Henday Woes... AGAIN!

Yes, it's that time again where I bitch about driving on the Henday.  Ok, I've moved to the west side of Edmonton for two years now, but this will be my third summer driving on the Henday on a regular basis.

Year 2011: The City decided to 'improve' the ring road to make it a continuous freeway by constructing overpass at major intersections on the highway.  This made sense.  Improvement = construction = traffic delays.  I get it.  I can deal.  However, there was some confusion when the overpasses opened but whatever, should be smooth sailing in the future.

Year 2012: The City decided to repave a one year old road.  I don't know too much about road engineering, but this didn't make sense at all?  I don't know.  Delays again.  Oh well.  Should be good for the next few years...

Year 2013: Can I say WTF?!  Construction again?  The sign says repaving. AGAIN?  What the hell is wrong with this asphalt?  I know it's a high traffic road, but yearly repaving?  Oh geez.   However, they are doing some excavations next to the shoulder lane.  Are they planning to expand the road?  Then why didn't they make it a wider road in the first place?  Ok, let's say they are making it wider, but based on the above, that means next year they will repave!  More delays.

FML.

Today's Driving Woes

Today's weather: Above freezing, clear skies,
Road conditions: Wet, but clear

Ideally:
Posted speed limit on major roadways: 80km - 100km
Travelling time: 12-15 minutes

Reality:
Average driving speed: 17 km/hr
Travelling time: 36 minutes

Kill me.

A Malibu Experience

So my car finally got into the shop to get the hail damage on my car repaired.  Since I also included a "car rental" allowance on my insurance policy, I got a car rental while my little Subaru is in the shop.  I was given two options: Enterprise or Discount.  I didn't really care, so they chose Discount for me. I should have made my own choice, and choose Enterprise.  This Discount seriously has the worse customer service.  It had a pickup service, and the driver didn't say hi, didn't say bye.  He was this kid who just had the look of "I hate this job."  Then the lady at the pick up desk was so zoned out.  Then I got the car, and the TPM said a tire was low in air.  The 'garage' guy came out and said, "I filled the tires and probably the gauge is not working.  You'll be fine."  Uh ok?  A rental car place giving a car to a customer that might have a flat tire and/or broke tire gauge.  Great.
So what car did I get?  An automatic black Chevy Malibu:

It was nice to drive an automatic again.  No jerking, and you just... park.  I do have to admit, when I first picked up the car, I felt like I needed to shift gears.  As for the car, the Malibu, it sucks.  It's heavy.  It doesn't handle.  The shocks suck; I felt every bump on the Henday.  Gas efficiency is bad; I used half a tank in 4 days.  Flex fuel my ass.
Based on this experience, I learned two things:
1. Chevy Malibu will not be on my "Potential Car" list.
2. Don't rent from the Discount on the west end of Edmonton.

Henday Bitchin'

I meant to blog about this earlier, but have been procrastinating and putting it off.

As some may know, the Anthony Henday is the outer ring road in Edmonton.  It is a very convenient way to travel around Edmonton.  The original design of it had tons of lights and stops (which was retarded), but after last year, overpasses had been constructed and most of the lights and stops had been taken away.  Now the Henday is usually pretty free flowing.

Last year exactly this same time of year, my exit off the Henday was completed.  I posted my bitching of how retarded it was.  This year, I have to bitch about repaving it.

The road is brand new - one year old and for the last two to three months, my turn off had been suffering significant slow downs and line ups because there is repaving going on.  Can we say WTF?!  I can't imagine repaving is required after 1 year.  Maybe I'm just dumb, and don't know the exact details of the road construction and maintenance schedule.  Let's just hope they'll get it done right this time.  I expect a 25 year service life on this.

The signs say the work will be done by mid October.  So for two more weeks, I will have to endure more line ups and more slow downs.  Sigh.  Oh well, at least I get to practice my stop and go in my standard.  Positive thinking.

New Standard Driver

It's been a while since I last posted.  During this time period, we have lost one member in the Unit #83 household, but was quickly replaced by two new "members": a Scion FRS and a Subaru Impreza.

For my new job, having a vehicle is a must.  Therefore, our single car family became a double car family again (sigh... more expenses).  B bought a new asphalt gray Scion FRS, which has a manual transmission.  I'm of course is off limits, and his excuse was "you can't drive a standard, but if you can, you can drive it".

I love my Mini.  Technically, it was the first car I bought and own (well, the Golf was my first car that I drove full time... under a lease in my parents' name).  However, after Luigi's warranty period was over, it was problem after problem: the manifold intake required replacement, the passenger door won't unlock manually (even more weird), the engine shook after starting, and emergency brake light was on when the brake was off.  Just this year alone, I already spent $2000 on fixing the manifold issue.  The others remained unsolved.

So finally I decided to get a new car too: a cherry red Subaru Impreza.  

To be able to drive B's car, I also got a manual transmission.  About 10 years ago, I did take a 3 hour lesson on how to drive a standard.  It was an awful experience because the car was so old.  However, the benefit I got from that 3 hour lesson was that I did learn the 'skills' and retained 80% of it.  Hence, the driving experience for the last month or two was tolerable.  However, worried of stalling and rolling backwards, I put a "New Standard Driver" sign up, just to warn drivers to stay away.  It worked.  Yeah, I got some laughs from other drivers, but in general, many people have stayed away from me.  I should keep this sign up just to avoid being rear ended, but B thinks it's ugly and removed it.  

