A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
Americans drive much more than in any other country – twice as much as the average German, for example. And the actual experience of driving isn’t quite as romantic as the image. Drivers are often stuck in traffic. Cars pump out pollution. Less walking means less exercise. Cars also can kill people. Some skeptics say, indeed–cars are awesome. But they got a lot of help from favorable policies and strong lobbies. CNBC spoke with some researchers and looked at numbers to get the full picture of why Americans became so dependent on cars.
Car brain is insidious, and it seeps into seemingly everything. Let's explore.
I watched this yesterday, then experienced car brain as I drove to work. A man in a Mercedes tailgated me, then gave the "come on" gesture. I sped up to get away from him, then briefly tapped my brakes to tell him to back off. Dude, I'm already driving five miles over the speed limit along a stretch of road that the police patrol. Do you want me to break the law more so you can, too? He then passed me and had to wait for someone else to turn right to get to his destination. Hurry up and wait.
CityNerd Ray reminded me of a video I watched in school more than 50 years ago, Goofy - Motor Mania.
A classic Goofy episode from the 50's!
In fact, from 1950. Car brain has been around that long.
That's the general situation. Follow over the jump for my personal update.
In 2025, we stacked the Artemis II rocket, certified next-generation lunar spacesuits, celebrated 25 years on the International Space Station, and snapped the closest pictures ever taken of the Sun.
We’re not just going back to the Moon in 2026 – we’re paving the way to Mars, exploring the stars, and dominating the skies, setting the stage for a historic year ahead.
It’s going to be a busy year for space exploration with American Astronauts scheduled to make a return visit around the moon, traveling further than any human ever. NBC News’ Tom Costello spoke to the crew.
I wrote "I expected a space race between the U.S. and China over the U.S. returning to the Moon before the Chinese get there" five years ago, and that's exactly what's happening. This time, I'm glad I'm right, because it will get humans back on the Moon and working to get to Mars.
Starship is running behind schedule and holding up a lunar landing, so I'm rooting for Blue Origin to either win the contract or inspire SpaceX to get its act together in time.
The future of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center appears to be in jeopardy, according to a letter penned by a United States representative on Monday. In the letter, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, a ranking member on the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, brought forth concerns about "disturbing reports" of a potential imminent closure at the Greenbelt campus. The letter, written to Sean Duffy, the U.S. Transportation secretary and acting administrator of NASA, said the possible closure of labs and facilities at the campus "put essential hardware and capabilities at great risk."
This is not good news for space science, including research that would help with exploring the Moon and Mars. Add this to the examples of one of 2025's science breakdowns, "Trump roils U.S. science." Ugh.
*I almost didn't because of what's happening in Venezuela. I decided to go ahead and let the late-night talk show hosts do the work for me tomorrow. Stay tuned.
We all picked up new habits during the COVID-19 pandemic. But not all of them stuck. Here's the data on whether we're better or worse drivers, exercisers, social media community members, neighbors, and self carers than during and before lockdown.
In the past week of returning to in-person teaching and resuming my pre-pandemic driving patterns, I've observed several people driving just as Krugman described, weaving in and out of traffic at high speeds. While a few Michigan drivers were doing that all along before the pandemic, I think I've seen more this week than the pre-pandemic average. Based on the data and my personal observations, I agree with Krugman that "the pandemic and its disruptions seem to have done a number on social psychology in many dimensions. The worrisome thing is that troubled behavior seems to be persisting even as the country reopens." Here's to hoping that subsides when the pandemic is over, which itisn't.
I also knew about increased social media use, which persisted, and worse mental health, which the stats say has returned to the pre-pandemic normal. What I didn't know about were the Cannonball Run record, increased drinking, childhood obesity, strokes, and drug deaths, along with worse heart health. I can't say I'm surprised at any of them, except the Cannonball Run. I thought that was only a movie. I'm also relieved that driving is improving and the murder rate is decreasing. It give me hope that the rest of the craziness will subside as well.
That's the general driving situation. Follow over the jump for my personal update.
I've often heard that EVERYONE thinks they're an above average driver. Well, I wanted to look at data to see if it's actually true, share research on how the Dunning-Kruger effect impacts driving, and look at wider consequences on our transportation system.
