basic questions and gripes about bike commuting to work, and Paul Dorn offers smart tips on planning your route. Feel like you're devastatingly disconnected from your date life? It's fairly cheap to mount your smartphone to your bike—just be safe! Photo by richardmasoner. (Original posts: riding 101, route planning).
Nobody's ever planning to be pulled over, but you can be prepared. Stewart Rutledge schooled us on some techniques for beating a ticket, or at least upping your chance of a smooth transaction. Car and Driver interviewed state troopers on how to behave when pulled over, and a traffic attorney from the state of very serious traffic offenses, Virginia, offered his own debunking of ticket myths. If you've got a lead foot or a rolling stop style, they're all worth a read. Finally, you could try out a service like Trapster to get a heads up on common speed traps. (Original posts: Debunking myths, Trapster)
Managing your commuter stress isn't about a zen state of mind or leaving five hours early. Avoiding minor cases of road rage every time you hop in the car can be accomplished by stepping back from your drive and examining it objectively, suggests auto writer Tom Vanderbilt. Don't change lanes in slow traffic, because it almost never matters. Make eye contact with other drivers when you can, look ahead down the road, and try to avoid a sense of personal entitlement to your lane merge, says Vanderbilt. Mixed with a good audiobook or other good use of down time, your commute might just become a lot less stressful, or even better—something you look forward to. Photo by DannyBen. (Original post)
No, not that kind of stash. We're talking about a pad for your gadgets, DIY car consoles, a clever dashboard camera mount, and makeshift mounts for your iPhone/iPod touch or $2 adjustable multi-gadget mount. Your priority is keeping your eyes on the road, of course, but these tiny projects make it less likely you'll have to dig around underneath a seat for your stuff while driving. (Original posts: sticky pad, console, dash camera, iPhone dock, adjustable dock).
If you're able to telecommute on occasional sick days or with some regularity, you'll still have office etiquette, politics, and logistics to deal with. Our own Gina, who's been working over the net for more than five years, offers some tips at a Harvard Business Review post on remote email, 'checking in' with video chats or teleconferences, and using smart tools to collaborate. Photo by mccun934. (Original post)
Back in the summer of 2008, when automotive fuel averaged $4 a gallon, Jason wrote up a guide to the easy but verified ways of saving money on gas. Since then, gas has leveled off in price and then crept back up, but no matter where it goes from here, spending less cash on your commute is always going to make you feel better about it. Photo by FutureAtlas.
Bill Terrell via the Daily News
A parking garage at a Queens mall, didn't vandalize meters, but it did the next best thing. It plastered them with “No Parking Saturday” signs and placed blockades in front of them, hoping to funnel drivers into paid spots in its lot. The fliers were neon yellow, and marked with the NYPD’s insignia, but in fact they could have been run off at a local Kinkos. "The precinct was not aware that these signs were being put up," Sgt. Carlos Nieves, an NYPD spokeman told the News. 'The only people that are allowed to put these signs up are the NYPD.'
Back in 2004 when the mall was expanding employees were given official signs to post, and afterwards, according to Queens Center Mall spokeswoman Dawn Simon, they continued to “facilitate traffic flow” on busy days by barring street parking. "Initially, the signage was provided by the Police Department," Simon said. "Rather than have them re-issue the signs over and over, we created signs."
But duped drivers were enraged. 'It's disgusting,' said Bill Terrell who took pictures of the signs and blockades. 'It's forcing you to go into the garage.' 'Why should I have to pay for the garage when I'm only going in for an hour and could just pay 75 cents?' asked another driver, Geraldine Simmons. (The garage costs three dollars for the first hour, and a dollar for every hour after that.)
Simon has promised to discontinue the signs, and so far it’s unclear whether the Queens DA will press charges. According to, Ryan Blanch of the Blanch Law Firm, the bogus signs could “warrant charges of defrauding the city or obstructing governmental administration.”
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Townmouse points to this wonderful series of passive-aggressive “winter dibs” notes.
And, yes, we do think highly of ourselves here in NY — so much so that we wouldn’t think to claim ownership of a parking space, leaving it sitting vacant the entire day, just because we exhumed our car from it.
After record numbers of scheming motorists beat, jammed and otherwise vandalized NYC parking meters last year, the number of operational meters is at an all-time low. Officials say some drivers are mad about increased parking fees, and take it out on the meters. Others jam things (not money) in the slots in order to take advantage of a new law that says cars parked at broken meters won’t be ticketed for as long as the time-limit allows. According to the NY Post, 83.9 percent of the 55,000 on-street meters were working from July 1 to Oct. 31, 2009. Why not just turn them all into into bike racks!
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