Going from Proactive to Retroactive?

[roadman65]

After dealing with the motoring public in my latest job, I have told you before in another thread that the use of GPS is making the average driver now less aware of his or her surroundings than ever before.  However, something about that led me to a conclusion about modern day motorists and what is really happening when they get behind the wheel.

Yesterday, I had a road raged truck driver come into my booth complaining that he had to pay twice really expensive tolls within very short distances!  Considering that an over the road trucker is constantly on the road (he was a long haul driver BTW) you would figure that he should already know all the freeways in the country (or at least a given region) and therefore should know that both the Florida Turnpike and FL 528 are both toll roads.  Because of this he should be aware that sometimes both toll roads could have their booths real close to each other.  Nonetheless he acted like he was completely lost  and like he never ever been to the USA before while demonstrating  to me that he is making a delivery from another country (or planet).  You would always assume that a truck driver is professional and would not be that clueless of the roads that is part of his domain, yet there are, obviously, some that are so ignorant.

This got me to thinking how we as a society and as a motor vehicle operator are so retroactive as nobody anymore expects even the obvious anymore.  The GPS allows for us to trust in them, so we do not need to research the road system as it will give you step by step, play by play, directions while you drive so who needs to do their homework in looking at the road maps anymore.  Before when we always looked it up on the map, that gave us an insight to what is to be expected when we head to that strange place that we never been to before, where now you do not even need to think about planning as a device now eliminates the need for that.

Now, this one driver, may or may not be GPS dependent, but he and other motorists I deal with did make me realize that we as a nation are so retroactive and that we just let things happen nowadays,  When something does go wrong that we just blame others for all those things that we could have eliminated if we calculated before the effects of our planned action.  Of course with roads our lack of not reading maps and asking for directions can lead us to a retroactive moment when we are on a road that we do not want to be like paying a toll when some of us do not carry cash because of MasterCard, Visa, and Amex, or on a road with many stoplights and local congestion.

What are your thoughts on this.  Are we retroactive or proactive now as drivers?

[kalvado]

Given your location is Orlando...
Last time I was in the area, there was a road work on the (toll-free) highway entrance. Posted detour included going through a toll booth, making a u-turn, and immediately going through the toll booth in the opposite direction, $0.50 each way. Good thing I managed to find an extra quarter (since I was heading to the airport, all metal objects - including coins - were purged from all pockets). No amount of prior research, GPS or not, would help me with the situation - and yes, I am still fuming thinking about the situation.

[spooky]

reactive.

[jeffandnicole]

Reactive, but nothing to do with GPS. My days in the toll booths were before EZ Pass, and I would still have those irate truckers complaining about tolls that they could've easily avoided. 

It's also a case where no one wants to accept personal responsibility, and the media has been a big factor in that.  Just the other day I read someone saved up her money to surprise her boyfriend from Birmingham to Vegas. Problem was, she booked the flight from Birmingham, Alabama.  Not Birmingham, England.  She and her boyfriend cried on social media, the press picked up their story, they had some staged, mopey faces, and Virgin Airlines decided to give them a free trip to Vegas.    There was a few hour difference in the flight time...you would think they would have noticed this at some point.

If the media would stop giving Facebook and Twitter all this press, people may actually take a few minutes to make informed decisions.

[kalvado]

It's also a case where no one wants to accept personal responsibility, and the media has been a big factor in that.

Humans are prone to making mistakes. You always have to remember that. People on the road, out of their familiar settings, are even more so.
It is perfectly OK to laugh or be irritated over such situations.. But don't be upset when others laugh at you, and customer service folks treat you as an idiot (because you behave like that from their perspective)

[jeffandnicole]

It's also a case where no one wants to accept personal responsibility, and the media has been a big factor in that.

Humans are prone to making mistakes. You always have to remember that. People on the road, out of their familiar settings, are even more so.
It is perfectly OK to laugh or be irritated over such situations.. But don't be upset when others laugh at you, and customer service folks treat you as an idiot (because you behave like that from their perspective)

Right.

Which, btw, really shouldn't be news to begin with!

[kalvado]

Which, btw, really shouldn't be news to begin with!

Well, it shouldn't. Likely Virgin saw that as a way to get some cheap advertisement in exchange for unsold seats. And... everyone LOVES pointing their finger at THAT idiot! 
On the other forum, people were talking about flights departing within 5 minutes to Rochester NY and Rochester MN from adjacent gates and (in other case) to Saint John NB and St. John NL. Talk about personal responsibility in such settings...