I've been blogging for 15 years and I've never mentioned the Dunning-Kruger effect until now? I'm amazed. I've had so many opportunities to apply it, especially during two administrations of "only the best people." *Snort*
That written, I'm not surprised at either people's inflated self-assessments of their driving skills or how poor they really are. I wish I weren't surprised that the people who did the worst actually upgraded their self-assessments after doing poorly. I guess they thought they did better than they expected. And I have to share the road with them? Ugh.
That's the general driving situation. Follow over the jump for my personal driving update.
Instead of a Wayback Wednesday look back at the previous blogging year's top posts, I have a driving update today. Before I look at PearlthePrius's latest mileage report, I'm sharing something more general about driving, SciShow asking Why Do So Many More Pedestrians Die in America?
A huge number of vehicular fatalities are people who aren't in cars at all. Pedestrians are dying more than they used to and more in America than other comparable parts of the world. Here's why.
This should look familiar to long-time readers of my blog, as I covered this very topic in PBS NewsHour reports 'Pedestrian deaths in U.S. reach highest level in 40 years,' a driving update, where I wrote, "I think a lot of it is reckless behavior by people, especially drivers, not infrastructure," and "when Secretary Buttigieg talked about looking at car safety from the perspective of other people besides the occupants of cars, the features of SUVs Cheddar described are likely among them." I revisted this topic in Vox and CNBC explain 'Why Americans love' and 'are obsessed with big cars,' a driving update, when I remarked, "safety is an important value to drivers, but it's only the safety of the occupants of the vehicle itself. The safety of drivers of smaller cars and especially pedestrians suffers as a result." As for the infrastructure changes, I'll look for a suitable video from CityNerd to address them in a future update.
Follow over the jump for my personal driving update.
Pearl passed 69,000 miles yesterday, Tuesday, May 27, 2025, 78 days since she passed 68,000 miles on Monday, March 10, 2025. That translates to 12.82 miles per day, 391.03 miles per standard month, and 4,679.49 miles per standard year, which are more than the 11.11 miles per day, 338.89 miles per standard month, and 4,055.56 miles per standard year between her odometer rolling over 67,000 miles on Tuesday, December 10, 2024 and March 10, 2025. Then, I wrote, "I won't be taking that many breaks or driving the Tiguan that much before Pearl's next driving update, but I will be driving to only one work location beginning in May. I'll see then which was more important in the miles I drove." Fewer and shorter breaks and less driving my wife's Tiguan had more of an effect than driving to only one work location during the reporting period.
I skipped the year-over-year comparisons last time to focus on the first retrospective about the 2024-2025 blogging year, so I'm bringing them back with data from CityNerd names '10 Cities Where Driving Consumes the Most of Your Life,' a driving update. First, it took 74 days to drive Pearl 1000 miles, resulting in averages of 13.51 miles per day, 412.16 miles per standard month, 4,932.43 miles per standard year, and 4,945.95 miles per leap year. That's more than this year, so I'm driving less for the season. Second, it's been 358 days since Pearl passed 64,000 miles on June 3, 2024, which results in averages of 13.97 miles per day, 425.98 miles per standard month, and 5,097.77 miles per standard year. That's slightly more than the averages of 13.77 miles per day, 420.11 miles per standard month, 5,027.55 miles per standard year, and 5,041.32 per leap year I last reported for the period ending Tuesday, December 10, 2024. No wonder I decided to not drive to a third work location in the fall!
I expect even lower mileage at the next driving update because I'm driving to work only two days per week. That should be very late in August or early in September. In the meantime, stay tuned for one final retrospective about the 2024-2025 blogging year on Throwback Thursday.
I'm switching things up for the first retrospective examining the most read entries of the fourteenth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News. Instead of featuring the most read entry, I'm beginning with two driving updates that were among the most read posts of the blogging year just ended. To that end, I'm sharing Ray "CityNerd" Delahanty warning his viewers that The New USDOT Is Coming for Your "Woke" Projects.
We're only a few weeks into the new administration and it already feels like years. Let's check in on what the new USDOT is up to.
Volkswagen is one of the world’s largest automakers. It houses brands such as Audi, Porsche, and Bentley. But perhaps its best-known vehicle is the Volkswagen Beetle. Over its entire lifespan, Volkswagen sold over 22.5 million of all three versions of the Beetle. But in July of 2019, production one of the most iconic and important cars of all time came to an end.
