On the interstate going through my town, there’s an area where it splits into an upper and lower level. it goes from one 4-lane road to two 2-lane roads, one on the left and one on the right.
now, when i’m driving home, i have to take the lower level which is on the left. that means i have to be in either the far left lane or the lane next to it to be able to get home.
so how does the fast lane/slow lane break down in this situation? my old car had a lot of trouble getting over 60, and the speed limit is 65, but i was driving in the third lane over. people seemed to be very irritated at my slow driving, but what else could i do? i had to be in that lane to make it home! i stayed in the slow lane as long as possible, but would switch over as soon as i passed the “road split ahead” sign. so my question is, what’s your take on the situation? should i have waited until the last possible second to switch lanes?
this question isn’t all that relevant to me anymore since i’ve gotten a new car recently that has no problem going over 60, but i still wonder whether i was being a jerk for driving slow or the other people on the road were jerks for honking at me.
The people who designed the road were idiots. Do you happen to live within 500 miles of W. Lafayette, Indiana?
And the people were rude for not realizing that you were forced to do this because of poor road design.
no, i live in austin tx (for those of you familiar with austin, i’m talking about the south bound section of I-35 just north of 38th street and the University of Texas campus).
Wish I could help, but I’m in D.C. at the moment. To most people out here “traffic etiquette” is an oxymoron.
Did you run into situations where the cars were passing so fast and close to each other that you had trouble moving over?
Ahh, Aggie design is most likely your problem. I thought it might have been a Purdue job like we have in Ohio, where they use the same piece of road to both exit and enter the interstate. I guess it saves some money, but it also kills some people. They probably didn’t have a good way to assign a cost to that.
You were driving in the slower lanes; if people didn’t like driving so slowly they could have passed you. As long as you weren’t driving so slowly as to be a potential driving hazard yourself (which I believe you can get ticketed for anyway), I don’t see that you did anything wrong.
[li] Being sure that your fingernails are manicured before flipping someone off.[/li]
[li] Veering across only two lanes without signaling, instead of crossing all four.[/li]
[li] Not driving through the turn pocket’s now red arrow, but only because you are the fourth car of the three that did.[/li]
[li] Missing a pedestrian by at least three inches whenever they are crossing in an unmetered intersection.[/li]
[li] Waiting for a minimum of two seconds before honking at a stationary car when the light turns green.[/li]
[li] Reducing your speed to only fifteen miles per hour over the legal limit when entering a freeway construction zone.[/li]
[li] Refraining from honking at or passing emergency vehicles when they are responding to a call.[/li]
[li] Keeping below freeway speeds in an occupied school zone.[/li]
[li] Not applying nail polish and mascara while driving your morning commute.[/li]
[li] Maintaining and not exceeding the maximum speed limit in dense fog or a heavy downpour.[/li]
Having a vintage Chardonnay on your breath when you are DUI.