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Danny White lives in Washington, DC, is a die-hard Redskins fan, and has both a Chevrolet Avalanche and a peculiar sense of humor. Thanks to a peculiar quirk in the District's Department of Motor Vehicles' computer system, those last two details have gotten him about $20,000 worth of unpaid — and unearned — parking tickets. More »
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Commuters in suburban Washington, DC, are the latest victims of electronic road sign hacking: Drivers approaching a one-lane bridge faced an inquiry about their choice of underwear. The news crew footage below recorded few affirmations; take that as you will. More »
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We see more than our fair share of weird cars around these parts, and one might think that familiarity would jade us. Then you see a Geo Metro stretched like a bad furnace repair and your heart goes aflutter. More »
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Thanks to geography, Washington D.C.'s subway system has more escalators — 588 — than any other system in North America. Which also means D.C. has more broken escalators, such as this one that experienced runaway Toyota-itis last fall. H/T Demon-Xanth! More »
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A pair of smarties in Vancouver, Wash., snatched an ATM from a bowling alley early Monday morning. Their breaking-and-entering tool of choice? A Buick Rendezvous, which they used as a battering ram to drive in and haul off the ATM. More »
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A Lakewood, Washington man's somehow alive today after carjacking a 1993 Honda Accord and then splitting it in two after cartwheeling into a tree during a police chase yesterday. One more amazing and shudder-inducing photo of the car below. More »
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The star-crossed filming of Transformers 3 suffered another accident today when Bumblebee drove through an intersection and sideswiped a Washington D.C. Police SUV. The crash was not part of the script and the yellow Camaro was seriously damaged. More »
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"The license plate is almost as large as her automobile, but Miss Mary Bay likes her car because it is easy to park." A microcar in Washington, D.C. circa 1924. Photo Credit: National Photo Co. Collection. [via Shorpy] More »
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Two Washington men were seriously injured Sunday after their home-built "rocket" — a barrel full of methanol and a match — exploded. They sat on the barrel, intending to ride it across the parking lot. Darwin loses again! More »
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk took a fancy private jet to Washington, D.C. and then begged for money. Hmm... seems to us like someone already got yelled at for doing this. Jeez, he's already acting like a soon-to-be-bankrupt automaker. More »
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After getting ripped off in the past, a Ballard, Washington, resident installed a motion-activated camera on the front porch… and caught a woman stealing packages. The getaway car's reflection can be seen in a window. Mazda 323? Toyota Tercel? More »
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The Sequoia restaurant in Washington, DC announced today Ford is the recipient of its "Don't Give up the Ship!" award in a one-page ad purchased in the Washington Post. Why? They didn't suck as bad as GM and Chrysler. More »
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If you haven't heard, Old Man Winter smacked the East Coast this weekend. Washington, D.C. was hit hard, with authorities declaring a state of emergency and urging people not to drive. What was it like 90 years ago? More »
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With little data suggesting they're helpful, D.C.'s saving $400,000 by ditching safety checks. If it's a good idea wouldn't the insurance industry push every local government to do it. (H/T to Michael!) [USA Today] More »
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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. Let's admire a few more DOTSBE cars today, shall we? More »
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There's nothing like the thrill of crossing an entire U.S. state. We just know it's what our forefathers intended. With a little help from our readers we've put together this list of ten states to criss-cross on a driving adventure. More »
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Yesterday's terrifying crash of an at-speed Red Line Metro train into a stopped Red Line train in Washington, DC left nine dead and 75 injured. A gallery from the scene below. Warning: a couple shots are somewhat gory. More »
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Washington truckers and dairy farmers have come together to attempt to boost winter safety numbers by creating a cheesy concoction combining common road salt and a byproduct of the cheese production process. What's the result? More »
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A victim of car theft in Washington DC is being pestered by a collection agency to pay up on an 18-month-old parking ticket written while the car was on it's leave of absence from its rightful owner. Steve Steinberg has vowed never to pay the $205 fine and is wondering why the car didn't come up as stolen when the ticket was being written — a fair question if you ask us. Of course the local officials are blaming the fine on Steinberg's lack of action on the ticket, but of course that doesn't stand up when the old boy waves a fist full of letters he sent to the DMV on the subject. [WUSA9] More »
