Today, I’d like to devote Road Warrior to sounding out the
readership on a couple of curiosities: Why smokers roll their
window down halfway and why some many people use drive-up
windows.
Plus a suggestion for not getting stuck waiting for the left turn
light on Silverdale Way to go east on Ridgetop Boulevard.
Today, I’d like to devote Road Warrior to sounding out the
readership on a couple of curiosities, one of them my own.
But first, Joan Boeckl makes an observation that would have been
good had I included it in Friday’s column about all the extra
traffic at Silverdale Way and Ridgetop Boulevard since Myhre Road
was closed. Actually, Larry Hugel of the county’s signal shop said
something similar when I was researching the column but I neglected
to mention it.
The observation: If drivers coming from the north on Silverdale Way
wanting to reach the area of Costco would turn left at Waaga Way
and take it up to the Ridgetop interchange and approach from that
direction, or if they’d go past Ridgetop on Silverdale Way to
Bucklin Hill Road, turn left and then double back via Mickelberry,
they’d take a lot of pressure off the left turn from Silverdale Way
to eastbound Ridgetop and may even save time.
Now then, the curiosities, the first from retiring state Sen. Bob
Oke of Port Orchard, who even as you read this is recuperating from
another stem cell transplant to battle his blood cancer.
He wondered a week ago why so many smokers drive with the
driver-side window rolled half-way down. Are they trying to
preserve the value of their vehicle by minimizing the odor of
smoke, he asked. Are they being considerate of someone in the
vehicle. Are they (heaven forbid) flicking the ashes out the
window?
E-mail me your thoughts about that, and about this:
I am mystified by the popularity of drive-up windows. You get
trapped in line, are at the mercy of the complexity of the business
those ahead of you must transact, you burn up gas and pollute the
air. I can usually be in and out of the business on foot, be it a
bank or fast food joint, well before I’d ever reach the window in
the drive-up lane.
There just doesn’t seem to be any upside to a drive-up lane, unless
you have kids in the car. I see so many with just the driver,
sitting in the drive-up lane, I wonder what attraction I’m
overlooking.
I am a former smoker. When my children were young, and I was still smoking, I told myself that they were not getting any damage from it if I left my window opened a little.
As the children grew older, they requested more window opening! Just before I quit, I reached the point where I did not smoke in the car when the children were with me. I don’t know what modern parents do.
On the drive-up window thing I can only say that my mother is mobility impaired and we drive up to her bank window to do her transactions. It is way faster and much easier for her that way. Otherwise, I park and walk into most businesses.
You will quickly find the “upside” to drive-up windows if you ever
have a physical handicap as they keep you from having to struggle to
get out of the car and into the bank or whatever. Since we are
retired and can pick our time for errands, we do them at non-busy
times to avoid having to wait in long lines which would waste gas.
Also, many years ago the bank in Hadlock (formerly SeaFirst) taught
us to turn off the engine when at the drive-up window to avoid
asphyxiating the Tellers and we still do that automatically.
I have never met a smoker who has not had their car window rolled down
while smoking, and there are good reasons for that. Number one, yes,
it definitely reduces the smell of smoke inside the car, especially
when you have multiple windows down. Also, it gives the smoke a place
to go instead of being trapped in such a small space – and do you
really want smokers to have decreased visibility? Not only does a car
full of trapped smoke make it hard to see, it makes it more likely
that you’ll get smoke in your eyes, which will cause them to be
irritated and water.
Finally, as for flicking ashes out the window, it’s easier (you don’t
have to look) than using an in-car ashtray, and also can decrease the
smell of cigarette smoke in your car. This is especially effective if,
instead of using an ashtray, you keep a plastic bottle with some
liquid in it to put your cigarette butts in. Some people opt not to
ash out the window, such as my roommate, who is very determined to
maintain the appearance of his car at all times – including not having
ashes on the exterior of it. Thus, he rarely smokes in his car.
I know you were probably asking sarcastically or were expecting to get
a bunch of, “Yeah, I know!” non-smoker support, but I figured I’d go
against the grain and give you a serious answer.
I keep the sunroof partially open to vent the majority of the smoke. I’m
the only one that rides in my car so I really don’t care what it smells
like, I just don’t like looking through a fog bank 🙂
They have their windows down to throw out their ashes and cig. when they are
through. I witnessed this three times in Sept, was able to get license plate
number and information needed to call it in to litter two times but not the
other. I was not on the highways every day either just to doctors or
shopping.
