Ben’s Car Blog

Last week, Jalopnik was holding a competition to compose a mix-tape for the Mercedes Benz of your choice. This is the entry I sent in:

Here’s my playlist for the fabulous 1955 190SL roadster. It’s a playlist for cruising through the city on a Friday night after leaving a restaruant and heading into the hinterland before spending the weekend sleeping late. It ends on a high because all Friday nights should end on a high. It’s just a little bit kitsch but, I think, only in a good way, much like the 190SL.

1. Bobby Darin - More
2. Tony Bennett - Top Hat, White Tie and Tails
3. Kurt Elling - The Best Things Happen While You Dance
4. Ella Fitzgerald - Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
5. Marcos Valle - Os Grillos (Crickets sing for Ana Maria)
6. St Germain - Land of
7. Frank Sinatra - Come fly with me
8. Sam Butera - French Poodle
9. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass - A Taste of Honey
10. Lalo Shifrin - The Mission Impossible Theme
11. James Taylor Quartet - Mrs Robinson
12. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - As Long as I’m Singin’

I didn’t win or even get mentioned. Sigh.

I’d always thought that red-light cameras were, on the whole, not that bad an idea. Sure, if you run a red-light you still don’t get caught until the ticket and photo arrives in the mail, but that’s offset by the idea that they’re preventative and the threat of getting caught should be strong enough to restrain you from running the red.

CarPundit says that they’re just about to be introduced to Boston and he’s not happy about it. He even says that red light cameras “increase the traffic death rate” which sounds pretty dramatic. I had thought that the results might have been specific to the United States, however there is Australian research showing the same thing: that there is no benefit to red light cameras in reducing accidents. Reading the report on the Australian data (in part commissioned by Vic Roads!) it seems that some sites that had red light cameras installed had a higher number of accidents after the installation, however, many of those sites were low-frequency accident sites meaning that any change in the number of accidents was significant.

I’ve decided to change this site’s direction a little. As much as I enjoy writing about cars, keeping up with the (admittedly limited amount of) Australia-relevant car news is a PITA.

So, this marks a turning point. No more plain vanilla car news; lots more opinion, substantiated and otherwise.