Skip to main content

Yesterday

What a day. All because of the weather. I need to get this off my chest. Everyone needs to start acting with more common courtesy and common sense. This was very evident in the traffic situations caused by the weather yesterday.

When a traffic light is out, it is a 4-way stop, no matter what. Several times on my way to the DC United game, I hit signals that were out. Not a single one was treated like a 4-way stop when I got there. I stopped, but people next to me flew through it. Some even honked at me and passed me on the left to get through. Be smart and show some love to others.

Next, when your lane merges into another on the freeway, don't speed up and fly to the end of the merge area and then try to nose your way in. Especially when it is gridlock anyway. Turn on your signal and wait your turn. Just because you came off a ramp doesn't mean you have priority over someone who has been sitting on the freeway going 1mph for the last 10 minutes. I saw some lady get onto 395 from the Pentagon area last night speed up and nose her way in front of a truck and ended up getting hit by the truck. She gets out of her car and starts complaining to the guy driving the truck. However, she was trying to merge in front of him by speeding into the birm and just jetting over. I bet he didn't even see her, considering she was driving one of those new Saturn Skys. Let one person in, then go. And give the wave when someone lets you in.

I made the mistake of trying to go to the DC United game last night. I spent a total of 5 hours in transit, waiting, getting wet and sitting, all to see a total of 15 minutes of soccer. At least I got a free t-shirt for my $12 in parking costs.

Anyway, be safe out there. And pay it forward...

Comments

Tony Rossell said…
Matt -- I totally agree with your post and your frustration. I actually have changed some of my common routes to work to avoid areas where people behave poorly. It is interesting that in a car we behave towards others in ways we would never do face to face. Tony
June 13, 2008 at 3:58 PM
Anonymous said…
I agree 100%. I know what you mean about the four way stop rule at a non-functioning stop light. However, I'd be happy if folks would just treat a four way stop like a four way stop!
June 26, 2008 at 5:05 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10 Thoughts on #ASAE10

Ok, so I could have spelled out the title, but chose the hashtag - #asae10. Supposedly there were over 8,000 tweets with the hashtag, but probably countless more direct messages of messages that left out the hashtag but were conference related. Two years ago, we were using twitter as a backchannel to talk about speakers. Now, over 800 people sent conference related tweets. If you aren't on Twitter, you are already late to the party. Anyway, on with the post... In no particular order, my thoughts on this years ASAE Annual Conference: 1. LA was a good venue. Lots to do. Hotels close by. Only downside was the rooms were a bit of a hike. 2. I missed Sunday because of family obligations. That really put me behind the 8 ball. Since I led a session, that meant I only got to go to 3 true sessions. Sorry, I don't count Joy Behar and the closing session. Although Marshall Goldsmith was good, I probably wouldn't have gone to see that speech as a Learning Lab. 3. Based on #
11 comments
Read more

Sunk Costs, Marginal Costs and Economics

When I was in college, I hated Economics. Then, several years later, I found myself teaching undergrad Econ and learned an appreciation for it. Now today, I have an even bigger appreciation for it. I have also noticed that not enough people have a solid grasp of some basic econ concepts that can be applied to everyday life. Two of these are cost related. Here are some basic definitions from The Economist website : Sunk Costs - When what is done cannot be undone. Sunk costs are costs that have been incurred and cannot be reversed, for example, spending on ADVERTISING or researching a product idea. They can be a barrier to entry. If potential entrants would have to incur similar costs, which would not be recoverable if the entry failed, they may be scared off. Marginal Costs - The difference made by one extra unit of something. Marginal revenue is the extra revenue earned by selling one more unit of something. The marginal cost (or whatever) can be very different from the AVERAGE c
1 comment
Read more

Do you want your association to be Walmart?

Earlier this week, I had a small Twitter discussion with Kevin Holland ( @associationinc ) regarding aggregation as a value proposition. @associationinc - Deciding your role is to aggregate other people's value is like George Costanza wearing sweatpants. "You're telling the world, 'I give up.'" @cardcat - Interesting comment about aggregating. Don't you think it is a viable option for a small association who can't afford it? @associationinc - Nothng wrong with aggregating content as long as you don't perceive it to be your value proposition. There's no real future in it. @cardcat - Don't think it is THE value proposition, but I think it could be A value to members, a big value. @associationinc - A big value is something you offer that nobody else can or that u can do better. Aggregating content is easy, there4 unsustainable. @cardcat - True, it isn't sustainable. But I almost think if you don't act as an aggregator, you risk folks
3 comments
Read more