I have a theory that ties in with Bob Oke’s musings about drivers
that smoke. The popularity of drive-ups is that smokers, due to a
recent law prohibiting smoking in any business premises, don’t have
to put out their cigarette. The smoke that they lit up to relieve the
stress/boredom of driving to do their business (be it eating,
banking, etc) doesn’t have to be doused in order to carry out that
drive-up transaction.
NO – wait a minute! How far – by law – does a smoker have to be from
a place of business in order to light up? Isn’t it something like 25
feet? In my calculations, that would render all drive-ups completely
useless.
Yours in perplexity,
You’ll get a lot of reasons to use the drive throughs, some good such as little kids and handicapping conditions, but the truth is that most drivers are just too freaking lazy to get out and walk in.
There are usually no lines inside most of these places. I’m in and out in 5-minutes while only 1 or 2 cars move past the window. Let’s not start a campaign to discourage driving through. That’ll cause longer lines inside.
If we have another gas crisis like ’79, the first thing to shut down should be drive throughs.
What I want to know is what is so exceptional with the coffee kiosk on Kitsap Way just east of the Taco Bell. I’ve seen nine cars lined up there at 10 AM. The last three were waiting in the road.
I have wondered also, why smokers drive with the window rolled half-way down. I came to the conclusion that they are considerate of their passengers or that they hope to help themselves,by a little fresh air. The smokers that really get me wondering what they can be thinking, are those who drive with their windows all the way down and when they slow or stop, out comes the arm hanging way down, flipping ashes and probably discarding cigarette butts. I have seen this many times. I am sure they don’t want to smell up the car with the smell of old cigarette butts in the ash tray. I think it’s time to impose another tax on tobacco to cover the cost of fire damage along our hiways.
The reason smokers (I was a smoker for years) drive with their windows half down is that they can’t stand a car/room full of cigarette smoke. It is fine in the lungs but not in the eyes and etc.
The reason people like drive-throughs is that (1) sometimes they aren’t dressed for public viewing. (2) They haven’t combed their hair, brushed their teeth or are just too tired to get out of the car. (3) Maybe a hangover with red eyes and they smell like a dirty bar. The list goes on and on…..just one old lady’s idea…..O.K?
Dear Travis,
I used to feel the way you do about drive-up windows; gas wasters,
polluters, and time wasters, until I visited my daughter in Fresno, CA who
has three small, pre-school children. You have not experienced
inconvenience until you try to run errands with even one child in tow.
Each stop entails parking, unbuckling the child from the safety car seat,
finding the shoes he or she has removed, then manuvering him, her, or them
through the crowded, dangerous parking lot into the establishment where you
need to transact your business. And if you have more than one child with
you, you must also watch them while dealing with the bank clerk, or
pharmacists, or whatever you have gone into that particular place to do.
Let’s not even go into the return to the car. Whew! One or two of those
experences, and you realize just how wonderful a drive-up window is, be it
for picking up a presciption, buying lunch, dropping off dry cleaning, doing
bank business, or many other things that can be done at drive-up windows.
Drive-ups are also helpful for people with mobility problems. Much easier
to go to the pharmacy window to pick up a called-in medication than try to
manuver that game leg out of the car and limp into the store while leaning
on a cane.
Drive-up bank windows are also safer. Someone who has just visited an ATM
is fair game for a purse-snatcher or a mugger, But in your car, doors
locked, all windows but one rolled up, and engine running, you can usually
get away from harm much more quickly.
And lastly, in case you have forgotten about our delightfull winter weather
in the Pacific Northwest, I would much rather go to a drive-up coffee window
and get my favorite latte, than park and slog through the sleet for it.
I wonder if it is the Fat Person sitting in the car at the drive-in window?
The Slim Jim and Slim Jane of the world must be the folks who park and walk into the establishment…I am guessing because I do not believe a Fat Person becomes a Fatty by overexercise.
(I can speak of Fatties because I became one when I stopped a 40 year smoking habit)
I also think that way. Why smokers roll their window down halfway and why some many people use drive-up windows. Thanks for answering my questions. I know that this will help specially to all drivers.