Hello, dear blog readers. Tonight's thoughts stray to the commute to work. Now, I don't know about most of you, dear readers, but I'll be the first to admit that I drive with something of a lead foot. I got to thinking about why this is. I can't say that I feel the need for speed. My engine certainly doesn't enjoy doing top speeds. So, tonight I decided to slow down to what I figured would be an appropriate speed for my little 4-cylinder: 70 mph. Just to see what would happen.
What DID happen? Well, since I like to stick to the rule of "slower traffic keep right," I regularly got stuck behind people doing 50-60 mph. Also, I noticed there were people in the far left lanes who were also doing the same speed, so the people wanting to cruise along at a brisk pace of 80 mph were having to pass in the middle-right lanes. This meant that I couldn't pass the people in front of me, because there were people to the left of me trying to pass all of the rest of us. And, on the occasion when I was able to pass, inevitably someone with a REALLY crazy lead foot couldn't resist the urge to try to pass on the far right at 90 mph.
In short, I found myself having to really concentrate not to bump up the speed myself to 80 mph just to get around all the other traffic congestion. Doing 75 is almost as challenging as the 70 mph range. I found that people like to stick to either extreme of going too slow or too fast. I was thinking about my driving days in other towns/cities, and I have to say that this has been more of an experience in southern california than anywhere else I've lived. Oh well.
The conclusion of my driving-more-slowly experiment? My blood pressure and road rage were worse; it was truly an exercise in patience on my part. I'm sure my engine will thank me later, though. (I hope.)
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1 comment:
Yeah, its ironic that when you try to actually drive at a decent speed, that everyone else around you is crazy! I say, speed it sister, albeit carefully. ;)
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