That was a cool history of an iconic car, the New Beetle version of which my middle sister drove and my ex-girlfriend's daughter tried to convince me to buy. I didn't because I lived in the country and required a higher ground clearance just to get into my own driveway. My son got farther with his suggestion I buy an Aztek. I didn't, but my wife's vehicles have been sporty SUVs, so we went along with the trend anyway.
Ahead of the 2024 Los Angeles Auto Show, Volkswagen has unveiled the 2025 Tiguan. This utility is their best-selling model in the U.S., and it has been redesigned in a bid to retain that status and better compete in such a hot segment. Jessica Ray has the details.
I had no idea the Tiguan was so popular, but then again, the new car, which my wife hasn't named yet, is our third, so I shouldn't be surprised.
Desi Lydic tackles New York's controversial new congestion pricing toll, while Josh Johnson hits the street to hear from real New Yorkers.
Despite all the complaining and attempted evasion, it looks like congestion pricing is working so far, at least in terms of traffic entering the city. It's also reducing traffic within the city, as Eyewitness News ABC7NY reported in MTA preiminary data shows decrease in traffic since congestion pricing start.
Lindsay Tuchman has the latest on congestion pricing and its impact on traffic.
Two of Commoner's Laws are "Everything Is Connected to Everything Else" — changes in one part of the transportation system affect the rest of the transportation system — and "Everything Must Go Somewhere" — all those personal vehicle trips have to go somewhere — where are those commuters not driving going? Eyewitness News ABC7NY has a partial answer in Subway ridership continues to tick up amid congestion pricing toll.
Klepper and Kosta are covering Governor Hochul's stopping congestionpricing. That's a subject that deserves another post. Maybe if or when CityNerd uploads a video about it.
I was told traffic is worse than it's ever been, especially in New York City. So I went on a research expeditions to find out if it's actually true, and if so — given how many people are working from home and how much vacant office space there is these days — WHY?
This entire video is an exercise in three of Commoner's Laws: "Everything Is Connected to Everything Else" — changes in one part of the transportation system, in this case people moving from transit for commuting to private vehicles for non-work trips, affect the rest of the transportation system, which leads to "Everything Must Go Somewhere" and "There Is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch" — all those personal vehicle trips have to go somewhere, causing more traffic congestion, and working from home has unforeseen costs, like more non-work trips and longer trips to work when people do commute because of moving away from work. Where's "Nature Knows Best?" Sorry, walking doesn't seem to enter into the equation, although horse-drawn carriages merit a mention for historical comparisons and bicycling barely makes a mark on the pie charts.
The pandemic also appears in the story, serving as another instance of "Everything Is Connected to Everything Else" and "There Is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch." Fear of infection seems to be a big driver, pun intended, of shifting people in general and New Yorkers in particular from transit ridership to work from home, with personal car use for non-commuting trips. This connects back to "perceived safety" near the beginning of the video; people working from home don't seem to be factoring in the risks of driving. As I wrote in CityNerd explains 'All the Ways Car Dependency Is Wrecking Us', 46,980 Americans died in traffic accidents during 2021 and one million died worldwide.
Randy's plug of Ground News reminds me of what I wrote in Future Proof examines 'The RISE and FALL of Malls in America,' a tale of the Retail Apocalypse, "the paid promotion by Ground News reminds me that I promised a comparison and contrast between AllSides and the Media Bias Chart three years ago." I still haven't done that, but it really is time. Maybe when I make my monthly page view goal and write evergreen entries near the end of the month.
That would make a good post to share next month. Stay tuned to see if I actually write it.
I have a work project due by the end of this month. Maybe after I get that done. Otherwise, I have in penciled in for the last week of February, when I'm off from work. In the meantime, stay tuned for more evergreen entries worth sharing next month through the end of January.
Preparing to orbit and do science on the Moon, investigating how solar wind interacts with Mars, and demonstrating quiet supersonic flight are just a FEW of the milestones we have planned for 2025.
