San Diego Reader

Name: Daniel Sigmon

Vehicle: 2004 Pontiac Vibe

How do you feel about your car? I actually like it quite a bit. This is hard because I don’t care about cars. My dream is not to have to drive a car, but a scooter. To save gas. Plus, scooters are awesome. Either that or a Smart car. Boy, do I dream of driving a Smart car.

What do you do while you drive? I prefer listening to my own music from my phone. I hooked up an auxiliary cable to my radio going directly into my iPhone so I didn’t have to listen to the radio. Ever.

Have you noticed anything special about San Diego drivers? San Diego drivers know what blinkers are for. Once, I was driving in North Carolina, and I turned my blinker on to change lanes. The driver next to me honked their horn and slammed on the brakes. I don’t know. I was, like, really? I think they thought I was about to cut them off. I heard the horn and I looked in my mirror and I saw the car, like, very quickly make space for me. It was pretty crazy.

Do you have any accident stories or ticket stories? I hit a Lexus exiting a parking lot while trying to eat a sandwich once. That’s a story. [Also] I got hit by this young chick in a Camaro. I was driving my 1993 Audi, and I got rear-ended by this girl who asked if we could ignore the issue because her dad said that if she got in another accident he would take her license away. I let her off the hook that time. My sister said I should have asked for a date, at least, but I didn’t. It’s fine. No, I mean, it did work out. It’s all right that I didn’t get a date. My wife is scolding me.

What’s your favorite drive in San Diego? I like driving starting in Hillcrest going through Balboa Park into downtown. I like driving the PCH [Pacific Coast Highway], driving through La Jolla, up to Torrey Pines.

Where do you experience the worst traffic? 163. Going south on the 163, going toward the 8 in the evening. Especially in the evening. Don’t like it.

What’s your favorite shortcut? It’s hard to pick out a specific shortcut, because shortcuts really depend on the time of day that you’re driving and the route that you’re taking. Going down to the 163, depending on the traffic, I can either take Washington Street to get home or I can take the 8, up to Texas Street to get home. It really depends on the traffic.

Do you use any “real life” shortcuts? If you have a room-temperature beer and you want to drink it cold and you want to drink it soon, you can soak a paper towel in water, wrap it around the bottle, and put it in the freezer. It cools down in, like, 15 minutes, instead of forever.