Well, god forbid we stop doing -that-...

[bzarcher]

Power out for 500,000 people.

Broadcasts on radio and TV telling people to stay home if possible and don't call the police/fire/ems unless it's a life threatening emergency.

AEP says that power may not be restored for up to a week because a lot of their repair crews are down taking care of Texas.

But according to several reports the police apparently still have the time to set up speed traps on Dublin Road?

Wow, fuck -you-, Mr. Policeman. Thanks for showing us that you don't have anything better to do than try to fill your ticket quota.

Comments

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

I hate devil's advocate, and really resent it most of the time, so forgive the inherent hypocrisy in the question: why are people speeding and blowing through intersections if the power is all messed up and there are trees down?

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

It's allright.

The people I talked to weren't speeding - they were driving normally, but the cops were set up very obviously with their radar guns out and sweeping them on everyone trying to get to work.

[joriel.livejournal.com]

Actually, my uncle is a cop in NJ, and i asked him once about something similar, and they do it becuase of all the chaos. People are freaked out and driving crazier, accident numbers skyrocket during bad weather and power outages, and theyr'e trying to keep the hospital's load down as best they can by making a presence on the roads becuase the hospitals are struggling to keep everything going and less patients is better on the generators.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

OK, that I can see, but why in a mostly residential area? Wouldn't that be better on the highways?

[(Anonymous)]

Because of the other unfortunate but horribly true statistic about most accidents happening near home, I forget if it's 5 or 10 miles on the actual number of the statistic.. :( I don't know why it works out that way, maybe people feel secure like the hard part is behind them and stop paying attention?

What I'd like to know about my own town's driving issues is why are they taking lights away from dangerous intersections? Are they TRYING to get us to kill each other off? Won't that affect their paychecks that generate from our tax revunue? Who's in charge of deciding where the lights go anyway?

[mg4h.livejournal.com]

No, it's because statistically your driving habits will center around your house, by definition, so there's that many more chances for you to have an accident "near your home."

For example - I drive to and from work five days a week. I must leave my house and return to my house by the same roads. Once I get a half-mile away, I can take several routes into work, but I still end up being within 10 miles of home, no matter how I drive.

I do that five times a week. I also go shopping a day or two a week. For each of those trips, I have to again leave the house, and return.

If I go on a long trip, I have to again - leave the house and return.

So, those few miles near my house are going to have every single trip each and every day as a portion of the trip. And this is true for many people. Statistically, as a portion of the miles I drive per day, if I have an accident it has a more than 70% to be within 10 miles of my house. The rest of the distance is covered when I have to go to the other side of Pittsburgh, or the other side of the state, etc.

There's lies, dammed lies, and statistics - you can do what you want with numbers, and they can still be true ;)