full power car doors
Dec. 6th, 2008 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adrian_turtleThe second time I ever bought a car, way back in the summer of 2000, the car dealer asked if I wanted the option package that included full power doors. Oh yes, that would be wonderful! How much extra does it cost? Hardly anything, if I combine it with the ice melting wires in the back window, and the automatic transmission, and the air conditioner.
The only disappointment was when the car arrived and I discovered how limited my car doors' powers were. They did not include the power to open and close the windows. Nor the power to close the doors (or even make them easier to reach when one swung all the way open.) Nor the power to unlock one of the back doors directly, without opening a front door first. The main power of the car doors is that the doors lock automatically, with an annoying loud *click*, when the car begins to move faster than 5mph. This is pretty close to worthless. But by the time I had the car, it would have cost me a couple of thousand dollars and 2-3 months to send it back and get another with power *windows* (and the doors would still not have behaved as I believe proper power doors ought to behave.) So I kept it.
A few days, I was walking down the sidewalk in Cambridge as a driver got into her car in front of me. She used exactly the same technique my occupational therapist had recommended to me, for protecting one's lower back. She sat on the edge of the seat, facing the sidewalk. She scooted back into the car, and then brought her feet in and turned to face the wheel. Then she had to close the door. I had just barely noticed her when I was further behind her car and she was getting in. (I probably wouldn't have paid any attention at all if I hadn't been specifically instructed on the technique, and feeling bad about myself for not being able to do it.) But as I passed the car, I could see how frustrated she was because she couldn't reach the door. She grabbed for it several times, and sometimes even tugged at the handle...but couldn't get enough leverage to actually close it. As I walked past the door, I pushed it gently, 10 or maybe 20 degrees. It came into her hand and she closed it solidly. I don't think she ever noticed me. She had been looking down at her hand on the door, the same way I do when it's not working. The driver of the next car ahead was standing beside his car with the door open, staring at me suspiciously.
Would that be power assist, like with the steering? Or just an advantage of driving in a pedestrian-rich environment?
The only disappointment was when the car arrived and I discovered how limited my car doors' powers were. They did not include the power to open and close the windows. Nor the power to close the doors (or even make them easier to reach when one swung all the way open.) Nor the power to unlock one of the back doors directly, without opening a front door first. The main power of the car doors is that the doors lock automatically, with an annoying loud *click*, when the car begins to move faster than 5mph. This is pretty close to worthless. But by the time I had the car, it would have cost me a couple of thousand dollars and 2-3 months to send it back and get another with power *windows* (and the doors would still not have behaved as I believe proper power doors ought to behave.) So I kept it.
A few days, I was walking down the sidewalk in Cambridge as a driver got into her car in front of me. She used exactly the same technique my occupational therapist had recommended to me, for protecting one's lower back. She sat on the edge of the seat, facing the sidewalk. She scooted back into the car, and then brought her feet in and turned to face the wheel. Then she had to close the door. I had just barely noticed her when I was further behind her car and she was getting in. (I probably wouldn't have paid any attention at all if I hadn't been specifically instructed on the technique, and feeling bad about myself for not being able to do it.) But as I passed the car, I could see how frustrated she was because she couldn't reach the door. She grabbed for it several times, and sometimes even tugged at the handle...but couldn't get enough leverage to actually close it. As I walked past the door, I pushed it gently, 10 or maybe 20 degrees. It came into her hand and she closed it solidly. I don't think she ever noticed me. She had been looking down at her hand on the door, the same way I do when it's not working. The driver of the next car ahead was standing beside his car with the door open, staring at me suspiciously.
Would that be power assist, like with the steering? Or just an advantage of driving in a pedestrian-rich environment?
