Jim Kenzie's The Driver's Seat

Scramble this

Everything old is new again.

I remember as a kid visiting my cousins in Cleveland. I think it was Cleveland; might have been Detroit.

But some of the intersections were what they called "do-si-do" intersections. The traffic lights would go red for all vehicle lanes in all directions for thirty seconds, and pedestrians could walk any which way they liked - one side of the street to the other, or diagonally across the intersection.

Must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

My understanding is that the concept originated in Kansas City around 1940, then spread to various other U.S. cities, including, presumably, Cleveland and/or Detroit.

To my knowledge, no U.S. cities, certainly none that I have been in since, well, I was a kid, use the concept now. I can only imagine that is because it didn't work.

Either traffic got Major League snarled, pedestrians got mowed down like so many bowling pins, or both.

But the City of Toronto feels they have whatever those problems may have been licked, because yesterday, Yonge and Dundas became a do-si-do corner.

Or, as they have chosen to call it a, "scramble" corner.

"Scramble"? Doesn't that sort-of imply a high degree of energy? Rapid, almost panicky movement, as in jet fighter pilots scrambling to intercept the enemy?

Not sure that's the image they should be wanting to communicate.

Not to mention what one does to eggs.

I hope that isn't what happens to pedestrians at Yonge and Dundas.

Apparently, pedestrians at the intersection yesterday were somewhat confused by the new approach. The City had guides in orange vests helping people cross the street. You'd have thought some enterprising Boy Scout troop would get out there - they could have dusted off a month's worth of good deeds in a couple of hours.

Motorists also had some trouble figuring it out. Some nudged their way into the no-drive zone, only to be reprimanded by uniformed police officers. At least they weren't out running radar.

I haven't been down there yet, but I can only imagine that right turns on the red would have to be banned in order for this to have half a chance of working.

If it "works", and I am not sure what criteria city planners will use to make that determination, the scramble intersection idea will proliferate.

I guess we'll just have to wait and - scramble.

Phil Hill - 1927 - 2008

If you win a Formula One World Drivers' Championship for Ferrari, you are a hero in Italy forever.

Phil Hill, who passed away today from complications of Parkinson's Disease, was every bit that.

He was the first American (and only American-born) driver to win the title, in 1961. He also had numerous other racing successes, notably at Le Mans and Sebring.

I had the great honour to co-host with Mr. Hill a "Fantasy Tour" of Canadian and American car enthusiasts to Italy in 1997. Despite it having been three and a half decades since he won his title, he was recognized everywhere he went.

One of my lasting memories of that event is seeing him spot some litter on a street in Monza near the Formula One circuit. He picked it up and marched it straight to the garbage can. Must have been a bit of Canadian in the man somewhere.

On another occasion a few years earlier, he was a guest of Pontiac at a press event. They had set up a dual slalom course - two Firebird Trans-Ams would be sent off simultaneously, following identical but mirror-image courses through bewildering sets of pylons. I grabbed a spot in the back seat behind him - you don't often get the chance to ride with a World Champion.

Just before we got the "go" signal, he leaned over his shoulder and asked, "So, what is this, then?"

I replied, "Just follow the course through the cones."

It appeared he had not done this sort of thing much, if ever.

He set fastest time of the day.

One of the finest gentlemen you'd ever want to meet, Phil Hill will be missed and remembered not just in Italy, but everywhere people love cars, and the people who race them.

More on intelligent traffic gurus

I have mentioned Hans Monderman here before - he is the Dutch traffic engineer who figured out that in at least some cases, less traffic control is more.

Or I should say, "was" - I had not heard prior to today that Mr. Monderman passed away from cancer earlier this year.

I have also mentioned Tom Vanderbilt here before. He operates (very much in the present tense) a web site called www.howwedrive.com, which is so full of great ideas I don't dare go to it very often or I'd never get my own work done. So refreshing to read someone for whom the concept of roundabouts is as obvious as breathing in and out. Halton Region, please copy. It can't be that hard - your (our) neighbours to the immediate west in Wellington Region have figured it out.

