Why Our Cars are Killing Us

 The Economist, to which I subscribe, recently (September 7) had a leader called America's killer cars.  (You may hit a paywall for that article).  I can't find it offhand, but within a week or so the San Francisco Chronicle also had an article, or possibly an editorial, on the same subject; I remember reading it.  And it's very unusual for the Chron and the Economist to cover the same subject.

Basically, those huge cars, and especially trucks, that you see your neighbors driving are much more likely to kill you in a collision than a smaller car.  And because of the weight of the lithium batteries, the new electric versions of big trucks are even worse (per the Economist, "The Ford F-150 Lightning weighs about 40% more than its petrol engine cousin...")  And you may have noticed that the old-fashioned sedan is really out of style these days.

It isn't just the size of the cars and trucks.  The design of our roads is lethal - Americans insist on 4 way intersections instead of roundabouts, especially in rural areas - bad for both drivers and pedestrians.  And the wide roads and lanes we like encourage us all to drive faster.

I've never been interested in huge cars.  In fact, my last car but one was a Mini Cooper, which I replaced in 2017, partly because I wanted to be able to give rides to my friends and the Cooper had only 2 doors.  But also, I wanted a hybrid.  I bought a Kia Niro, at least partly because I hate Priuses.  The Niro is a very nice car for the narrow streets in the Oakland hills - tight handling, good brakes, and the 4 doors I wanted.  But even the Niro has a square, high front grille that is hard to see over sometimes, especially when I've climbed a hill and am trying to pull into a flat intersection - I just pray that anyone in the crosswalk can see me, because I can't see them.  

The Niro is a "crossover" - a small SUV, often the smallest SUV in the parking lot.  It weighs a little over 3,000 lb.  But one in 3 new cars in America these days weighs over 5,000 lb., and if my little Kia collides with one of those, I know who will lose.  And I'm constantly amazed by the number of my urban neighbors who feel they're best served by a pickup truck, the bigger the better - I associate pickup trucks with farms and farmers, but I'm obviously out of step on that today.  And why do you need a vehicle so big you have to have a stepladder to climb into the seat?

I'm not suggesting any answers to this; I don't know what they might be.  Just - everyone drive carefully, and slow down!  The accident you avoid could save your life.

My, How Dorm Life Has Changed

 Everyone who lives in the Bay Area knows that U.C. Berkeley doesn't have enough dorm space for its enrolled students.  They especially know this in Berkeley, and parts of north Oakland, where all the students are looking for someplace to live.  

August 21, 2024 was move-in day at Helen Diller Anchor House, a new dorm for transfer students.  The S.F. Chronicle wrote up the event - on that date, but good luck finding the article, sadly, it's behind a paywall.  The dorm, which cost $300 million, is 14 stories, 3 blocks from BART, across the street from campus, and will house 772 students.  The "dorm rooms" have:  full kitchens, with dishwashers and stacked washer/dryers.  Of course, they cost $2,000 a month; but the building includes an indoor/outdoor fitness center and yoga studio and a rooftop vegetable garden.  $2,000 is about what a small apartment costs today in Berkeley anyhow, and the fee includes an off-site meal plan if you'd rather not cook.

Now the voice from the past.  I attended Berkeley in the middle 60s ('63 to '68 including my master's degree) and I was a "dormie" for the first 3 years.  And boy, have dorms changed.

I lived in Peixotto Hall, which was part of the Smyth-Fernwald dorms.  These dorms were built for student housing immediately after World War II, and were recently demolished after some years as married student housing.  When I lived there, starting in fall 1963, it had 2 women's dorms (I can't recall the name of the other) and a larger men's dorm, which was either called "Smyth" or "Smyth-Fernwald."  I remember a single dorm as a long, one-story building with student rooms (2 students each) on either side of a central hallway.  The whole setup, including a central dining hall and kitchen (separate building), was about as far from campus as you could get - it was at the extreme top of Dwight Way!  I believe I recall bus service down to campus, but I also remember an awful lot of walking down hill, and then walking back up!  Google Maps says it was .9 miles one way to where Telegraph hits the campus.

What was my dorm room like?  Well, it didn't have a kitchen - in fact, it didn't have a bathroom.  It had 2 single beds, 2 student desks, and some closet space.  The bathroom, with showers, was down the hall.  This led to the occasional women's dorm call of "Man on the floor!" when a relative or a repairman had to come in for some reason.  And we ate in the central dining hall, unless we decided to go out and forage on our own.  But the dining hall was where the free food was, and we were a long way up the hill from anything resembling a restaurant, or even a fast food joint.

And nobody had a stacked washer/dryer!  If you wanted your laundry done, you either went and found a laundromat, or you took the laundry home to mama, if mama lived close enough.

It was a rather limited living arrangement.  On the other hand, it didn't cost $2,000 a month.  Frankly, I don't think I ever knew what it cost to live in the dorm; my folks paid it.  I didn't get into living costs until my senior year, when I moved into an apartment with 2 other women on North Side.  At which point I learned the joys of running into your roommate's boyfriend at 3 AM - but that's another post.

If you lived in the Smyth-Fernwald dorms in the '60s and remember stuff I've forgotten, I'm interested to hear it.