Rant IV

Today I want to focus on a pet peeve of mine: left-lane drivers. Where I live, we have alot of drivers that believe that the far left hand lane is just another lane for them to use. They are not overtaking cars in the adjacent lane. In most cases, they are in fact pacing the other lanes. What that means to me is that a drive to work that should take me no more than 30 minutes without excessive speeding now takes me 45 to 60 minutes. It only takes one of these idiots to snarl traffic for miles. I wish the State Police would pursue these drivers with same zeal that they pursue speeders. These left-lane drivers are dangerous because they snarl traffic which in turn causes tailgating. Tailgating, of course, can lead to accidents, injuries, and more delays. We had some do-gooders several months back convince my city to post anti-tailgating signs along a stretch of 2-way road and had the police enforce it. Similar to the interstate highway problem above, the cause of the tailgating was not addressed. The tailgaters were tailgating as a result of being on a 2-lane road that is posted at 45 mph and getting behind drivers that insisted on driving 25 or 35 mph. These bloody do-gooders saw the tailgaters as the problem when in fact the problem arises that the speed limit sign is not clearly posted and drivers unfamiliar with that road don't know what the posted speed limit is and will drive 10-20 mph under the speed limit, figuring that they won't get ticketed for their ignorance. Instead of posted several "No Tailgating - Police Enforced" signs, the problem would have been corrected by simply moving the existing 45 mph sign to a location that drivers could see it. The "No Tailgating" signs were a flop. They are gone now. But tailgating continues because the speed limit signs are still where no one notices them.

In essence, if you want to cut down on traffic accidents, enforce the violators of lower limits on speed instead of so ardently pursuing the speeders. Speed kills only when slower vehicles are where they shouldn't be. Force slow drivers to stay to the right on the highways and traffic snarls will decrease. Enforce driving under the speed limit on roads and decrease traffic accidents.

Have a damn-fine Weekend!!!