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From: CSvax:Pucc-H:aeq@pur-ee.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Left Lanes; pedestrians; Phoenix driving - (nf, I guess)
Message-ID: <216@pucc-h>
Date: Sat, 20-Aug-83 12:37:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.216
Posted: Sat Aug 20 12:37:09 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Aug-83 23:10:10 EDT
References: <1428@iedl02.UUCP>
Organization: PUCC
Lines: 46

I disagree with the contention that it should be illegal to drive in the left
lane when one is not passing another car.  If the traffic is light, what does
it matter which lane you drive in?  I frequently like to drive in the left
lane.  There is a psychological and a practical reason for this.  The
psychological reason is that the left lane FEELS faster, even if one is still
tooling along at a moderate speed (i.e. 60 +/- 5).  The practical reason is
that, since most drivers habitually use the right lane, the pavement in the
left lane is usually in much better condition!	Furthermore, many roads have
somewhat of a "crown" to them (this includes interstates); in one instance,
the right lane had so much water on it during an exceedingly heavy rain that
only 18-wheelers and high-riding pickups could use it at all without flooding
out their engines; no way will I drive in the right lane when I will quickly
be reduced from driving to stalling.  Please note that I am a sensible driver;
if I am doing 60-65 in the left lane and I observe an 80+ type coming up
behind me, I get out of his way if at all possible!!

<Subject change>:  Perhaps working around a large university in a smallish
Midwestern city accustoms one to a curious mix of traffic customs.  At West
Lafayette, Indiana/Purdue University, motorists and pedestrians have a common
understanding:	A motorist should continue to move at the same speed he was
moving at when a pedestrian first spotted him; if the motorist does this, the
pedestrian will cross either well in front of him or about 2 mm behind him.
The only violations of this I have seen have occurred when large conventions
of polyester-clad women have invaded the campus (Purdue needs SOME source of
revenue in the summer!); a group of such women was once approaching the road
on which I was traveling and, like lemmings, continued into the road despite
my fairly rapidly approaching car; perhaps they were naive enough to think
that I was going the speed limit, though the entire group could not have
crossed even if I had been.

Apparently the vehicular traffic around [West] Lafayette is reasonably
mild-mannered.	Try driving in Phoenix sometime, where the left-turn rules
are like L.A.'s (i.e. go at the end of the cycle), but usually 3 or 4 cars
go at a time--not to mention the extra cars going straight through on the
"orange".  My mother apparently is used to this; just after a light changed
to green for me, she upbraided me for not entering the intersection before
all the cars from the cross street had cleared!  Luckily she is not a
programmer, so she'll never read this.

Enough said for my very first contribution to network news....

-- Jeff Sargent/aeq
(don't ask me for the USENET path name; when it comes to Unix [TM!], I'm
still a novice)
(programmers at Purdue's Computing Center have 3-letter ID's beginning with A;
that's why I'm not jjs).