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Think it's embarrassing getting a parking ticket from the sweet old meter maid? Soon you'll have a new foe. Street sweepers in the Washington, D.C. area will be equipped with the means to scan and photograph cars parked in street sweeping zones. The bill to equip the street sweepers was passed unanimously in the D.C. city council. A final vote will happen next month that will make the tattle-telling street sweepers a reality. More »
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A white Ford Crown Victoria plowed into a group of street-racing fans on a highway about 20 miles south of Washington, D.C. on Saturday, killing eight people and scattering bodies in the early morning darkness. In addition to the fatalities, at least five other spectators were injured of the 50 or so people gathered before dawn along Route 210 in little Accokeek, MD to watch cars drag down the usually quite deserted stretch of blacktop. Here's what happened according to the AP: More »
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OMG! Whatever you have to tell your BFF Payal better wait as the police in Washington State are now empowered to ticket your ass. A law designed to curb composing text messages went into effect on Tuesday. Penalties range from $124 for a driver texting or emailing to $175 if that texting leads to an accident. IMHO, it's not a bad law as you should probably be looking at the road and not your crackberry. More »
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This sort of reminds us of an episode of CHiPs where a kid gets accidentally kidnapped when someone steals a car, except this is much funnier. A Spokane man left his kids locked in his 1996 Ford Explorer momentarily while he ran in for doughnuts, which is a good reason to abandon kids. It apparently takes dad a while to order, because in that time a quick handed repo man was able to tow the car away with the kids inside. More »
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You know how it's always the last lugnut you can't remove when you're in a hurry to get the Lincoln rolling again? You try every leverage trick known to Archimedes, hose everything down with Liquid Wrench, the works, but that obstinate nut just won't turn. Now, most of us would probably get an impact wrench involved at this point, but this gentleman in Southworth, Washington, figured he had a better idea: grab his trusty shotgun and start blasting away at the offending fastener. Quicker than you can say "Steel is harder than lead," it was off to the emergency room for some fun with X-rays and scalpels! [Associated Press] More »
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If you're driving around with hundreds of thousands of dollars in a briefcase you might want to come up with an excuse before you get on the freeway. A 35-year-old British Columbia man was stopped by Washington State Troopers in Seattle and was unable to explain where the money came from. We're going to go out on a limb and say it has to do with the non-British Columbia. Since no one claimed the money, 90% of it goes to a drug enforcement fund and the rest goes to the state's general fund. See, the War on Drugs is working! [News Tribune More »
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It's been a while since we've taken a physics course, so we can't be sure what the total force of 600 pounds of live beef falling 200 feet is, but we're fairly certain that we don't want it falling on us. A Spokane, Washington couple had this exact experience while driving their minivan near the popular Lake Chelan tourist area yesterday. Apparently, the cow had wandered away from home (possibly distraught) a few days earlier and made it five miles before the jump. The vehicle's passengers weren't injured, but the cow had to be euthanized. Dinner that night in the Chelan County Sheriff's Department mess was somber but delicious. [Reuters] More »
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Transit officials in Tacoma thought they were at the forefront of technology when they initiated the unfortunately named "Good To Go" electronic toll system on one of their bridges. Turns out they're actually on the forefront of annoying people. Instead of the system automatically deducting the toll amount from their patrons' accounts, it's apparently popping 18 out of 100 compliant drivers. One family got nailed to the tune of $2,500. But of course, the toll operators are in no hurry to fix the problem. Said the director of toll operations: "We're always looking to continually improve, but the system is working well. I can't see of any major changes that are coming along in the near future." We can think of a minor one. [KING-TV] More »
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Flexcar/Zipcar users around Washington State are going to see the price of their car sharing rise this week as a nearly 10% car rental tax is going to be applied to their services. The rental car companies were displeased with the exemption for car sharing since they consider their services comparable, and the state's tax collectors agreed. There's an interesting balance at work here. On one hand, car sharing services (like rental car companies) utilize public roads and benefit from many public entities and should therefore pay taxes. On the other hand, the company does pay taxes on its income, gas, payroll, et cetera and helps the city lower its congestion by allowing numerous people to use one car. In the end, what happens will be a matter of who is willing to fight harder for/against the exemption. [Marketplace] More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=318199&view=rss&microfeed=true As we told you earlier this week, the Volt made its way to the District of Columbia. And look, it can move in reverse. We hear the next iteration of the alt-fuel concept car will be able to move in forward gears. At least we're hoping so for the General's sake. More »
