Monday 20 June 2016

Notes on driving and road trips

Hitting the road is a Zen-like experience for me. I find it relaxing.

Until someone ruins the moment.


Most of the people on the roads are reasonably well behaved and have decent driving habits. Others not so much. I admit to driving on the fast side but I am polite about it.

On a four or more lane highway the passing lane is for passing. Once you have passed someone that you want to pass then get out of the passing lane. Encountering someone driving in the passing lane treating it like just another lane of traffic is infuriating. If you are going to pass someone then pass them, do not slowly inch up beside them and take forever to crawl past them. Pass them and get it over with. There may be faster traffic coming up behind you and keep the lane clear for emergency vehicles. Traffic can pop up out of nowhere.

I am not sure where drivers got the idea to not let other drivers merge into traffic. I constantly keep an eye on merge lanes for traffic. If someone is coming off an on ramp to enter traffice I switch lanes to move over. It seems that no one wants to be polite. I have seen drivers almost run other drivers off the road instead of moving over to let them enter.

I wish people would pay greater attention to highway trucks. Their speed will change if they are going uphill or downhill. If you are coming up on them in high speed traffic keep an eye on what is coming up that will affect their speed. As a general rule just give everyone lots of room in traffic. There is not a lot of time to react when everyone is travelling at high rates of speed.

In rural areas on gravel roads when I am in a vehicle and I see an oncoming vehicle I slow down and move over. Way over. Loose gravel can be unpredictable. If it is big farm machinery coming your way then find a spot where you can pull over, stop, and give them lots of room. They will appreciate it.   

3 comments:

  1. Well said. The lane blockers are candidates for the front mounted tomato cannon. Give the truckies heaps of room and a mega ton of respect. These men are at work, you aren't.
    Polite has gone out with, respect and honesty.
    Ahh it's all so sad.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well said. The lane blockers are candidates for the front mounted tomato cannon. Give the truckies heaps of room and a mega ton of respect. These men are at work, you aren't.
    Polite has gone out with, respect and honesty.
    Ahh it's all so sad.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't drive any longer....but your points are well made...too many are in too much of a hurry for common road curtesy much less rules of the road...then throw in using cell phones and stereo functions, and video tuning, How bout the makeup being applied, used to make me crazy!....ARGH!!! Be careful out there!

    ReplyDelete