Jose's blog
So you're on 15-501 going towards Durham. You pass the Estes Dr / Univ Mall turnoff. And you pass the one (Elliot Rd?) with the Burger King right was after you turn and with a little shopping center on the right. (BTW, whatever happened to that big chunk of land that was going to have an expanded movie theater but the movie company and CH butted heads? That thing has been a big empty patch for a decade or so.) And you go to the next one...Eastgate on the left, Holiday Inn on the right. That intersection is crazy.
So I'm exploring this past weekend. I take Jones Ferry Rd. through Carrboro and over University Lake and then I turn right onto Old Greensboro Rd. I go a few miles and I make a right onto Neville Rd. I had never been out there before. I was just exploring. I saw a left with a street sign so I decided to take it. I turned left from Neville Rd. onto Farmstead Dr.
After I turn onto Farmstead Dr., perhaps 100-150 feet ahead I see signs that say "Keep Out" and "No Trespassing." There is nothing else on the road before those signs. I guess that means it's a town road for 100-150 feet and then it magically becomes someones driveway.
I had two choices at that point. One was to go onto this persons property and turn around and I figured I shouldn't do that since there was not one but two signs warning me to stay away. My other choice was to back out onto Neville Rd. The length of visibility was pretty good because the road was straight but at the same time the fact that the road was straight meant that other cars would be barrelling ass on it.
I got my vehicle tax in the mail recently. It was $155 for an 8 year old car. Okay, let's not dwell on that. The reason I mention it is that it is a "vehicle" tax. However, I suspect it's not truly a vehicle tax. Bicycles are vehicles and since there's essentially no regulation on bikes around here I assume the town doesn't have records of who owns one and therefore doesn't send out tax bills for them.
If that's the case, shouldn't the tax be a "motor vehicle" tax instead of a "vehicle" tax? Or, just keep it a "vehicle" tax and tax all vehicles. Or best of all, get rid of it and then you won't have to call it anything, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.
In a separate note, I went to the state DMV website to make sure that bikes were indeed considered to be vehicles and while there I saw that it wasn't a state law for bikers over 16 to wear helmets in NC but that local places can pass their own law. That makes me wonder if it is a law in this area. If it's not it should be IMO considering biking is so strongly encouraged while so many people are simultaneously forced to drive.
I was in my house a couple Saturdays ago and I heard something outside and I assumed it was the mailman putting mail in the box. Then a bit later I heard something again. Why would the mailman come twice? So I went out and looked and in addition to the mail in the mailbox there was a nearly 1,200 page phone book on my stoop.
And then again the other day I came home from work and there was another phone book on my stoop, this one over 1,200 pages.
How can it be legal for people to come to your house and put a big, heavy thing that you didn't ask for on your doorstep? Can I get rid of it by putting it on someone elses doorstep?
I can see getting one phonebook a year, although that probably wouldn't be necessary for many people if it all is online somewhere. But I've gotten four phonebooks in the last 15 months and most of them will go straight into the recycle pile. It seems like it would save everyone a lot of trouble if they wouldn't bring them in the first place.
Bikes are harder to see than motorcycles, which according to the NC DMV website have their headlights on all the time because the headlight comes on automatically when the engine is running. Bikes are much harder to see than cars, which have lights on at night, unlike most bikes I see. (Since most bikes I see at night don’t have lights I didn’t even know it was a law for bikers to use lights at night until someone on this site told me recently.) And the consequences of not seeing a bike are much more severe. Considering all that, and since bikers are both allowed and encouraged to use the same roads as cars and motorcycles, why aren’t bikes required to use lights at all times?
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