Anyway, Mr. Vanderbilt has written a lovely little appreciation of Mr. Monderman's life and work. It is located at:

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=wq.essay&essay_id=462572

If you have any interest in traffic safety whatsoever (or, as it turns out, in Marcel Proust) you really should read this piece.

Especially if you are a traffic engineer for Halton Region.

There is a story...

..there is always a story.

But sometimes you see things on the road that make you wonder.

Like this huge Mackie Auto Transporter - with ONE lousy car on it.

Well, it wasn't a lousy car - it was the pace car for the Volkswagen Rabbit race series that ran at Mosport last weekend. I spotted the rig heading west on the 401 near the 403/410 interchange Monday afternoon.

But ONE car? On a rig that could take - oh, I dunno, six or seven cars?

Doesn't seem very environmentally friendly to me.

OK, you probably wouldn't have strapped the rig to the VW and have the towing go the other way.

But you might figure they could have slapped a licence plate on the VW and just drove it wherever it had to be.

Or used a single flat-bed trailer.

I wonder - does anybody out there KNOW the story, why they sent this big rig out with just one car on it?

If so, post away.

Hot shoes...

One nice thing about General Motors' press test cars - they usually have Satellite radio in them. On long trips, you just dial up XM 150 or 151 and listen to stand-up comedy the entire time.

On one recent trip, a comic was talking about how women might like to improve their bodies. He said, "They'd like to have more feet so they could wear more shoes."

Hey - I know some women like that.

But it got me thinking about footwear and driving, and how often I see people - men and women alike - driving in sandals or, worse still, flip-flops.

Come on, folks. Driving is a serious business. Ever try to get your right foot quickly from an accelerator to a brake pedal wearing flip-flops or sandals?

Exactly.

You're almost guaranteed you're going to catch the edge of the sole on one pedal or another. You'll lose valuable braking time and distance, and probably create a panic situation in your own self.

Maybe even have the thing come off your foot altogether and get jammed in the accelerator. Now, that's a party.

OK, so you don't have to make like Mario Andretti and wear purpose-built racing shoes.

Or fork out a mortgage payment or two for some Mephistos.

That said, my Pilotis are not only purpose-built driving shoes, they are by far the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn, of any kind. And with their clever elastic-and-clamp laces, they are a snap to take off and put back on when going through airport security.

So please people, proper shoes whenever you're driving. Lace-up, not loafer.

Ladies, those four-inch spikes? Ah, no...

And never - EVER! - sandals or flip-flops.

As they used to (almost) say, the life you save could be mine.

What a difference a metre makes

What's half a car length?

Depends of course on the car.

Could be a metre or two.

Not much.

But judging from the look on the face of the driver of a red Acura Integra I saw on the 401 the other day, he wishes he had left more than that between himself and the car in front of him.

Because from my vantage point (the adjacent lane) it appeared as if he had stopped very close to said car, and when the transport truck nailed him from behind, both ends of his little car got squashed.

A good rule of thumb is to always stop at least far enough behind the car ahead of you so you can see where his rear tires meet the pavement.

Not only might this prevent someone from shoving you into the back of the car in front, it might just give you enough room to get the heck out of there if you're paying enough attention to notice the transport truck bearing down on you, tires locked and smoking.

After you, Alphonse

We don't see much of this in our part of Canada anyway - a two-lane road with one lane closed for road repairs, and a traffic light allowing traffic to use the one remaining lane taking alternating turns.

Usually, our roads are wide enough to allow a detour onto the shoulder. This practice is however common in Europe, where they don't typically have that luxury.

This shot was taken on Highway 25, north of Milton. The accompany sign says the construction is for "culvert repairs" and the installation of a left turn lane.

The coincidence that it is a left-turn lane from northbound 25 into Chudleigh's Apple Farm and that our local MPP is Ted Chudleigh shouldn't worry anyone unduly - the Glencairn Golf Course just north of here got its own left-turn lane, Chudleigh's has been here a lot longer than the golf course, and there's more traffic going into it as well, especially now as apple-picking season has just begun. Not sure it will be finished in time for this season though.

