October 18, 2011

Observations of a road warrior

There are many people who spend more time on the roads daily than I do. Most of my trips are distance trips, here to there and sometimes beyond. I spend four, six and sometimes ten hours at the wheel at one time. It may be true my commute is about twenty feet, but often my drive is measured in hundreds of miles. That said, I still put between 50,000 and 75,000 miles on my car in each of the last 16 years. I maintain I know a little about driving the nation's highways.

Whatever politician or engineer or traffic expert decided to create a different speed limit for tractors/ trailers and passenger cars was a fucking moronic idiot who clearly has never spent one minute driving from Indy to Chicago. The long stretches of Interstate where one half of the vehicles are mandated at a slower speed than the other half is a recipe for disaster. If you have ever driven that stretch, you know exactly what I mean. The long stretches of I-65 South of Indy are often just as congested. The same is true of the other Indiana interstate roads as well.

I chalk it up to example 3,379 of governmental stupidity.

2 comments:

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

I agree, and I am also infuriated that in all of the Major Moves crap that has been done since the Toll Road lease, there has been exactly squat done about widening I-65 to three lanes all the way from Louisville to Merrillville. Which, given the massive congestion I see there every time I drive north, is badly needed.

I note that the state of Ohio seems to be in the midst of a program of widening all of its major interstate routes to a minimum of three lanes over the past several years. In particular I have marvelled over I-71 from Columbus to Cleveland, which except for a couple of remaining stretches is practically all 3-lane now.

I certainly hope that after we're done completely fucking the dog on I-465 on the west side of Indy that somebody takes a look at I-65 and I-70 and says, "Gee! We need to widen those, too!" However I'm sure the I-69 extension is going to get the lion's share of attention once that's done.

And yes, just raise the damn speed limit to 70 for everybody. Geez. Like that five MPH is going to make a difference when the semi jackknifes in front of you.

mts1 said...

I remember in the early 2000's when it was 70 cars, 55 trucks, in Michigan. You're lollying along and gaining on a truck when HELLO you have to yank yourself into the left lane since you never thought he was stopped, when he was just going 15 less than you.

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