I've done a good bit of driving over last few weeks. When Elizabeth and I go together, she does 90% of the driving. I am not adverse to it. She is more comfortable as the driver.
My primary annoyance is that most people follow too close. This is more true in Connecticut than here at home. I suppose the nearness to New York City trains them in bumper to bumper driving. I had plenty of them over these few days, Getting rid of them is not as easy as the police once taught me when forty years ago I had to go to driving school after 3 tickets. They said simply slow down. Then the tailgater will pass, or at least if there is an accident, it will be at a safe speed.
This works sometimes. But some drivers are stubborn and would rather just stay on my bumper.
My goal always on an expressway is to position myself as far away from the small packs of cars as possible and I will change my speed to do that. I think that accidents are much less likely if I am traveling a long way from cars. These tailgaters spoil my plans.
On a busy highway I often get behind a truck going the speed limit. I follow him at a fine distance and most folks who go around me will also go around him right away or as soon as they wake up to the fact of his speed.
I few times when there was no rear traffic, I just moved into the fast lane and slowed down to let the tailgater pass before I moved back into the slow lane. That works when there are no cars on the road but the tailgater and me and perhaps a few folks traveling fast in the fast lane and just passing me naturally.
My fantasy is of installing a small jet spray of paint that I could engage with the read window wipers. It would not go very far, but just be a deterrent in future tail gating operations.
I doubt that the police ever ticket anymore for tailgating. If I were in police school, I'd ask about that. I suppose it does not yield the money that catching speeders yields, especially in double fine work zones.
And that is my second annoyance. I think that if there is a work zone on a highway, someone ought to be WORKING somewhere in that zone. I suspect some work zones are simply set up as highway speed traps.
My third annoyance is pickup trucks. I used to like them. I used to imagine working men carrying all sorts of interesting equipment in them and listening to Johnny Cash.
There is no way pick up trucks are driver by working people these days. At least not working people who need a pickup truck. There is something in the bed of a pickup truck on the highway less than ten percent of the time. And even these oversized pickup trucks, something just smaller than a school bus and too wide to pass on a narrow road, carry.....nothing.
I know if I see a pickup truck approaching in my rear view mirror at twice my speed that it will end up tailgating . It will get right on my bumper, big and intimidating. It would be an easy hit for a spray of paint. So tempting.
In parking lots these pickup trucks take up too much room for me to get out of my van. In a grocery store lot or a Home Depot lot, they clearly belong but why would someone go to a casino in a pickup truck?
I did manage to get off the highways some on this Connecticut trip. I plugged in "no" highways on the GPS mounted on my windshield. That trip from the Super 8 to Foxwoods was well without highways and even Mohegan Sun seemed fine. That route 2 is a highway, but it is sparsely traveled in most sections. Nice. I may lose at the casino, but I save money on spraypaint.
My primary annoyance is that most people follow too close. This is more true in Connecticut than here at home. I suppose the nearness to New York City trains them in bumper to bumper driving. I had plenty of them over these few days, Getting rid of them is not as easy as the police once taught me when forty years ago I had to go to driving school after 3 tickets. They said simply slow down. Then the tailgater will pass, or at least if there is an accident, it will be at a safe speed.
This works sometimes. But some drivers are stubborn and would rather just stay on my bumper.
My goal always on an expressway is to position myself as far away from the small packs of cars as possible and I will change my speed to do that. I think that accidents are much less likely if I am traveling a long way from cars. These tailgaters spoil my plans.
On a busy highway I often get behind a truck going the speed limit. I follow him at a fine distance and most folks who go around me will also go around him right away or as soon as they wake up to the fact of his speed.
I few times when there was no rear traffic, I just moved into the fast lane and slowed down to let the tailgater pass before I moved back into the slow lane. That works when there are no cars on the road but the tailgater and me and perhaps a few folks traveling fast in the fast lane and just passing me naturally.
My fantasy is of installing a small jet spray of paint that I could engage with the read window wipers. It would not go very far, but just be a deterrent in future tail gating operations.
I doubt that the police ever ticket anymore for tailgating. If I were in police school, I'd ask about that. I suppose it does not yield the money that catching speeders yields, especially in double fine work zones.
And that is my second annoyance. I think that if there is a work zone on a highway, someone ought to be WORKING somewhere in that zone. I suspect some work zones are simply set up as highway speed traps.
My third annoyance is pickup trucks. I used to like them. I used to imagine working men carrying all sorts of interesting equipment in them and listening to Johnny Cash.
There is no way pick up trucks are driver by working people these days. At least not working people who need a pickup truck. There is something in the bed of a pickup truck on the highway less than ten percent of the time. And even these oversized pickup trucks, something just smaller than a school bus and too wide to pass on a narrow road, carry.....nothing.
I know if I see a pickup truck approaching in my rear view mirror at twice my speed that it will end up tailgating . It will get right on my bumper, big and intimidating. It would be an easy hit for a spray of paint. So tempting.
In parking lots these pickup trucks take up too much room for me to get out of my van. In a grocery store lot or a Home Depot lot, they clearly belong but why would someone go to a casino in a pickup truck?
I did manage to get off the highways some on this Connecticut trip. I plugged in "no" highways on the GPS mounted on my windshield. That trip from the Super 8 to Foxwoods was well without highways and even Mohegan Sun seemed fine. That route 2 is a highway, but it is sparsely traveled in most sections. Nice. I may lose at the casino, but I save money on spraypaint.
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