Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site sdchema.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!sdcsvax!sdchema!donn
From: donn@sdchema.UUCP (Donn Seeley)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Southern California Driving Habits
Message-ID: <798@sdchema.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Aug-83 15:10:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdchema.798
Posted: Wed Aug 10 15:10:42 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Aug-83 00:12:04 EDT
References: <436@sdcrdcf.UUCP> <91@vortex.UUCP>
Organization: UC San Diego Chemistry Dept. NIH Research Resource
Lines: 52

I don't know that L.A. and San Diego drivers are all that good.  I
learned to drive in the San Francisco Bay Area and I find driving down
here, especially freeway driving, to be incredibly scary a fair amount
of the time.  This probably goes to show that I would be reduced to a
quivering mass of gelatine in Boston or New York if even half the
things people have been saying are true...  (But I thought Californians
had a patent on such techniques as The Rolling Stop, The Left On Red,
The Pass On The Shoulder and so on...?)

The most annoying things I find in freeway driving here are tailgaters,
weavers, and extremely fast or slow drivers.  I think tailgaters have
been covered in rather gory detail in this newsgroup recently, so I
won't deal with them.  As for slow drivers, it's rather aggravating to
have to sit behind fully laden truck trying to pass another fully laden
truck on a steep grade, and if you encounter this situation in the dark
it can be most educational.  On freeways with more than two lanes on
grades, every one of the lanes is capable of holding trucks or campers
struggling up a hill.  Weavers are not always extremely fast drivers,
they are merely attempting to be faster than the surrounding traffic,
which may be crawling through a jam.  Since virtually no one uses their
signals when making a lane change, weavers are perhaps not all that
different from the crowd.  My younger brother (in Bethesda) is a
confirmed weaver; he actually gets a kick out of cutting several lanes
at a time in an effort to make an exit or passing on the shoulder when
the car ahead is too slow.  Extremely fast drivers are just that:  they
do 85 on straightaways and 75 when weaving in rush hour traffic.  A
good way to tell a real speed freak is if you see a string of CHP cars
pass by in the same direction, sirens whining, several minutes after
their passage.  Speed freaks down here buy incredibly overpowered cars,
usually much faster than the cops can keep up with.

To close, here is an accident report from today's LA Times that is
almost a duplicate of a report I saw many months ago accompanying a
very gory photograph:

	A 23-year-old hospital employee driving along Interstate 5 in
	National City [a San Diego suburb] was killed when another car
	jumped the freeway's center divider and landed on top of his.
	Jose Garcia of San Diego was southbound near the 24th street
	exit when a car bearing five passengers vaulted over the
	divider, crushing his car, according to CHP spokesman David
	Shadoan.  Wayne Varnado, 24, also of San Diego, believed to be
	traveling at about 90 mph, swerved across three northbound
	lanes and struck the guardrail, Shadoan said.  Varnado was
	taken to Bay General Hospital, where he was listed in
	satisfactory condition.  The four passengers with him, all
	family members, were treated at Bay General and released...

I always get angry when I see that the speeder lived and his victim
died, I'm sorry to say.

Donn Seeley  UCSD Chemistry Dept. RRCF  ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchema!donn