I thought with B here and with him picking out and buying a new car will end my bad luck with new cars.  WRONG!  Here's a brief history of my new cars:

2003 Golf

• Before leaving the dealership, it got a rock chip in the windshield; however, it was the dealership's fault and so it was replaced.
• About the second day it was on the road, I got hit and it got a 'scar' above one of the back wheels       

2008 Mini

• Either it was the first or second day on the road, I got a rock chip in the windshield.

Although it doesn't seem too bad, it is bad for brand new cars!  So what's wrong with the Impreza?  Here it is:

• Before leaving the dealership, the battery was dead.  They boosted it and the car was ok.
• Less than two weeks old on the road, mother nature decided to send down hail from hell.  The Impreza got a lot of dents on the hood, the roof, and some on the door(s).  I claimed insurance and still waiting for an appraisal.
• Approximately one month old on the road, I got a rock chip.  

Sigh.  I don't think I can get away with the rock chip.  It's frickin' summer and I still got a rock chip.  

The Other Details

Like I wrote yesterday, I have other details to follow from yesterday's "awesome" travel fiasco:

Baggage
After the "way too early" flight got cancelled, I was up at the gate counter arranging for another flight. With my luck, I got a new girl. She was nice. So after she got my flights, she ripped off my luggage sticker. Since it was only 7 am in the morning, I was even more confused but didn't do much about it. Then after being led back to "Departures", I asked the guy do I need to pick up my luggage. He apparently didn't know, and started wondering the same thing. I also told him that the girl also took my luggage tag. So he said he'll check for me. Yeah. He printed me another luggage tag and told me I had to pick up my luggage.
Lesson Learned: When something seems fishy, ASK! If I didn't ask, I probably wouldn't have clothes for the next few days, and will have to deal with the Edmonton airport's lost luggage department tomorrow!

I5 Driving Experience
So, after a 10 hour travel catastrophe, I promised myself I was going to shop like I never shopped before (I shopped, but the finds were disappointing). I got to my hotel, checked in, and then went back down to the lobby to the car rental counter at 2:30. While doing the paper work for the car rental, I asked the girl how far it is to the outlet mall. She then said, "The one up north... on a good day, 40 min. Now (look at the time) maybe 2-3 hours." WHAT?! My shopping!!!!!!!!! She was nice, and checked her iPhone for traffic. She said it was clear and hurried with my papers. So I got onto Interstate 5. There were A LOT of cars. It was a freeway with a 60 mph speed limit. Ok. Yeah, out of nowhere, the speed dropped to 50 mph... and then 40 mph. At these sections, traffic was slow. No construction. No accidents. I was moving about 10-20 mph. These sections were when the freeway was approaching downtown Seattle, but it was not going through it, just approaching the exit to it. It's a FREEWAY. Keep the speed limit up so people can move!!! After this, the speed limit was 60 mph, but there were sections where traffic would just slow down for cars to come in. I made it to the outlet slightly over 1 hour. I'm not complaining. Then I went to the info desk at the outlet to ask when would be a good time to leave to head back into Seattle. She said noon. WHAT? Then she said, "Well, you might be ok after 8 or 9." Gosh. Asked another girl at the Fossil store, she said after 6 should be ok. So I compromised and stayed until 7:30. Oh gosh, it was a sea of red. I thought Highway 2 was a busy highway. It's nothing compare to the I5. I couldn't imagine what this road is like during the heart of rush hour.
Lesson Learned: The Anthony Henday construction detours that increased my travel time to an average of +15 min is nothing. No more complains. Why would anyone want to live in Seattle with this traffic?!

OMG, WTF?

This summer, Edmonton roads went full blown construction. The one area that affects me the most is the construction of the overpasses on the west section of the Anthony Henday (which is the outer ring road in Edmonton). My residence is near a street that crosses the Henday. This whole summer, they (whoever they are) had been constructing an overpass for this street to cross the Henday and so in the future (hopefully by this winter), we, drivers, no longer have to wait for a stupid light intersection trying to get onto or cross the Henday.

This morning, lo and behold, the overpass opened! A little confused with the new road but still happy because there is no more light to wait for! However, this happiness lasted only one minute or so. Whoever is the construction manager/transportation engineer on this was either high on drugs or a retard. Like a typical overpass, to get onto the freeway, you stay on one side and turn off. To head north on the Henday, I had to stay right and turn right onto the spiral ramp. On the spiral ramp, there was a LONG line up of cars. Why? Because at the end of the ramp, we have to YIELD onto the Henday. Who the hell yields (oh right, Peigan-Deerfoot had one) ? If you're not ready for people to use the overpass, don't do it! I think I rather prefer the lights than hoping that the car that I am seeing far away won't speed up the moment I get onto the freeway. Please let this yield be temporary and let it be a merge... but looking at the road lines, I have a feeling the yield might be the final design.