Much of this continues what NASA did in 2024, but that's a good thing. It's also what I'm least worried about with the incoming administration. As I wrote in 2016, "space policy is the one area where Trump might actually be good for the country." I also wrote "It's like hoping for the alternative history in The Man in the High Castle to happen just so there could be commercial SSTs by the early 1960s...The cost would be too high." I fear the cost might be higher this time.
In 1975, 10 European countries came together with a vision to collaborate on key space activities: science and astronomy, launch capabilities and space applications: the European Space Agency, ESA, was born.
In 2025, we mark half a century of joint European achievement – filled with firsts and breakthroughs in science, exploration and technology, and the space infrastructure and economy that power Europe today.
During the past five decades ESA has grown, developing ever bolder and bigger projects and adding more Member States, with Slovenia joining as the latest full Member State in January.
We’ll also celebrate the 50th anniversary of ESA’s Estrack network, 30 years of satellite navigation in Europe and 20 years since ESA launched the first demonstration satellite Giove-A which laid the foundation for the EU’s own satnav constellation Galileo. Other notable celebrations are the 20th anniversary of ESA’s Business Incubation Centres, or BICs, and the 30th year in space for SOHO, the joint ESA and NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.
"In 2025, ESA looks ahead to a busy and exciting year." So do I. To paraphrase what I wrote last year and the year before, here's to 2025 being another great year in space.
Find out more about the NASA missions mentioned in this 2024 year-end highlight video by taking a deep dive with these resources.
The GreatAmericanEclipse wasn't a breakthrough, so Science Magazine didn't cover it, but it was a big science story, and I'm pleased that NASA included it in their year-end summary. It also showed up in NASA Johnson's Space to Ground: 2024.
2024 on the International Space Station was a year filled with excitement, challenges, and milestones as we mark 25 unbroken years of humans living, working, and flying in humanity's home in low-earth orbit.
Seeing the umbra from above added a spectacular dimension to the event!
Controllers have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024.
Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour — faster than any human-made object has ever moved. A beacon tone received in the late evening hours of Dec. 26 confirmed the spacecraft had made it through the encounter safely and is operating normally.
This pass, the first of more to come at this distance, allows the spacecraft to conduct unrivaled scientific measurements with the potential to change our understanding of the Sun.
NASA's year in review came out just a little too early to include this feat of science and engineering.
Follow over the jump for space news from both inside and outside the U.S., although the Russian space agency Roscosmos played a supporting role in the ISS highlights.
We talk plenty about the presidential race on the 538 Politics podcast, but of course, that is not the only thing on the ballot this November. Americans will cast their votes in races for the U.S. Senate and House, as well as dozens of ballot initiatives.
In this installment of the podcast, we’re going on a road trip across the country to cover as many noteworthy downballot races as possible. We start in the 538 podcast studio in New York state, where House Democrats are hoping for a better outcome than their lackluster 2022 performance, and we end in Alaska. Grab your favorite snacks and get in!
Hearing Nathaniel Rakich and the rest of the panel discuss how Republicans overperformed in New York Congressional contests reminds me of how much differently those elections turned out than expected when I wrote FiveThirtyEight and Sabato's Crystal Ball examine Congressional redistricting in New York State. Two years ago, I quoted Sabato's Crystal Ball, which wrote "If the Democratic plan pans out as intended, the number of Republicans in the New York delegation will shrink from 8 of 27 to 4 of 26." It didn't work out as intended. That map got overturned and replaced with a court-drawn map that eliminated Democratic advantages. Add in a local red wave, and the Republicans won almost enough seats in the Empire State to flip the House of Representatives all by themselves. If the original map had been maintained, then the chamber likely wouldn't have flipped; all else being equal, Democrats would have retained control.
The court-ordered map has since been replaced by one that was created by the redistricting commission and approved by the state's legislature and modestly favors Democrats. That might help return the U.S. House to the Democrats. Then again, maybe not, as three seats in North Carolina are likely to flip back to the Republicans, while one seat each in Alabama, Mississippi, and New York will elect Democrats, while Georgia shows no change. That will be a wash. Democrats will have to count on California to regain their House majority and hope Alaska doesn't flip. Even so, the House looks better than the Senate for Democrats.
