The Duc Pond

On Monday, August 13, 2007 I was on my way to work when a car cut in front of another car that was in front of me. The car that was cut off (Car 1) slams on his brakes. Car 2 hits him and comes to a complete stop. I hit Car 2. I’m not going to absolve myself of any guilt. The accident was avoidable. However, I will say the merge from Route 38 to Route 30 sucks (which is why Car 1 got cut off in the first place) and the nature of commuting in that area means a lot of people are driving closely to each other.

Here’s what the car looked like afterward (declared totaled):

But those days are over for me. I’ve bought a new Honda Civic Hybrid to replace my Camry, and owning a hybrid opens you up to the world of hypermiling, which really forces you to drive a lot more safely. To keep a steady speed, for example, you’ll want to open up a lot of room between you and the car in front of you. You accelerate much more slowly, and drive more slowly in general. I visited my parents yesterday, and on the trip home averaged 57 miles per gallon. It didn’t take any longer than normal to get home either.

Of course, you piss off a lot of people behind you driving like this. People expect hard acceleration as soon as the light turns green, and driving well over the speed limit. There always seems to be some old guy or huge truck driving slowly in the right lane, though, so thus far I’ve been able to use someone else as a scapegoat for my econo-driving.

Here’s the new vehicle: