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From: mikec@petsd.UUCP (Mike Condict)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: Best Roads
Message-ID: <665@petsd.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 29-Oct-85 00:41:10 EST
Article-I.D.: petsd.665
Posted: Tue Oct 29 00:41:10 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 30-Oct-85 05:26:45 EST
References: <1109@hou2h.UUCP>, <1028@druxo.UUCP>
Organization: Perkin-Elmer DSG, Tinton Falls, N.J.
Lines: 41

Contrary to the negative report on the Garden State Parkway (also known,
affectionately, as the "Garbage State Parkway"), it is by one measure the
best road I have ever driven on.  No other road that I know of is easier
and safer for FAST driving.  I am speaking primarily of the portion just
south of NYC,
that has five lanes each way, split into two express lanes and three local
lanes by a wide grass median.  First, the curves appear to have been
designed to allow drunken business men in Cadillacs to get around them
safely at 75 mph.  Second, the lanes are almost wide enough for two Hondas
side by side.  Third, three lanes are MUCH better than two (readers are
invited to calculate the difference in expected duration of an accdental
travelling roadblock given three lanes vs. two -- answers in next month's
column).  Fourth, potholes and cracks in the road surface are practically
nonexistent and the most severe dip or hill in the road is barely enough
to budge your suspension.  Fifth, and most important of all, the police,
in an unfathomable display of common sense and decency (at least for N.J.)
seem to have acknowledged that this road is indeed safe at higher speeds
and do not seem interested in any cars going less than 75 mph.

In fact, uh... er... a friend of mine drove his Honda for six months every
day on this road at speeds consistently between 75 and 85 without any near
collisions with vehicles or micro-wave echo analyzers (the eventual collision
of his car's pistons with its valves is another matter entirely, though quite
possibly related).

Anyhow, this is why the average speed on this highway is about 70 to 75 mph.,
with middle-of-the-night speed runs in excess of 133 mph not unheard of --
limited not by the road but by the presence of innocent bystanders
(bydrivers?).  Although this writer certainly does not endorse or approve of
any violations of state or local traffic ordinances, isn't it comforting to
know that the police and other emergency vehicles could, if necessary, get to
the scene of an accident so quickly?

To put it in a nutshell, the G.S.P. seems to be the closest thing that America
has to an Autobahn, and its presence is the major justification for
owning or operating an expensive German car in N.J.  If it didn't exist,
the pressure of the Yuppie lobby would create it overnight.  :-)

Michael Condict			...!vax135!petsd!mikec
free-lance consulting at
Exit 109