[jeffandnicole]

Which, btw, really shouldn't be news to begin with!

Well, it shouldn't. Likely Virgin saw that as a way to get some cheap advertisement in exchange for unsold seats. And... everyone LOVES pointing their finger at THAT idiot! 
On the other forum, people were talking about flights departing within 5 minutes to Rochester NY and Rochester MN from adjacent gates and (in other case) to Saint John NB and St. John NL. Talk about personal responsibility in such settings...

At least in those cases, the error should be caught at the boarding gate, with plenty of time to go to the next gate.

I read one other case where someone bought tickets flying them to a certain international city, not realizing they really meant that same city's name was in Canada and not Europe!  In that case, they basically had no clue until they got to the destination (or at least enroute).  They're getting a vacation...just not where they intended!

[kalvado]

I read one other case where someone bought tickets flying them to a certain international city, not realizing they really meant that same city's name was in Canada and not Europe!  In that case, they basically had no clue until they got to the destination (or at least enroute).  They're getting a vacation...just not where they intended!

That is commonly told story about couple flying from UK to Sydney Australia (intended) vs Sidney BC (ticketed).
Usually supplemented with a happy end about them finding Canada as good for the honeymoon trip as Australia would be.

[vdeane]

I don't think I've ever seen any retroactive drivers.  If anyone speeds off at 88 mph to warn their past self about some roadway condition, that would be retroactive.

Reactive seems to be the norm these days.  Many people view me as a genius simply because I do this thing called "looking at a map" before leaving for a trip.  Some people carry a GPS because they cannot fathom how someone could navigate an unfamiliar area without one (really, the closest I've come to truly using one is to find a street in a town with EXTREMELY poor signage).

[Max Rockatansky]

I just don't think roads and infrastructure interest most people.  For most people travel isn't something they look forward nor enjoy.  I can't tell you how many times I hear one of my friends, workers or family talk about beelining it some far flung destination like a relative's house or theme park in one 18 hour plus stretch on an Interstate.  Most people would rather plug a heading into a GPS and let technology take over....but is that really any different with anything modern? 

But on the flip side there seems to be something going on, a change in national culture since the shift to the information age.  Some other stuff that I noticed people just don't have interest in general today that they did previously would be; history, cars, national parks, exotic destinations and other things of the like.  I've noticed that many tourists from other countries like Canada or anywhere from Europe tend to know much more about our roads and where they take them.  It kind of seems like there is this massive urbanization movement in the U.S. and I think things like the internet and social media play a lot bigger factor than we might think.  People today much rather talk to their friends on some sort of device like a cell phone from home on a day off rather than go find something say like....I don't know the Grand Canyon, San Francisco or even something more mundane like a museum or nice place to eat. 

Things were different 30-40 years ago, my parents basically had at least half a dozen serious 1,000 mile plus road trips planned out.  My Dad was actually pretty good at planning considering it wasn't as easy to knock out 500 miles a day in the crappy cars of the time and lack of real way to reserve hotels except by phone.  We had road maps galore in the cars, we took US Route and State Highways for scenic value in addition to there being something at the end of the journey that was worth seeing.   But then again I would hear stories from them like my Mom's trip in 1957 in the family station wagon along US 10 from Detroit to Seattle which ended up going down US 101 all the way to L.A. then back to Detroit via US 66 through Chicago.  For me nothing can replace memories of things like taking Highway 1 in California with my parents, taking my Mom up to 66 and the Grand Canyon for the first time in four decades or even just the journey of taking trips down roads like the PA Turnpike with my Dad briefing me on the history along the way. 

On the flip side I have a brother who refuses to take his kids anywhere and always leaves them at home with a sitter.  He always tells me they wouldn't enjoy seeing anything other than a theme park but I know that's not true, he just doesn't want to take them because they are an annoyance the on the road.     Regardless he's plugging them into a social media app and reinforcing the current social trend of stay at home and talk to your friends online, it's kind of depressing to see.  At least my sister and brother-in-law make a couple serious trips with the kids in the car a year so they can see things. 

So my grand conclusion is this....obliviousness to things like tolls and roads is only going to get worse as the years press on.  People aren't as interested in roads as they used to be due to the cultural changes in American society and technology has made it infinitely easier just push some buttons and mindlessly head out on your way.  For me, I can't recall the last time I was burned by a toll or didn't know an alternate route out of an area.  But then again I was raised on this kind of stuff, worked on road half a year for a long time and generally spend most of my free time looking up historic maps....oh and I spend a crap ton of time on sites like this in addition to seeing what highway signs I can snag for cheap on ebay.

I think this video from ABC News perfectly sums up the current state of American affairs with road knowledge.  Note the intro to the video includes the statement "texting to their own destruction."

Incidentally I'm kind of amazed that Hyundai never bottomed out. 

[74/171FAN]

I don't think I've ever seen any retroactive drivers.  If anyone speeds off at 88 mph to warn their past self about some roadway condition, that would be retroactive.

Reactive seems to be the norm these days.  Many people view me as a genius simply because I do this thing called "looking at a map" before leaving for a trip.  Some people carry a GPS because they cannot fathom how someone could navigate an unfamiliar area without one (really, the closest I've come to truly using one is to find a street in a town with EXTREMELY poor signage).

It is the same thing with me.   My friends in high school called me "MarkMark" as a pun of TomTom, but most of my friends seem to completely believe that the GPS will take care of them.  (The only time I have seen one do anything special was finding a shortcut from VA 117 to VA 419 once when I-81 SB was congested in Roanoke that was not on my VA state map.) 

A few years ago I went on a mission trip to the Doraville area (northeast of Atlanta).  I remember part of the group I was with getting lost based off the GPS, but myself thinking about it remembers that all that was really needed to not be lost anymore were shields for I-85, I-285, US 23, GA 13, GA 141, etc.

[roadman65]

What really amazes me is that folks who lived around before GPSes were put into common use, seem to have forgotten the days before.  I will have older folks who act like the GPS is the only way to navigate roads and it has and always been for them, even thought their age shows that they existed before GPS.

Then again so is a lot of other inventions and modern practices as well that old timers, even people born in the 1970's, have forgotten about too.

As far as us road geeks go, yes we will be called brilliant when it comes to using a map to navigate which is not that hard to do.  Heck I get called one when I mention that there were problems on the travel to work the day I mention the subject. "Wow, you know so much about roads" after I mention the fact they were doing construction on OBT coming in today to my former job.

However, I had no idea that people themselves used GPSes for everyday navigating until I became a toll collector.  I never heard that before this past year, so to me at first I thought that people were crazy using them.  Now I am sure they think I am if they knew that I never used, nor had an interest in using one, or even realizing what they do, as to this day I never had any use for one, nor even knew that it is so popular or the norm for all motorists.

[Max Rockatansky]

However, I had no idea that people themselves used GPSes for everyday navigating until I became a toll collector.  I never heard that before this past year, so to me at first I thought that people were crazy using them.  Now I am sure they think I am if they knew that I never used, nor had an interest in using one, or even realizing what they do, as to this day I never had any use for one, nor even knew that it is so popular or the norm for all motorists.

They can be handy in tracking down business addresses that aren't exactly clear from the street.  But then again there is Google Street view which is even better since you can see and take a picture of what you are looking for.  Funny thing is about Orlando is that I never found it the easiest thing to do with reading addresses on the fly on say Colonial or Semoran since you are usually trying to fight off traffic at the same time.

[bzakharin]

I read one other case where someone bought tickets flying them to a certain international city, not realizing they really meant that same city's name was in Canada and not Europe!  In that case, they basically had no clue until they got to the destination (or at least enroute).  They're getting a vacation...just not where they intended!

That is commonly told story about couple flying from UK to Sydney Australia (intended) vs Sidney BC (ticketed).
Usually supplemented with a happy end about them finding Canada as good for the honeymoon trip as Australia would be.

I've heard a similar story, from a relatively reliable source, regarding trains. A group of teenage girls got onto a Long Island Railroad train to Long Beach (NY) instead of getting on an NJ Transit train to Long Branch (NJ). When they woke up in mid trip and were told of their error, they simply asked whether there was a beach nearby, then just shrugged and went to the beach.

And I've personally witnessed people arguing with an Amtrak conductor that he should be making local NJ stops. After he had enough of this, he raised his voice and said "Let me make this simple: THIS IS NOT YOUR TRAIN". The guy went back to his group: "this is not our train" to which another member of the group replied "I think I got that".