My former pet peeve about local drivers is that so many of them won't get over and let you merge when you try to enter the freeway. I'm moving on from that though. My new pet peeve is people who drive in the left lane- sometimes barely going the speed limit. I had noticed it in the past, but hadn't really thought that much about it until some friends in town from Western Washington recently pointed it out to me. Since then, I can't count the times I've been stuck in a stream of traffic in the left lane while some clown in the lead does 58 miles per hour and won't change to the middle lane. So this is my campaign to get the word out- CHANGE LANES. Tell your friends please.
2 comments:
I'm with you on your present peeve, but wonder weather cruise control is a help or hindrance.
On you prior peeve, though, why is it that local highways are designed such that the folks in the travel lanes are expected to move over for merging traffic?
In more modern, civilized communities, there are acceleration / deceleration lanes (as opposed to just "ramps" here) that allow for a better and more flexible merge into flowing traffic that has a clear "boulevard rule" right-of-way. It seems strange to me that speed-limit traffic necessarily must slow or move left (if possible) to accommodate the poor shlub who can't get the ol' pickup going to 75 on those too-short on-ramps.
Its funny that you bring up our 'ramp system' anonymous. I've always lived here, but my dad has not. As far back as I can remember as a kid, my dad would rant and rave everytime he got on or off the freeway here because of the ramp vs. acceleration/deceleration lane issue. I'm not sure why our freeways/highways were built like that. The boss would know but he's out today. Everyone else around here claims ignorance too, except that it's a relic of the 1950's when the freeway was built.
Just to clarify also- I was NOT advocating speeding in my original thread about people who camp out in the left lane. I had someone suggest that's what I was doing and I didn't want that to be the message that comes across.
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