Stoplights: The Great Equalizers
I know I irritate my share of drivers as I putt through town from stoplight to stoplight in my under-powered 4-cylinder Jeep. I do my best, but there’s only so much you can do with 120 horsepower! To make it worse, subtract an additional 15 horses when the AC is running*. The guy in the dual-turbo PowerStroke® diesel F250 may not miss the 15 horsepower from his stable of 350 high-torque diesel-fed horses as he comes roaring around me, turbos screaming, cell phone glued to his ear. But I miss every one of them as I row through the gears to coax my little Jeep back up to something near the speed of the traffic going by. The funny thing is, when I get to the next light, there sits the guy in the F250! I can’t begin to tell you how often this happens. Often as I come rolling up, the light is just ready to turn green. Traffic lights do a good job of putting the mighty and the lowly in the same class.
* Dan’s Data Letters #129 http://www.dansdata.com/danletters129.htm