This post has nothing to do with depression, being queer or death and dying.
But maybe it does?
This isn’t anything really bad, but frustrates me to no end. I got to wondering though if my state of mind, the constant pain and lack of sleep has me a little more edgy than I should be? That I need to be more patient, more tolerant?
Or maybe the rest of the people on the road share the same frustration when faced with this situation.
Is there something about the phrase “Slow Traffic Keep Right” that people can’t grasp? Why do people who are too afraid to be driving at all manage to get in the left lane and stay there?
It never fails, especially when I’m in a hurry because I’m running behind. I always manage to get beyond someone that doesn’t understand that going 70 in a 100 kph zone in the left lane is actually more dangerous than simply staying right.
There’s a major highway (some say parking lot) called the 401 that attempts to move the masses in an orderly fashion through town, handling millions of vehicles daily. I take it going to the lake as it heads north. You can count for yourself, but at times the 401 is 16 lanes wide, full of onramps, offramps and merging traffic. Trucks and more trucks, and I’m not talking pickups.
Not enjoying the congestion I always exit and take a side highway that is only 4 lanes wide. A heck of a lot less traffic than the 401. At times separated by a median, others just a double line of yellow stripes.
It’s not important that the speed is in mph or kph, you get the drift. I should have prefaced this by saying I drive a bit too fast probably. Alright, it’s true, I do drive to faste. If the speed limit is 100 I usually go 120. Not on the city roads though, as there are too many pedestrians, bicyclists and too many bad drivers jammed together. I’m not that stupid. But on a highway? You bet! I’m from Kansas, remember.
But it never fails that I’m doing a bit more than the posted 100 kph and passing slower traffic that I come upon someone in the left hand lane barreling along at 70. When you’re going 50 kph faster than they are, you come up on ‘em in a hurry.
For some reason they get locked into that left hand lane and refuse to budge. No looking back in the mirror, with both hands locked on the steering wheel in a death grip. Just hoping I would go away probably. I’m not on their bumper, keeping the 3 second rule in mind, but they know I want to get around.
By this time all the traffic I had passed now comes up beside the slow poke and passes them on the right hand side. If I wanted to get to my fishing spot today I had to do the same, having no choice but to switch lanes and pass on the right like everyone else.
Everyone with half a brain and a year’s driving experience should know that it’s more dangerous being passed on the right side than the left. If not they need to learn that having cars whip around you in the worst blind spot is just begging for an accident.
Better yet, if you’re too uncomfortable driving the speed limit, or close to, either stay in the right lane, or choose a quieter route. Less traffic, more scenery.
Maybe they think they’re really burning up the road, whizzing along at what they think should be the speed limit.
Whatever the reason, my getting to the prime fishing spot in time has to be more important than anything they could be doing, right? When I put it like that…
Yeah, I need to learn a little patience.