Marijuanalegalization is a cause I've been following since at least 2012, when I posted Meanwhile, at the bottom of the ballot. I wrote then "I told one of my students that there would be two changes in his lifetime propelled by his generation--marijuana legalization and marriage equality." The past dozen plus years have proved that prediction correct. Here's to that coming true in Florida and carrying re-legalizing abortion along with it.
I'm encouraged that ElissaSlotkin to replace Debbie Stabenow and Ruben Gallego to replace Kyrsten Sinema are favored to win their Senate contests in Michigan and Arizona, respectively, but I wish Kamala Harris was running even with both of them. Sigh.
That's my reaction to FiveThirtyEight's virtual road trip. Follow over the jump for my personal driving update.
Republicans don't plan to waste time remaking the US government if their guy wins in November. The playbook is "Mandate for Leadership: the Conservative Promise," aka Project 2025, and it's chock full of amazingly terrible ideas when it comes to cities.
Please vote in November, and do more if you can. Here are a couple ways to get involved. (We send postcards to swing states in our household!)
This is all really distressing. About the only positive thing I can see coming out of this for housing policy, and it's only barely positive, is the policy plank about encouraging single-family housing might result in lifting or repealing the cap on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT). That punishes well-off residents of high-tax states who have been voting Democratic, which I think is actually the point. People who use ride hailing services (taxis, Uber, and Lyft) might like having those subsidized (again, this time by government instead of venture capitalists), but that will come at the expense of actual public transit, to say nothing of the climate. Ugh.
JFK loved Jackie's daiquiris. Presidents’ favorite cocktails, and how to make them, on All the Presidents' Drinks with Food Video Host and Editor Mary Beth Albright.
That's a surprisingly fun video from an unexpected source. It's part of a series that I had no idea existed and looks like a good example of well-produced content made during the pandemic. I might return to it for future posts.
Pearl the Prius's odometer will roll over 64,000 miles by the time I return home from work today, so it's time for a driving update. I begin with Ray "CityNerd" Delahanty naming (and shaming) 10 Cities Where Driving Consumes the Most of Your Life.
In 1974, Ivan Illich wrote that the typical American male spent 25% of his waking life either driving a car or working for the income required to pay for one. 50 years later, is this true? And, which cities consume the most -- and least -- of our time with driving?
I'm not surprised that the Inland Empire has the cities that require the most time spent driving or working to support a car. It's one of the things I miss the least about southern California after moving to Michigan 35 years ago.
That's the overall driving picture. Follow over the jump for my personal update.
Detroit had seen an exodus of people since the 1950s. Yet the estimates released Thursday show Detroit's population rose by just 1,852 people from 631,366 in 2022 to 633,218 last year.
That's a great use of graphics to give the numbers impact and make people pay attention to them!
I'm in favor of getting people to move here, both because it's a safer place to live (but not immune from the extremeweather associated with climatechange as the second video mentioned) and because the state has room. Detroit alone lost more than one million people since its 1950 peak and other Michigan citieshave lost people as well, so they alone could take up the slack — that is, if they can become better places to live and work. People moved out of Michigan to seek work, so state and local governments need to work with businesses to promote and create sustainable industries to employ the people who move here and rebuild infrastructure to support them in a warmer and, for Michigan, wetter world. Infrastructure and housingconstruction to accommodate people moving here will provide a lot of jobs by themselves, but that only lasts so long. Ask Las Vegas, for example.
While Donald Trump snoozes in court, his former lawyer Michael Cohen is mocking him on TikTok. Elsewhere, Governor Kristi Noem tried to explain away her puppy murder story, and another Boeing aircraft lost a crucial part mid-flight.
Courtroom drama? In the hands of Colbert and his writers, it's more like courtroom comedy, which makes the news a lot easier to digest. This includes Kristi Noem, who acts like she thinks she's the latest version of Sarah Palin, right down to shooting canines (wolves in the case of Palin) and being the running mate on a Republican presidential ticket. I'll get back to that and Boeing's problems, but I'm moving on to Jimmy Kimmel Made it Into the Trump Trial, Donald "Can't Even Testify" & Crazy Abortion Law Repealed, which didn't bleep out what Michael Cohen called "Naptain America." I guess showing a cable news clip slipped it past the censors.
