Three and Out

When we were good

Three games to go. The Orioles and Yankees are dead even at 92-67. The Red Sox, who helped out the Birds by dropping three straight at Camden Yards, are limping home at 69-90. They'll wind up with nearly as many losses as the team that eventually tops the division has wins. But the Sox do have the chance to be big time spoilers when they play the Yankees at the Stadium for the teams' last three games. Last year at this time, I was celebrating how the lowly Orioles finished up the season, including killing Boston's playoff chances in the last game. Let's hope the Plain People of Baltimore really have something to celebrate this year!

White on White

Just in time for the debates, the great, great Randy Newman weighs in.

(You'll have to hang in to the end to see Nixon bowling.)

Worser in Warsaw

The TomTom Congestion Indexes for Europe and North America are out. No, this is not about pollen levels or Tina Weymouth; it's about how clogged up the roadways of major metropolitan areas are. Surprise: New York falls somewhere in the middle for North America (15 out of 26 cities). Los Angeles and Vancouver are tied for most congested. For Europe, Warsaw tops the roll of shame again, followed by Marseille and Rome (three of my favorite cities!).

The most interesting stat for me is the "delay per hour in peak period." This measures how much additional time a driver is likely to spend on a roadway during the most congested period by comparing it to travel in so-called "free flow" time. In NYC, it's just 21 more minutes on, say, the BQE at its worst. In Warsaw, it's 52 minutes on the W-Z. For Varsovians with a 30-minute commute, that adds up to an extra 106 hours on the road every year. For New Yorkers it's a mere 61--not even a three-day weekend. No wonder Poles wish each other Szerokiej Drogi for Bon voyage--literally "Wide road."

Days of Awe

After so many posts from down below, here's one from the top. Clear fall days when the BQE (or the Gowanus) is a path through the clouds. Not much traffic either!

Along the Troll Path

Traffic moving well below

Hamilton Avenue approaching the Gowanus. The BQE towers above. Somewhere up there it becomes the Gowanus Expressway. But who can say just where?

"T" Time

Caveat lessee

How's everybody doing with the new logo for NYC taxi cabs? It's a "T." Get it? Gone is the helpful rate chart that used to adorn the passenger- and driver-side doors.

(Courtesy MBTA)

There's no trademark protection for a single letter. But a capital T in the middle of a circle struck a distant chord. Where have we seen that? Of course, the longstanding logo for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). THE T! But there is a difference: Our T is a filled circle with a cutout T (a little like the old subway token); theirs is a white circle with a black T. Litigation disaster narrowly averted.

Here's a an ex-hack that's avoiding the whole problem with a homemade "Not for Hire" sign. What's next? Retired police cars with the motto: "Not to serve and not to protect"?

Polski Yaris?

(Source: PAP, Nauka w Polsce)

This is the KUL [pronounced "cool"], an electric vehicle for a driver in a wheel chair. It was designed by Marlena Krzyżanowska, a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and Krzysztof Buczek, a doctoral student at the Polish Academy of Sciences. All controls are by hand. It has a retractable platform on the right side that makes it easy for the driver to get in and out. Its maximum speed is about 50 km/hr. Plenty to get around town. And its small size makes it easy to park. More about KUL here (in English even).

The KUL-Car does not yet exist. Her designers are currently trying to raise funds to build it and sell it. They estimate it should cost 20,000 Polish zlotys, the equivalent of about $6,250.

Shouldn't there be a wellspring of international support to make these cars widely available?