TWNMM: I Can't Drive 55

I Can't Drive 55
Created: Sometime in 1997

Increasingly, I find my level of stress increasing when I drive. It has little to do with traffic, because the town I live in has none. Bakersfield's idea of a SIGalert is something akin to a 35 MPH slowdown in the exit lane on SR-99 because too many people are trying to get to Valley Plaza. It isn't construction delays, because I make an effort to check CalTrans' website before I make long trips to ensure I don't encounter them. What is the source of this irritation?

Nobody in this state knows how to drive.

Pretty strong statement, but increasingly it's true. I don't consider myself a perfect driver, quite to the contrary. I make mistakes all the time. However, we're generally talking about stuff here that everybody should know about, and not goof up.

First off, when did the 70 MPH maximum speed limit on rural freeways get revoked? I'll admit that sometimes I drive 75, but 90? What's with that? I'll be puttering along in the second to the right hand lane, doing 75, and some butthead zooms past me doing at least 15+ what I'm doing.

But, speed is not the biggest problem. If it was just people driving too fast, that wouldn't get my blood boiling. It's people driving too fast for the conditions that really make me itch.

Okay, it's fine to hit the century mark while on I-15, somewhere inbetween Barstow and Las Vegas, where the only thing you might hit is some tumbleweed that blew on to the highway. I'll even accept that 90 is a reasonable speed for that boring stretch of I-5 on the outskirts of my home town.

What I won't accept is Leadfoot Larrys barrelling down the Grapevine in sub-freezing temperatures, on a winding highway, where trucks that are mandated to a 35 MPH "safety" speed. Interstate 5 is safe... it isn't THAT safe. I'm doing 65 (the speed limit on this stretch), some petroleum truck is doing 35 in the lane next to me, and Bigengine Bart blows past at MACH 1.

Let's just forget about the fact that most passenger cars sold in the United States really aren't rated for speeds much in excess of 90 MPH. Let's even assume that Fast Freddie purchased the $400 tires, instead of the $50 ones at Sears (with a maximum speed rating of 80 MPH). These are all things that can simply get you killed, not everybody around you.

What bothers me is that these people are completely unaware that they MIGHT cause an accident behind them. Many times, I'm startled by the wind wake they leave behind (and I don't drive a small car, either), enough that it causes me to overreact at times. I could (and I've come darn close at times) jerk the steering wheel the wrong direction and cause a secondary accident.

Where are Ponch and Jon? Now, I do have some respect for our great California Highway Patrol, but to be quite honest, I've never seen a CHP officer patrolling this section of I-5. I know they must, but in the thousands of miles I've logged between Bakersfield and Los Angeles, I think I've only seen one, and that was dealing with an accident.

I don't know what to do. Some years back, a fellow web-nut had similar problems with drivers on a highway near him (a near-and-dear to my heart road as well, Santa Cruz County's SR-17) and set up a webpage [link dead] to deal with his frustrations.

Maybe I'll do the same. Enough people have passed me on the right, tailgated propane trucks, nearly smacked into center dividers, and such that I could set up the "Interstate 5 Page of Shame".

Don't make me do this, people.

i like honey

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cantdrive55.shtml, Updated: Saturday, 05-Jan-2002 11:30:29 PST .