We are officially part of the record of the People vs Donald Trump, prosecutors entered into evidence a series of text messages between lawyers for Trump and Stormy Daniels about our show, Trump has been encouraging supporters to come to the courthouse and support him and was greeted by a single fan, he is very upset about reports that say he’s been sleeping during the trial, the courtroom sketch artist appears to hate him, today he tried to float the idea that because of the gag order he’s not allowed to testify, he played shows in Wisconsin and Michigan yesterday where he fired up the crowd telling them everything’s a disaster and America is dead, we have a new water pressure edition of Drunk Donald Trump, the state Senate in Arizona finally voted to repeal their antiquated and crazy abortion law from 1864, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem went on Hannity last night to do damage control after she revealed she shot her puppy, and This Week in Unnecessary Censorship.
Kimmel and his writers and editors made up for not bleeping CNN's Jake Tapper with "This Week in Unnecessary Censorship." They should do that to Marjorie Taylor Greene more often.
CNN Chief Legal Analyst Laura Coates breaks down the arguments on both sides of Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York City, and explains why it’s important for the public to know what really happened. Watch “Laura Coates Live” weeknights on CNN.
That's enough for me to pay attention to Coates. She sounds smart and knowledgeable.
I close this portion above the jump with two of The Late Show's cold opens about the trial, beginning with Trump’s Aggressive New Attorney.
Angry that his lawyer wasn’t tough enough, Donald Trump hired someone much more aggressive.
That's only a slight exaggeration. Trump is in the WWE Hall of Fame and a telegenic lawyer who used to be a wrestler would be right up his alley.
Long Beach, California. Home of one of the busiest container ports in the world, expensive housing, a very long beach, and...over 2500 active oil wells. Yes, you heard that right.
I worked on the constructionof L.A.'s subway, which intersected with the Long Beach light rail on the south side of downtown. At that time, the line's northern terminus was at that intersection. I'm glad to read that it was extended into the San Gabriel Valley to become the longest light rail line in the world.
As for all the oil wells, I'm not surprised. I grew up in Los Angeles and just accepted the pump jacks, which my family called grasshoppers, as part of the landscape. I expect a lot of them will be pumping oil for decades to come, regardless of how bad fossil fuels are for the environment in general and climatechange in particular.
That's it for the current post. Follow over the jump for a retrospective of the top post featuring CityNerd from the 13th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
By popular demand -- a comprehensive review of all the ways car dependency destroys our communities, our health, and our planet. With gratuitous commentary by your host!
It looks like I have to update the headline statistic in U.S. traffic deaths reached nearly 43,000 in 2021, the most in 16 years, a driving update, which I had telling my students to make a point. The actual number is 4,000 higher, 46,980. They would be even more shocked if I told them more than one million people die every year in car crashes, including collisions with pedestrians, worldwide. Yikes! Also, I make that comparison between the safety of cars and commercial airlines every year as an analogy for the day-to-day safety of coal-fired power plants and nuclear plants. Both commercial air travel and nuclear power plants are much safer than personal automobile travel and coal-powered plants, even accounting for Boeing's current problems and meltdowns. Nuclear waste? We haven't got there yet.
The rest of the list is just as enlightening and I plan on sharing the highlights as stories I tell my students. I hope they learn them, too. As for me, it's always a good day when I learn something new and I learned a lot from this video.
"Super commuting": when your job is in one metropolitan area and you live in a completely different metro area. With the intensifying housing affordability crisis and the increase in hybrid work schedules, there are more long work trips than ever...but are they really "super"?
Ray "CityNerd" Delahanty has interesting things to say about super commuting, but that's not what prompted me to leave a comment on this video. Instead, I focused on something more personal.
The preview image looked eerily familiar, so I zoomed in the sign listing the exits and read "Yorba Linda Blvd. Weir Canyon Road" then CA 241. That's heading east on CA 91 just past the intersection with CA 90 in Anaheim Hills. Hey, I used to live within a mile of where that picture was taken! Appropriately for the video, I commuted to downtown LA from there.
I elaborated on this at my Dreamwidth, adding "That was about the background, which probably came from a drone carrying a telephoto lens, because the mountains would otherwise be much smaller. The foreground has been added from a traffic jam in Arizona." Check out the Arizona license plate and U of A sticker to see why I think so.
That's my personal reaction to the general driving update. Follow over the jump for my personal driving update.
