On the Bottom Half

Bent in Bendigo.

So an innocent trip to Bendigo started with a bang! Literally...

This weekend's adventure is taking third year students to a town called Bendigo to look at the Central Deborah Gold Mine and some surface workings for another mine. Arriving early into town, we stopped at Macca's (Australian for McDonald's) for a refresher.

After leaving Macca's, we trundled in our two mini buses up High Street through town, but came upon a guy with his trailer sticking out into the lane. Naturally, we stopped. Perhaps just as naturally, somebody else didn't.

Well, one thing led to another and I felt one of those irritating thumps that car owners so little like to feel.

It turns out that the red Holden Commodore played pinball with the red Mitsubishi Lancer, which passed on the experience (in strict Newtonian fashion) to the red VW Beetle, which stuck with the preceding pattern and played bumps with my white 12 seater Toyota minibus.

My first 4 car pile up... in Bendigo! Not much damage to the minibus but a warped bumper guard, dented bumper and a bent rear door. The beetle needs a new radiator, the Lancer:

looks like a Hyundai Excel:

and the Commodore is sporting the crushed face popular with boxers and pugs.

Sweet! But only because I'm not at fault.

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Oh, and I read this today from the Advocate:

Green light for green plan

Yes, LEDs are energy efficient, but I'm willing to bet that 75% or more of those intersections would be better served by roundabouts - yes, higher construction costs (maybe), but ZERO energy requirements once built. Except, of course, for all the tow trucks to clean up the confused Albertans in the first few months.

And just to nail home the case:

Traffic roundabout safer, experts say

My sources say that people are resisting these little traffic delights because they are afraid of them. The phrase "we don't do them in North America", or something to that effect, was bandied about. I have a word of advice for those tepid road battlers out there: you are human. Therefore (and this may be a leap of logic), you have ~10 lbs of the most awesomely malleable tissue ever devised by nature filling that cranium of yours. Stress it out a little and learn something new. It won't hurt. I promise. Sixty-five million Britans, Australians, and New Zealanders do it every day, I'm sure you can, too.

Better yet, I suggest a fact finding mission to England, Australia, or New Zealand. Rent a car and give them a go. Just remember to look right first.

posted by Kyle @ 04:18