Let me preface this by saying I am a conscientious driver, and since I'm mostly German I'm very law-abiding. I recognize the speed limit is a hard upper, not a suggested lower. I use my turn signals to change lanes and exit the freeway. I stop for yellow lights unless I can't safely, and I never turn into the left turn lane and then sit there. I'm not a perfect driver, by any means, but I do my best.
I swear to God, though, the drive to pick my husband up from work is going to be the death of me.
The bulk of the drive is along Thousand Oaks, from I-35 up to Bulverde Road. From the time you turn under the freeway until a little bit past Wurzbach Parkway, the speed limit is 45 mph. Then it drops to 35 mph. Then, a little past Perrin Beitel/Nacogdoches, it goes back up to 45.
And the thing is, virtually no one does the speed limit on ANY part of that road.
There are two railroad crossings on Thousand Oaks just after you come under the freeway. They're nice, smooth crossings, virtually level with the street. There is no reason to slow down for these, but good Christ they seem to scare the shit out of people.
Again: speed limit is a hard upper. However, this should not mean driving 20mph in a 45mph zone because the railroad crossing scares you. Worse yet are the people, like the idiot in the Cavalier tonight, who do a respectable 35-40 mph until they're nearly on top of the tracks and then slam on their brakes.
Those are pretty rare though, 'cause like I said, most people are already doing about 25 mph. And, of course, the lines are all solid, so I can't legally pass them.
You'll note "I don't cross solid white lines" wasn't on my list of stuff up there. This stretch of road is why.
So I'll do the illegal lane change thing to get out from behind the guy doing 25mph and get stuck behind a guy going 35 mph. Which is less aggravating. And then I get to the stretch of road where the speed limit drops to 35, whereupon the guy in front of me speeds up to 40 or so, and the guy I passed comes whipping around me because I've actually slowed down like I'm supposed to. (While it's not a residential area per se, there's a fair amount of pedestrian traffic.)
I don't actually care that I'm passed by someone whom I've passed, but I'll admit it baffles me. If you're going to speed, speed. If you're going to crawl along like my grandmother (she's dead; she moves slow), crawl along. Just be consistent about it, for fuck's sake.
(At this point, do I really need to tell you that everyone slows back down when the speed limit goes back up? Crazy shit, I tell you.)
2 comments:
I so feel your pain. I think the TXDOT ought to issue us paintball guns and allow people to shoot the cars of people driving like that. If a police officer sees a car with more than 5 or 6 paint blobs on the car between washings, they could issue them a ticket for public assholery.
I wish we could do that to taggers.
Post a Comment