DRIVE! a mild rant from Atlanta

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m sure this type of rant has been heard before. I’m sure many have spoken eloquently, poetically, and profoundly on the topic. I don’t care, I’m speaking up.

I live in the metro-Atlanta area. I work in Buckhead, about 25 miles away from my home and I drive to work every day. Has it hit you yet? Atlanta… drive… you probably know where I’m going with this.

There’s a portion of I75/85 known as ‘the connector’. There are at least 6 lanes going in each direction at a certain point. There is also an express lane for 2 or more riders so in doing the math we know there are seven lanes of road. Seven equally decorated, equally sized, equally smooth lanes to drive in.

Now I do understand that some people don’t want to speed. Fine. Enjoy your excursion, see the sights, all that shit. Enjoy. JUST F’ING ENJOY IT FROM ONE OF THE LANES ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY!

Today, as it has happened many other mornings I carefully merged with traffic (“oops… my bad!”), and made my way to the left lane (“I see you idiot - that’s what your brakes are for”), shifted up to 5th and hit the gas.

I cruised pass the loafers in the express lane (wondered why they were even riding there if they weren’t gonna really move) and settled in for a quick hop to the job.

It was not to be. Just two exits up from where I entered, I rounded the curve and had to pop my baby out of gear and slam on my brakes. Why? The sightseers decided that the view from the far left lane was more enticing than the view from the right, so the group of us cruising along at the standard ‘make it to work on time’ speed had to slow.

If all the traffic on the highway needs to slow down I don’t get too upset. When all the other lanes of traffic are passing me like a high speed police chase, and the passing lane is at a crawl I get a little upset.

If you so happen to drive in the Atlanta Metro area in the mornings and you happen to see someone sreaming (no - shrieking) at you in your rear view mirror, I ask that you pull over to the right.

TYVM

2

You cut off two people and then you have the gall to complain about other drivers?

3

You’re a pretty serious person, huh? Those were added to be amusing. Maybe they’re not.

4

Treis

Hey…was it** you ** I was driving behind this morning?

5

This is what gets me. Up here we’ve got seven equally potholed to the extent of being lunar-like lanes to drive in. So you, son, got nothin’ to complain about.

6

I once spent 74 minutes going from I-85 to Chamblee-Dunwoody road on 285. The distance, for those not in the know, is 2.2 miles.

I’m quite embarrassed at your lack of fortitude. You call yourself an Atlanta driver, and yet a little slowdown bothers you? P-shaw! :stuck_out_tongue:

7

I think that urban-area highways should get set up like automatic car washes…you pick a lane that will take you where you want to go (a selected range of exits), get on the conveyor (or superconductor strip, whatever) and get whisked to your destination exit at the speed limit, which can be much higher if cars are controlled by this to-be-invented device, then boom! No more cussing at the need-to-be-eviscerated Other Drivers[sub]TM[/sub], no more pile-ups resulting from people who cut across 5 lanes of traffic to get in the left lane they think they are entitled to.

8

Didn’t Heinlein discuss that in The Roads Must Roll?