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Okay, we admit that we essentially chose this story as a chance to make a totally obscure reference in the headline, but what is Jalopnik but a wanton vanity project that we're attempting to bring y'all along on? That aside, a ferry with a capacity of 124 cars and 1,200 passengers smacked into a piling at a higher-than-average rate of speed on its way into Mulkiteo, Washington from Whidbey Island. Near as we can tell, one passenger was mildly injured due to a fall down the stairs induced by the impact. The Cathlamet apparently suffered a puncture above the waterline. The Trail of Dead guys are bummed. – Davey G. Johnson More »
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Talk about the award you don't want to win! Ex-cop Deana F. Jarrett of Woodinville eliminated all contenders for the Washington's Drunkest Driver Ever record by registering an embalming-fluid-esque 0.47% blood-alcohol reading. She'd been in a couple of hit-and-run collisions immediately prior to being busted (plus she'd been popped for DUI just the previous week). Doctors estimate a person her size would have to drink about 25 ounces of hard liquor- say, a fifth of Wild Turkey- in a very short time in order to hit 0.47; any level above 0.40% is considered potentially lethal. – Murilee Martin More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=254188&view=rss&microfeed=true Why would someone ever want to take away the Stiffler-esque vanity plate of this young lad from the Seattle area? And seriously, who would ever marry a guy who had this license plate? – Ray Wert More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=243332&view=rss&microfeed=true Steve over at Finkbuilt (a site we don't visit nearly enough) posted this little film clip he produced back in 1988 by sticking a cheapo Super 8 camera out the sunroof of his car and shooting individual frames all the way from Oly to Seattle. The quality of the footage is roughly the inverse of any given Top Gear clip, but the ragged DIY aesthetic takes us back to simpler, slower more analogue times. We like that. – Davey G. Johnson More »
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A 33-year-old electrician decided to brush up on his hoon skills by taking his '93 Astro (or was it a Safari? The report calls it a GMC Astrovan, which, of course, doesn't exist) around Pacific Raceways near Auburn, WA. Without authorization. And with a dog in the vehicle. While possibly inebrious. Say hello to Armco, mofo. Thankfully, the dog was uninjured. The driver, however, wasn't so lucky. He ended up a medevac flight to the hospital in serious condition. As for the Astro? Birdstuff is undoubtedly pissed. [Thanks to Kevin for the tip.] More »
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Reader Alex tipped us off to this fully awesome carbon-fiber monocoque Formula SAE car that a friend of his worked on while at Western Washington University. While the chassis is impressive, the best part of it to us is the engine: .554L, Kawasaki 250 heads, custom machined-from-billet block and crank, and oh, eight freaking cylinders. We can't wait to see what they'll come up with for an encore. a quad-turbo W-16 125, maybe? More »
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A Seattle-area 10-year-old boy was subjected to a crash course in automotive B&E by his dad and a couple of associates earlier this month. A 3am phone call by an apartment complex resident brought law-enforcement officials where they nabbed three men ranging in age from 30 to 19, along with a couple of stolen vehicles. Authorities declined to state which one was the father of the young whippersnapper, but confirmed that the kid knew what the criminals were up to. It's all fun and games until somebody calls Child Protective Services. More »
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The terror-types apparently like our cars a bit too much. Vehicles stolen in the US have been discovered in both bomb factories and at sites of car-bomb explosions in the Middle East. Who has the most to worry about? Southern Californians, Texans and Washington-staters, as the cars tend to be shipped out of LA (San Pedro!), Houston (a source of much heartbreak for us) and Seattle, (a site of peripheral Houston-related heartbreak). More »
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Reader Chris was minding his own business after work when he happened upon an Alfa Romeo 159, rumored to be the vehicle that'll spearhead the brand's return to the US market. Take it, Chris. More »
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One motorist was injured and two vehicles were totaled when a cow wandered onto I-90 in George, WA. Yes Virginia, there is a George, Washington. Laurence Stockton rolled his Caravan while swerving to avoid the cow, and Larry Loth, who'd been following Stockton, plowed straight into the cow, leaving him uninjured, but less one 1993 Chevy pickup. Predictably, the cow was dead meat. More »
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