Woe Is Me.

[blas]

Driving is going to give me a damn stroke.

Now that I've been working a new type of shift, let me just say that I FUCKING HATE RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC!

I have to leave for work at about 5:45 pm. Rush hour traffic. Yay for me, I have to take main drags to get onto the freeway.

The freeway is the worst part. I don't understand what is so hard about the concept of a speed limit of 65 mph. NOT 50. NOT 55.

The concept of merging. The concept is to keep an even flow of traffic. NOT for one or two assclowns to sloooowly inch their way up to 45 mph, force everyone over to the left to not be stuck behind them, then they rocket off up to 70+ suddenly, and then everyone is squirming around trying to get resituated.

People going 50-55 mph in the left lane. STOP IT. Get over. You do not belong in the left lane if you are not going to go the damn speed limit.

It's summer. With the exception of rain and storms, which I can understand decreased speed, there is NO VALID FUCKING REASON to toodle along several miles under the speed limit, merge as slow as possible and then rocket off, or merge as FAST as possible, then slow to a crawl...

It boils my blood to say that I can't use cruise control on the way to work. It's not possible with too many people going so slow and with traffic being such a disaster of slow people, merging morons, and other various freakshows.

[Beki710]

People going 50-55 mph in the left lane. STOP IT. Get over. You do not belong in the left lane if you are not going to go the damn speed limit.

Completely with you on this one. I'm UK so for us it's the right-hand lane and a 70mph limit but I hate getting stuck behind someone doing 60-65 in it! I only have a 1l yaris so I very rarely stick myself in that lane as I know someone will bomb up behind me at a speed I can't match but If I am in that lane i'm at least going the limit.

[greek_jester]

The freeway is the worst part. I don't understand what is so hard about the concept of a speed limit of 65 mph. NOT 50. NOT 55.

I'm a Brit, so for me it's dual carriageways/motorways with a 70 limit. Back when I had my little 1.1L Peugeot 106, I used to avoid doing 70 along the few miles of dual carriageway on my commute, simply because it drank fuel like the sand in a desert & juddered like an alcoholic with the DTs. I kept to the left (inside) lane, except when I had to overtake a few twits who always pootled along as if they were on a Sunday afternoon drive in their brand-new BMWs & Audis. The sad thing is, I zoomed past them doing 60...

[SuperDan]

What is this magical land where freeways still move at 50 mph during afternoon rush hour? I want to see it.

I'd take 50mph any day. If I'm headed from my work to my fiancee's house any time between 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm I can pretty much count on an average speed under 50 mph, and that's with speeding my ass off down the Skyway. If I break 20 mph between Chinatown and North Ave or between the Irving Park and Harlem during that time window, its a miracle.

[TowelKing]

Don't drive in my neck of the woods then. If the speed limit here is 110, I'm doing about 97.
But I stay in the right lane, and avoid the hammer lane unless somebody is going slower in front of me, or there's an onramp.
Also, I have a damn good reason to not do the speedlimit. 97km/h on flat ground is 15.2mpg. 110 is 12.9mpg.

[blas]

No higher limit than 65 here.

Most people around here don't understand that this isn't an extension of a highway or a convenience road.....it's part of the same freeway that goes ALL the way up to Superior and all the way down by LaCrosse. Yeah, it's a real freeway. With real freeway speed limits.

If you can't go the speed limit on a normal, sunny day, take the old highway, with a more comfortable 50 mph speed limit.

[Gaki]

In my state the entrance ramps are EXCESSIVELY short so if your car can't 0 to 60 in about .003 seconds then you're stuck in the right lane doing 45 when you get on no matter what. Especially now, my entrance ramp has a STOP SIGN AT THE END OF IT because of construction so you literally have to "turn left" to get on the highway. For a few seconds you're going 5 MPH on the highway.

This state is ridiculous.

I don't remember it being that way in New York. New York you could land a plane on the entrance ramps but here it's like you HAVE to rocket your car off the entrance ramps because you're gonna get CREAMED. I've actually had to merge onto the highway and then IMMEDIATELY switch lanes because the person who was in front of me has a car that CAN'T rocket and someone behind us in the right hand lane is going to be in my back seat if I don't.

I hate my drive to work.

[blas]

Most of them are decently long here.

[ADoyle90815]

During the rush hour in my area, the only time people can go the speed limit on the freeways is if they're going in the opposite direction, unless you happen to be in the downtown area, then you're dealing with slow traffic going both ways. There are also a couple of exit ramps with stop lights at the end, which often results in the traffic being backed up to the right lane of the freeway.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

There are also a couple of exit ramps with stop lights at the end, which often results in the traffic being backed up to the right lane of the freeway.

Ahh yes, the ever-popular ramp meters, which require you to go from a dead stop to freeway speeds in .0004 second, so you don't get ass-ended by traffic at freeway speed coming up behind you.

[blas]

So, Wednesday evening on the way to work....

When I first enter the freeway, there's a multi left turn lane to get on the freeway. The furthest lane people need to get in before merging, then the next lane disappears about a half mile or so into the freeway...for whatever reason it's that long. There is even a "THIS LANE ENDS" sign by all the other highway signs.

Some people always seem to think that the first exit off the freeway IS that lane ending. And it's not.

This old woman slows down to nearly 25 mph, puts on her blinker....and keeps going closer and closer into the ditch. Uh, the lane ended. It's NOT an exit. There's NO MORE lane there!

Like sheep, people just slowed down behind her and clogged up the entire right lane. People then started panicking to get into the left lane to get back up to speed, but a steady line of vehicles just slowed right down with her, probably afraid to make a move.

Old lady then gets back onto the road, goes up to about 30 mph until the exit lane finally shows up.

GOOD FUCKING GOD.