Another sign shows that you should expect a 3 minute wait at this red light, but of course that doesn’t take into account how long the light had been red before you got there.

Here's how they do it in Newfoundland. They have a count-down timer which tells you exactly how long you have to wait. It's showing 51 seconds here. Clever, that.

Oh, and please - WAIT! One of my kids was in the line one evening, when some yo-yo in a pick-up truck either was unclear on the concept, drunk, or both. He pulled out of the line and started roaring down the single lane, right into the face of on-coming traffic. Only emergency manoeuvres by quick-thinking drivers avoided a very ugly situation.

The Devil is in the Details

I am not supposed to publish 'driving impressions' of the new Corvette ZR1 which I drove today at General Motors' Proving Grounds in Milford Michigan before next Wednesday.

But I can show you pictures.

And, tell you that the supercharged 6.2 litre V8 engine produces 638 horsepower - a number which actually has been raised twice since the first official press information was released some months ago - and 604 lb.-ft. of torque

And, that it is shod with massive, developed-specifically-for-the-car Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tires, P285/30ZR19 front, P335/25ZR20 rear.

And, that it is stopped by gigantic Brembo composite brakes.

And, that driven by one of the car's engineers,
Jim Merrill, it set a new fastest-ever production-car lap time on the Nurburgring's Nordschleife circuit of 7 minutes 26 seconds, beating the former short-lived record held by Nissan's GT-R by three seconds.

Which also makes it faster there than such as the Porsche Carrera GT, Ferrari Enzo - well, anything, really.

So, how bad could it be to drive?

You will have to wait until the print edition of Wheels shows up for the weekend after this coming Saturday to find out.

But I think you can probably guess.

This rain's a pain and makes your auto hydroplane

Wet enough for you?

Apparently this is the wettest year on record. Probably the ink on the records got washed away.

And Toronto was recently named the soggiest city in Canada.

Vancouver, where is thy sting?

Global warming?

My big fat, um, big toe.

So, what should you do when your car hits some standing water and starts to hydroplane? That's when the tires' treads cannot squeegee the water away from the road surface, and they lose essentially all grip.

The sensation is one of eerie silence and numbness - no more road feel, the steering goes lifeless, and basically you're a curling stone.

What you should do, mainly, is as little as possible. Hide your feet - don't attempt to brake or accelerate. Your tires already have no grip, so anything you try to do with them won't work and will probably make things worse.

If you have the presence of mind, slip your automatic transmission into neutral, or declutch if it's a manual. This eliminates any drag or accelerative forces on the tires, and allows any grip that does develop to be directed towards getting the car headed in the direction you want it to go - i.e., away from anything hard.

Look in that direction, and GENTLY attempt to steer that way.

If you're lucky, the car will slowly lose speed, the tires will start to dig down through the water and some grip will be regained.

Understand that the car may have started to yaw, or rotate, during all this. If for example the right-side tires gain some traction, the car will tend to pivot clockwise. You want to counter-steer - turn to the left - to correct this motion. Be gentle, though, and be ready to counter-counter-steer if the car starts to over-react.

Of course, if your car has Directional Stability Control (StabiliTrak, ESP, it goes by a variety of names) hydroplaning is much less likely to happen, because the technology usually senses the problem and begins to correct it before you're even aware it is happening.

But I have been in four-wheel drive DSC-equipped cars where I had to take corrective action to alleviate a potential skid and spin, so it's a good idea to know how to do it regardless.

Apart from losing all visibility, hydroplaning is probably the scariest things that can happen to a driver. A little preparation and practice can take away some of the fear.

Thanks to Susannah for suggesting this topic.

Who's Serving Whom?

Just when you thought filling up at the self-serve couldn't be any more fun, some stations in the GTA are following up on a particularly insidious practice from the States - TV ads, blaring out at you from the pump.

If ever I was tempted to buy a pizza from Pizza Pizza, this would turn me off for ever.

They purport to also give you the "latest" news and sports. Well, I always love to hear that the Leafs beat the Senators 5 - 4. But this is August, folks.

A pox on all their houses.