Touch-screen
“What genius thought of that one?”
My friend and I are both retired Regional Transit bus-drivers.
Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, is the transit-bus operator in Rochester and environs. I drove bus for them 16&1/2 years.
My heart-defect stroke October 26th, 1993 ended my bus-driving. I retired on medical-disability, and that defect was repaired. I recovered well enough to return to work at a newspaper; I retired from that over 12 years ago.
My friend was noting the insanity of the touch-screen in his new 2018 Subaru Outback.
Imagine trying to fiddle a touch-screen compared to knobs: Take eyes off road long enough to ascertain where to touch the screen. That’s at least a second, probably more.
Utterly impossible to a bus-driver. “I can’t answer your question now. I’m drivin’ the bus. Lemme pull over first.”
No way in a million years could we take our eyes off the road. We were watching for people who might wander into our lane because they were fiddling their touch-screen.
We had to be able to stop nine tons of hurtling steel without tossing passengers out of their seats. That required intense concentration, plus five-six times more braking distance than suggested.
No way in a million years am I gonna take my eyes off the road to figger where to finesse a touch-screen. I can’t even play the radio while driving. If I could, that radio better have knobs.
“I need a FOUR YEAR COLLEGE COURSE just to change a station?”
“Oh Dora, look: a bus. Pull-out, pull-out!”
Were it not for my added braking distance, I woulda tee-boned that Buick. And Dora wasn’t fiddling a touch-screen.
Years ago a car pulled in front of my car at an intersection. It’s driver was yammering on her cellphone — totally oblivious to my approach. Had not I been a bus-driver I probably woulda creamed her.
Lob a touch-screen at the average driver and yer asking for trouble.
Guilty-as-charged. I can’t multitask.
I don’t think anyone can. Yer doing multiple things in nano-second intervals.
If I try it, I’m into the curb. That happened in Altoona once — into a snowbank. Just brushed; I didn’t get stuck.
My car has Bluetooth. “Ring-ring,” I answer the phone. “I’m drivin’, but go ahead. I may have to butt in to make a turn.”
Sure, fiddle a touch-screen while driving? “What genius thought of that one?”
My friend and I are both retired Regional Transit bus-drivers.
Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, is the transit-bus operator in Rochester and environs. I drove bus for them 16&1/2 years.
My heart-defect stroke October 26th, 1993 ended my bus-driving. I retired on medical-disability, and that defect was repaired. I recovered well enough to return to work at a newspaper; I retired from that over 12 years ago.
My friend was noting the insanity of the touch-screen in his new 2018 Subaru Outback.
Imagine trying to fiddle a touch-screen compared to knobs: Take eyes off road long enough to ascertain where to touch the screen. That’s at least a second, probably more.
Utterly impossible to a bus-driver. “I can’t answer your question now. I’m drivin’ the bus. Lemme pull over first.”
No way in a million years could we take our eyes off the road. We were watching for people who might wander into our lane because they were fiddling their touch-screen.
We had to be able to stop nine tons of hurtling steel without tossing passengers out of their seats. That required intense concentration, plus five-six times more braking distance than suggested.
No way in a million years am I gonna take my eyes off the road to figger where to finesse a touch-screen. I can’t even play the radio while driving. If I could, that radio better have knobs.
“I need a FOUR YEAR COLLEGE COURSE just to change a station?”
“Oh Dora, look: a bus. Pull-out, pull-out!”
Were it not for my added braking distance, I woulda tee-boned that Buick. And Dora wasn’t fiddling a touch-screen.
Years ago a car pulled in front of my car at an intersection. It’s driver was yammering on her cellphone — totally oblivious to my approach. Had not I been a bus-driver I probably woulda creamed her.
Lob a touch-screen at the average driver and yer asking for trouble.
Guilty-as-charged. I can’t multitask.
I don’t think anyone can. Yer doing multiple things in nano-second intervals.
If I try it, I’m into the curb. That happened in Altoona once — into a snowbank. Just brushed; I didn’t get stuck.
My car has Bluetooth. “Ring-ring,” I answer the phone. “I’m drivin’, but go ahead. I may have to butt in to make a turn.”
Sure, fiddle a touch-screen while driving? “What genius thought of that one?”
posted by BobbaLew at 12:20 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home