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From: doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: left lane hogging - hints from a sociopath
Message-ID: <241@terak.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Jan-85 11:15:18 EST
Article-I.D.: terak.241
Posted: Thu Jan  3 11:15:18 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 7-Jan-85 02:24:35 EST
References: <1401@druxv.UUCP> <568@voder.UUCP> <768@oliven.UUCP> <2446@tekig.UUCP>
Organization: Terak Corporation, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Lines: 34

> I am convinced that 90% of driving humanity is in a state of torpid
> unawareness when driving, being preoccupied with sex, the radio, their job,
> politics, or whatever chatter is going on in their mind.  I'm not sure
> many of them even fully realize they driving down the road in a car.

My home state of Arizona does not require that slower traffic keep
to the right, nor that a slow-moving vehicle on a two-lane road
pull off when practical to let the cars behind go past.  Add in a
bunch of two-lane roads, the Phoenix area being the retirement
capital of the West, and the huge number of construction vehicles
(gravel trucks, road graders, you name it) needed in a booming
area, and you have a mess.  To make it more frustrating, the
"normal" speed limit on city streets is about 35MPH, with 45 being
common on the big boulevards.

In this environment, I have come to the conclusion that most drivers
just don't understand that THEY are part of TRAFFIC.  To them,
"traffic" is all of those other cars.  Even the professional
drivers, such as the gravel trucks, drive 20MPH down a 50MPH
two-lane road during rush hour for as many miles as they need,
even though they drive the same road every day and should know
better.

Funniest thing I ever saw was a line of cars backed up behind
a bozo who wanted to make a left turn.  This line was more than
half a mile long.  The bozo couldn't make his turn because he
was being blocked by an equally long line of cars backed up
the opposite direction, behind another bozo wanting to make
a left turn.  Know why HE couldn't turn? Yep, the back-up
from the first bozo.  From the length of the lines I would
guess that the situation had existed for at least 10 minutes.
I wonder how much longer it lasted...

Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug