morning drive across
salt marsh tidal flats under
live oaks spanish moss

Not so long ago, my morning drive was into downtown Atlanta, a commute rated in the top ten worst in America.

Today I reminded myself of that drive as I made my way to work on a island on the Atlantic Coast.

Atlanta.

Atlantic.

Atlanta was paved over roadways as far as the eye could see.

The road to Island is carved out of marsh grass and laid over swamp and tidal flats and over the inner coastal waterway.

The road to Atlanta went under other roads and light poles for lights that often didn’t work either because the city hadn’t paid the bill or someone had stolen the copper wire that connected the lights.

The road to the Island runs under live oaks and spanish moss.

It is a different drive.

In December, the sun, just minutes before having risen out of the ocean, shines into the eyes of anyone making the drive.

The going is slow and the road is full of cars but the amount cars, if you counted all of them, would total somewhere around 1% of the total number of cars that were on the roads in Atlanta.

With the magic that can be technology I can drive along with music playing in the car to match the mood.

There is something about driving along over a salt marsh and tidal flats and over water and under live oaks and spanish moss while listening to Appalachian Spring.

I don’t care if it is December.

that moment shows that
the car can only know what
it is trained to know

Adapted from the article, What Riding in a Self-Driving Tesla Tells Us About the Future of Autonomy, by Cade Metz, Ben Laffin, Hang Do Thi Duc and Ian Clontz (NY Times,  Nov. 14, 2022).

Cade and Ian spent six hours riding in a self-driving car in Jacksonville, Fla., to report this story.

They write:

Tesla’s technology can work remarkably well. It changes lanes on its own, recognizes green lights, and is able to make ordinary turns against oncoming traffic.

But every so often, it makes a mistake, forcing testers like Chuck to intervene.

“That moment shows that the car can only know what it is trained to know,” Mr. Cook said of the sudden turn into the parking lot. “The world is a big place, and there are many corner cases that Tesla may not have trained it for.”

Experts say no system could possibly have the sophistication needed to handle every possible scenario on any road. This would require technology that mimics human reasoning — technology that we humans do not yet know how to build.

Such technology, called artificial general intelligence, “is still very, very far away,” said Andrew Clare, chief technology officer of the self-driving vehicle company Nuro. “It is not something you or I or our kids should be banking on to help them get around in cars.”

I like a lot of these sentences.

It is not something you or I or our kids should be banking on to help them get around in cars, was one.

And the line, the car can only know what it is trained to know, makes me think this article applies to a lot more than cars.

began trying to
nourish outrage as a screen
for apprehension

It might be called road rage.

I talk to other drivers while I drive.

I know they can’t hear but that doesn’t stop.

Think Stupid, I say as I watch other cars at intersections.

I do not suffer fools gladly.

I feel if someone is going to share my road, they share in the responsibility to preserve my life,

I wish other drivers took that responsibility a tiny teeny bit more seriously.

So I remind them.

I talk to them.

I talk then yell.

Thin Stupid, Come on!

I also expect that if someone is going to share my road, the can share in the responsibility to keep traffic moving.

And they can help themselves out a lot if only they studied up just a little before leaving on where they were going.

I talk to them.

I yell at them.

Soon I am screaming at them.

Full of outrage.

Only recently am I understanding that my outrage is a just a screen.

A screen of my own apprehension.

My apprehension over not taking my role in preserving the lives of other drivers seriously.

My apprehension over where I am going.

My apprehension that other drivers are talking to me.

My apprehension that other drivers are yelling at me.

My apprehension that other drivers at outraged.

A hero is someone who backs their car out of the driveaway know all this, and drives a car to work anyway.

*Adapted from the line, “He forced his attention away on to Welch’s habits as a car-driver, and began trying to nourish outrage as a screen for the apprehension, tapping his long brown shoe loudly on the floor and whistling It worked for five seconds or less.” from Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, London, 1956

round and round it goes
where traffic stops nobody knows –
changes, not progress

I was reading this morning about the feral hog/pig/boar problem in Florida.

I fell in love with a sentence that read, “The hog issue is not thought of as a solvable problem, but one that could only be attenuated.”

I read it over.

I read it outloud.

The hog issue is not thought of as a solvable problem, but one that could only be attenuated.

I wanted to grab and pad and pencil and start making a list of problems, that cannot be thought of as a solvable problems, but ones that could only be attenuated.

I quickly realized that my pad would not be big enough.

What a simple solution to so many issues.

In my mind somewhere is the saying, “If there is no solution, it is not a problem.”

This is a great saying to have handy when there is beach nearby that you can visit easily.

Some problem or issue pops up in your email.

You have no answer.

You have no solution.

No solution, then there is no problem.

No problem, well then, no problem and I am off to the beach.

But if the issue is not thought of as a solvable problem, but one that could only be attenuated, then goodbye going to the beach and get to work.

Get to work on attenuating the problem.

What a great word.

Attenuated.

My pirated desktop Oxford English Dictionary defines attenuated as weakened in intensity, force, effect, value.

I now want to grab my pad and pencil and list all the things in my life that have been weakened in intensity, force, effect, value as I get older.

But I quickly realize I don’t have enough time.

So back to the problems that are not thought of as a solvable problem, but one that could only be attenuated.

Can there be anything higher on the list than traffic?

Put today’s rubrics together and we can create a statement that might read: “Traffic is not thought of as a solvable problem, but one that could only be weakened in intensity, force, effect and value.”

I really like that.

Traffic is not thought of as a solvable problem, but one that could only be weakened in intensity, force, effect and value.

It was Bill Bryson who wrote that traffic engineers cannot fix traffic, but they can spread the problem out over a larger area.

The latest fashion of dealing with traffic here in the south is the traffic circle.

On a drive from my home to the beach I will navigate three of these answers to traffic problems.

According to the Wikipedia, “Compared to stop signs, traffic signals, and earlier forms of roundabouts, modern roundabouts reduce the likelihood and severity of collisions greatly by reducing traffic speeds and minimizing T-bone and head-on collisions.”

So they reduce the likelihood of accidents.

Or do they reduce the likelihood of the T-Bone and head on collisions while increasing the likely hood of side swipes and rear-corner panel collisions.

But do they improve traffic flow?

Wouldn’t that be the main question?

Wouldn’t that be the goal of someone who is trying to weaken in intensity, force, or effect the ‘not thought of as a solvable problem’ traffic?

The other fun part of these traffic circles for me is two of the three circles are on Hilton Head Island here in South Carolina.

The island, like Mackinac Island, has lots of bikes.

Lot and lots of bikes.

The island, unlike Mackinac Island, has lots of cars.

Lots and lots of cars.

Neither of these issues are thought of as a solvable problems for the island.

Neither of these issues seems to have been thought out as forms of transportation that can co-exist on the same overloaded roadways.

Then I ran across this.

The Hovenring.

An elevated bike traffic circle the floats over the roadway

The hovenring was built in the Netherlands.

The hovenring is perfect for Hilton Head Island.

According to wikipedia, The hovernring was built because, “In order to improve the flow of traffic and improve safety, it was decided to completely separate motorized and bicycle traffic.“

So much for the thinking that this might be not be thought of as solvable problem.

Here is evidence of real change for the better!

Here is evidence of real progress towards a real solution.

The hovenring!

Of course, there is some more to the wikipedia entry.

It goes on to say, “In addition, it was decided to transform the roundabout for cars into a regular crossing of streets, to improve the flow of traffic“

So it goes.

Round and round.

And as we all know, what goes around, comes around.

It’s not thought of as a solvable problem.