This idea has been floating around in my mind for months and I have finally made time to write it out.
We have all heard of good and bad varieties of Karma (a.k.a. good luck & bad luck). If we were to transpose that to roadgeekery and driving and called it True Car-ma, what examples could it be defined as?
The only requirement is that "Car-ma" has to be something that rarely happens while in your vehicle &/or driving. Here's what I consider to be "True Car-mas":
- Your turn signal is in perfect synch with the turn signals on the vehicle in front of you.
- Your windshield wipers are in perfect synch with the song's beat on your car stereo.
- You are the last car to be allowed on a street/highway just as they close it or barricade it.
Others???
What.
Are you sure you're not Pink Jazz?
Making it down a one-way road that has a huge grade only to find another car immediately as the road is wide enough for both to get by...I suppose that would be an example of "good CARma?"
When i get off i295 at Blanding Blvd(SR 21) in Jacksonville and i get the traffic light timing perfectly and make it 13 miles home without hitting a red light.. It has happened 2x in the 5 years i lived in this house
LGMS428
"- Your turn signal is in perfect synch with the turn signals on the vehicle in front of you."
Yes! That has happened to me many times, once, my turn signal was in sync with three cars!
Being the last car through the green left turn cycle on a certain busy traffic signal in my area, which has a flashing red arrow.
Similar to jwolfer's comment:
During my morning commute, I hit all the green lights between the Beltway and Arlington Memorial Bridge perfectly so that the only time I have to stop in that entire stretch is at the stop sign at the top of the exit ramp from Route 110 to Memorial Avenue (the road that connects to the bridge). This has happened precisely one time ever, and not surprisingly it was a light traffic week around some sort of holiday (don't recall which, but not Christmas because if we're home then, we use the Interstate). I make it through Old Town Alexandria on the green wave fairly frequently, but I almost never make it through the lights north of there without stopping at least one time.
Quote from: thenetwork on November 15, 2016, 09:37:07 PMThe only requirement is that "Car-ma" has to be something that rarely happens while in your vehicle &/or driving. Here's what I consider to be "True Car-mas":
- You are the last car to be allowed on a street/highway just as they close it or barricade it.
Being the last car to be allowed to board a river-crossing ferry, that happened to us several years ago. Even more interesting, it was also a time-traveling ferry as it arrived to destination almost one hour before departing :sombrero: (Thanks to the Spain-Portugal border, which also marks the border between Central and Western European time zones).
You approach one of those traffic lights that spends five minutes red and 15 seconds green, and it happens to turn green just as you get there.
I usually think of CAR-ma happening to other drivers, usually due to crappy things they've done. Such as the jackass who's flying down the shoulder suddenly getting pulled over by the cop he just flew by.
Just had a fuel pump and battery go at the same time in one of my cars.
Good CAR-ma - Long backup at the cash lane, but nobody using the E-ZPass Only lane (Canaan NY toll plaza most anytime I go through it)
Bad CAR-ma - Having the Thruway completely closed six cars in front of me due to a truck fire, and sitting there for over three hours (West Nyack, NY, July 1991).
Good-CAR-ma - Taking the car in to have the timing belt and hardware replaced (at the recommended interval), and the mechanic discovers one pulley had started to split (June, 2013).
Bad-CAR-ma - Taking the car in to have the timing belt replaced, and the water pump springs a leak three months later (February, 1998).
I like those times when I'm approaching the SPUI at I-87/NY 7/NY 2 from either the ramps or the road to go straight or left and the light is green, stays green, and there's nobody in front of me, allowing me to go through at 40 mph (the turns are wide enough that this is safe to do; they're more like flyovers when you're not impeded by traffic or a red light) what is normally a long light.
Here is another Good Car-ma:
Going to an auto-repair shop expecting to spend $50+ on services, only to wind up getting the problems fixed for FREE!
- My tires got balanced at a tire shop that should've charged me since I didn't buy the tires nor any warranty there last week.
- Another auto repair place fixed by driver's side window which jumped the track for no charge this summer.
Good Car-ma is clinching a holy hell of trucks without getting stuck behind one :sombrero:. I managed to do this today.