headlights.....Re: WHY?

[Roger M. Woodbury]

I live in eastern Maine, about 4 miles from Mt. Desert Island.  I can drive
the four miles to town after eight in the evening and see perhaps no cars at
all.  The nearest divided highway is 25 miles away and between here and
there is Route 3 which is a windy and hilly roadway of two lanes.  Between
late fall and mid spring, it is not uncommon to drive that distance without
seeing more than a dozen or so cars, until nearly in Holden, the last town
before the Brewer/Bangor metroplex (ha!  That's a joke!).  Going down the
coast on US Route 1 is apt to be a bit busier generally, but in the deep
winter, after around 8 in the evening, you will seldome see another car for
a couple of miles or more once outside of the towns along the route.  And as
you go east, toward Canada, traffic becomes sparcer and sparcer.  I have
made the trip from Brewer to Danforth on the border along Route 9, which is
commonly called 'The Airline" because it rides the crest of numerous ridges,
with pretty impressive drop offs on either side for some distance.  On some
occasions, I have gone twenty miles or more without seeing so much as a
light of any sort, let alone another car.  People constantly use their high
beams at night everywhere.

A lot of folks don't know how large the state of Maine is, but it is larger
than all five other New England states, and I believe with a smidgen of NY
state thrown in, and in the entire state, the population is 1.2 million.
Most development is in the southwest corner, including the city of
Portland...from there to the New Hampshire border, so about 15% of the
state's area holds around 75% of the population.

Parenthetically, I am sure that you can appreciate the political issues that
are involved with this sort of thing.  We here feel that in too many ways
there are "Two Maines", with the southern third of the state trying to swing
a vastly disproportionate agenda in state government.   I know that the
folks in Michigan's Upper Peninsula feel the same way.  From time to time,
there is some discussion of secession, but I don't think that there really
is a political will to accomplish that anywhere in this state.  Things might
change somewhat now though, as our new governor is from "here".

Roger


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kneale Brownson" <knotnook at traverse.com>
To: "Roger M. Woodbury" <rmwoodbury at downeast.net>; <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 18, 2003 8:18 AM
Subject: Re: headlights.....Re: WHY?


> At 07:29 AM 01/18/2003 -0500, Roger M. Woodbury wrote:
> >Ti is absolutely correct.  The Feds have simply lagged behind the curve
in a
> >lot of technical issues involving automobiles for years.
>
>
> I thought the East Coast was populated????
>
> I live in what's considered "rural" Michigan (the Little Finger area of
the
> "mitten"), and I drive 30 to 60 miles in the dark almost every winter
> morning on two-lane roads that mostly rise and fall continually and twist
> and turn often.  I never can drive more than a minute without either
> meeting someone or overtaking someone so that I can't use brights
> anyway.   Additionally, my headlight lenses are coated with
> grit/dirt/frozen slop from the roadway by the time I've driven the first
> 2-3 miles in traffic almost every day.   Wouldn't matter what kind of
light
> I had, I'm sure I wouldn't "see" any better.
>
>