Random Ruminations

I've done a fair bit of driving since I've come to the US. I drove from Pittsburgh to Ann Arbor to Brooklyn (in Michigan) to Cleveland and back again to Pittsburgh and more recently, to New Jersey and back to Pittsburgh. It did not take long to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road or using units of measurements which make no sense (miles). In most cases, I found that the speed limits posted on the roads were sensible limits and more or less the speed I considered to be reasonably safe. Unfortunately, nearly everyone else on the road wanted to drive considerably faster than the posted speed limit. There were periods of time when I found a truck driving at the speed limit (for cars) in the slow lane and I was able to spend long periods of time behind the truck without having to worry about being overtaken or changing lanes. At other times, I found myself on State Highways with only a single lane. Here I determinedly drove at the speed limit (typically 35 or 45 miles an hour) and soon collected a retinue of unhappy motorists behind me, looking like a centipede on the road with me at the head. As soon as I reached a stretch of double lane road, I moved over into the slower lane and the rest of the centipede rapidly broke up and zoomed past.

Cruise control seems like a good idea at first but it only works well if you're driving on a long stretch of level road. Most of the American North is undulating land and the Cruise Control function, trying to maintain a constant speed, revs up disproportionately on up-slopes and comes off the gas altogether on the downhill portions. Much better to control the accelerator manually, accept a slowing down while going up and speeding up while going down and carrying the momentum to the next up-hill portion. The fuel efficiency and the load on the engine is much less.

Most Americans drive at the very edge of disaster. There is no margin for error. There is an assumption that everyone will follow the rules. They, in a rather touching faith in human nature, routinely put their lives in each other's hands. More than 35,000 die every year in traffic accidents. Most of these are probably avoidable with a more careful approach to driving. This kind of matches the number of Americans who die of gunshot wounds every year. Which also seems like a waste.

If we look at motor vehicles per 100,000 vehicles, the figures for the US are not too bad (12.9). Although this is a lot worse than most European countries (UK is 5.1), it is better than India's 130. Traffic in India is certainly far more chaotic. However, some of the African countries really stand out. Benin: 8177, Central African Republic: 4336, Democratic Republic of the Congo 6405, Ethiopia: 4985, Guinea: 9462, Somalia: 4480. I wonder what it's like driving in Guinea or even being a pedestrian there. Maybe they don't have any hospitals to treat the injuries.

One is hard put to find anything durable in the stores which is manufactured in the US. It seems to mostly come from China. As long as there are Chinese people willing to work harder for lower wages than Americans, it will be cheaper to buy from China than to manufacture locally. This results in a continuous flow of wealth from the US to China and a continuous (if relative) decrease in jobs in America. It's like connecting two containers with different water levels.

It's remarkable how little has changed in the US over 10 years. Pittsburgh looks exactly the same as does New York. Meanwhile Delhi and Mumbai have changed beyond recognition. Stagnation versus Growth?