Highway or Surface Streets?

Later this week I’m meeting a friend and her immediate family at a restaurant on Olive in the suburb of Creve Coeur.  I’ve never been to this place before but I knew approximately where it was.  I used the directions feature on their website to see how it suggests I get from my downtown loft to the location.

It used Yahoo Maps which must have realized I-64/Hwy 40 is closed for reconstruction as it directed me up to I-70 to I-170 to Olive — a long route I never would have come up with on my own.  It indicated the route was 20.51 miiles and would take 33 minutes.  Twenty miles!  To many of you 20 miles might not be a big deal but I tend to think more in terms of 20 blocks, not miiles.

So I open Google Maps and input my address and the address of the restaurant.  Ah, a much shorter route – 15.3 miles and 26 minutes.  Granted it is one that doesn’t work because of the closed highway.  But Google Maps has an option to “avoid highways” which I then checked.  This gave me the most direct route with the least distance (14.3 miles) but the greatest travel time (34 minutes) – using normal surface streets.

One of the three isn’t an option due to the closed highway so that leaves two choices.  One at 20.51 miles/33 minutes and one at 14.3 miles/34 minutes.  The highway option saves me a minute but is over 40% longer distance.  My gas mileage would be greater by using highway rather than city streets   Based on 35mpg highway & 25 mpg city, though, the surface street route is a wash (0.586 gallons highway vs. 0.572 gallons surface, each way).  But one adds many more miles to my car.  My Carolla, which I bought used in July, has over 100,000 miles already — I don’t want to rack up too many miles to quickly.  One could argue that the stopping & going on surface streets invites more wear on the vehicle than just cruising down the highway.

With surface streets I have numerous choices — I could take different streets there vs. coming back home.  I can see more interesting things along the drive rather than just billboards from the interstate.  I could possibly also take care of some errands along the surface street routes which is not an option for the longer highway route.

Here are the maps from all three routes:

I will end up taking a direct surface street route.  I may take Forest Park Parkway to I-170 to get to Olive but Delmar to Skinker to Olive is also a good option.

I’d like to see auto insurance rates be based on the number of miles driven — the less miles the less your bill is.  Ditto for vehicle plate renewal.  This would help incentivize a reduction in total miles driven.  Accidents may be more frequent on surface streets but interstate accidents are far more serious.

One thing is certain, with a good network of surface streets we have numerous route options and the miles driven may be less and the time spent not significantly more.  Next time you use Google Maps think about checking the “avoid highways” option or even using it to map out a walking route.

My First Post-Stroke Fall

Since my February 1st stroke I’ve been very fortunate in that I’ve not fallen.  That record ended this past Wednesday evening.

I was at a pub with friends for dinner — we had just sat down at the table.  I was reaching to lean my cane against the chair on the opposite side of the table.  I was on the end of the table with one friend to my right and the aisle on my left.  My stroke had impacted my left side.  So I’m stretching to lean my cane against the chair and I didn’t have my left foot positioned as I should and I simply fell over into the aisle.  I’m sure this place has had plenty of people fall over but I was drinking my new favorite beverage, tap water.

Here is the cool thing.  My friends jumped up to assist me but I got up by myself — very instinctively, very normally and very fast.  In therapy we practiced getting up off the floor (hospital in April & out patient in October) but it was always a challenge for me.  This showed me how far I had come.

I met other friends later after dinner and had a beer to celebrate.  I even showed off by handing my cane to one friend and walking a bit without it.

When I came home at the end of April I was terrified about falling.  I’m glad to have it out of the way now.

Governor Out Of Control

Attention lately is on Illinois’ Governor Blagojevich.  He was not the first idiot Governor.  Long before Blago we had Governor William J. Lepetomane:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-cje17OGnQ[/youtube]

Just a little humor for your weekend.  Harumph!

2 Columbus Circle Updated

I was last in NYC in August 2005.  I was there during debate about altering a building by Architect Edward Durrell Stone. I wrote in that post:

I took the subway from 116th and Broadway to Columbus Circle on the edge of Central Park. Having just seen the CBS story on 2 Columbus Circle (pictured, right) I had to see the fuss for myself. I’ve said before that I am an urbanist, not a preservationist. This is yet another example. This building is terrible in the urban environment. It is not welcoming at all. The new owners want to either raze or reskin the building. Sure it was designed by noted architect Edward Durrell Stone. Must we save failures simply because it’s architect was famous?

The included picture was:

This morning my good friend, a former St Louis resident now living in Chicago, Margie Newman, called me from 2 Columbus Circle in Manhattan.  She had remembered my post on the building.  She liked the transformation.  “Email me a photo”, I insisted.

Knowing Margie also has an iPhone I knew I’d have a pic as soon as she could get her gloves off to snap & email it to me.

While I was in NYC and folks were debating the alteration of the building, back in St Louis our Edward Durrell Stone building was being razed — Busch Stadium #2 (1966-2005).

The Stamina of Some Car Alarms

At roughly 3am this morning I heard a car alarm.  I didn’t bother getting up for several reasons.  First, I knew my car was in the parking garage under my building.  Secondly, my car doesn’t have an alarm.  And finally I could tell from the sound it was a block or more away.

This alarm persisted for a good four hours.  It would stop for a minute every 20 minutes or so but then it would resume again, for at least four hours!

Earlier I went down two floors to our party room & gym on the other side of the building facing East.  There on 16th was a VW Touareg SUV with the alarm sounding.

After a couple of hours of no alarm I heard it again.  So back to the East view I went:

The VW is still on 16th (next to the garage) but on the opposite side of the street from earlier.

I feel for the folks on the East side of my building as well as folks in surrounding buildings that heard the alarm more directly vs. my hearing it bouncing of buildings.  Had the SUV been stolen we wouldn’t have been bothered as much.

I had a neighbor one time that had an overly sensitive alarm — passing motorcycles would set it off.  I’ve had three cars with factory installed alarms and one was a bit sensitive.  Motorcycles wouldn’t set it off but I could not leave the sunroof open or the sensor would set off the alarm.  Most factory alarms and perhaps newer aftermarket alarms are activated by locking the doors with the remote.  So unless someone has their alarm disconnected by the dealer their only choice is to leave the vehicle unlocked.  These alarms might have an adjustment to them.  Having an alarm cry wolf doesn’t help when someone really is breaking into the vehicle — annoyed neighbors will just be thankful when the thief drives away taking the offensive alarm along for the ride.

In NYC many have called on the ban of car alarms (see article).  Of course in NYC I think they need to ban most vehicles except taxis — at least in Manhatten.

I just wonder why it went off for hours.  Was it being tripped up again or was it just very persistent?