Driving!

With the move to Utah came a 2000 mile drive across the country.  I've done this before from Massachusetts to California and back as well as numerous trips to various places around the lower 48 from various other places in the lower 48.  This reiterated some of the frustrations I've felt when I drive so I am going to share them with you lucky readers out there in the blogosphere.

First of all, highway driving across the country is frankly atrocious.

If you are on a two lane highway, then the left lane is for passing.  Don't sit there because you're going ten miles over the speed limit and for Heaven's sake do not even think of going in there if you're not going ten miles over the speed limit.  The speed limit around the nation is somewhere between 55 and 80, so if you're not doing at least 65 stay out of the left lane.

On a two lane highway, the right lane is for exit traffic and general travel.  This is where you sit if you're going to be on the road for several hours.  This is where you sit if you're doing the speed limit or a little under it.  This is where you can sit and veg as the miles get eaten away by the droning of the engine.

On any highway, two, three or even six lanes, if you're going less than ten miles under the speed limit (with certain exceptions) you should not be on the highway.  Highways are for high speed travel.  There is no highway in the continental United States that does not have a local route traveling mostly parallel to it.  If you're not going to go at least 55 miles an hour, that is the road you should be on and not the highway.  There are studies I'm sure that show slow drivers cause more accidents that fast drivers.  Not because its more dangerous to drive at that speed but because when you're going too slow for the road, others have to react to you which places them in danger.

That makes a good segue into speeding.  Speed kills.  There is really no reason to be driving more than fifteen miles over the speed limit.  In a very practical sense, there is no reason to be going more than eighty miles an hour regardless of the speed limit.  The speed limit is in theory supposed to be the fastest speed allowed by law.  I realize that for something like 99% of the people on the road, "speed limit" equates to "suggested speed" but according to the law, its supposed to be the highest you are legally allowed to go.  That means if your weaving in and out of traffic at 57 in a 55 zone, a cop can pull you over.  Driving too fast is dangerous not only to you but to everyone else on the road.  The faster you're going the higher the chance you have of dying from one single mistake.  If the speed limit is 75 as it is in most states I traveled in and you're doing 85 then you come across someone going 60, that's a 25 mile an hour difference in speed.  Your bumper is rated for at most 15 miles an hour.  That means if you rear-end them, you're going to crumple your car if it has crumple zones and its going to cost you a lot of money to repair it at the very least.  You can still get serious neck injury even without triggering your airbag.  Neck injuries can have long-lasting results such as paralysis and death.  Hard to laugh that off.

The police are there to protect you.  That includes from yourself.  This is why people get pulled over for speeding.  Yes, its mostly to save insurance companies money but really it does protect you.  They have a tough job, so give them respect.  They're there when you want them and when you don't.  It's all part of the job.  Yes, there are some that are in it for the power play but there are folks like that in every profession.  Don't hold the whole to the standard set by a few.  If a cop pulls you over, be polite.  Don't think about what your drunken buddies were telling you were sure-fire methods for getting out of a ticket because there aren't any.  They should be professional and you should be courteous.  It goes a long way.