Began the annual Parental Pilgrimage to their cottage in South Carolina, and spent about seven hours on the road. Could have easily done it in one day, but the parents are taking two days so I am as well. No way in hell I am doing it in one day and then getting there after 11 hours and have two well rested taskmasters waiting for me to unload the CARS NOW. Fuck that.
When I become god emperor, all of route 77 through virginia and on until it ends will be made four lanes and not the fucking two it currently is.
Also, when I become god emperor, all mothers will be required to whisper to their newborn 1000 times a day until age five the following phrase: “the passing lane is for passing, slower traffic should stay right). Mothers in Ohio, home of the world’s worst drivers and notorious squatters in the passing lane, will be required to say it 2000 times a day until the child is age 16.
Remember back in the day when I would go on road trips and refuse to tell you all what state I was in and never showed you pictures of me. Why the fuck did I screw that up? Christ, I’m an idiot.
Lapassionara
Getting from Rock Hill to Myrtle Beach is not an easy drive. Good to rest up first.
phein64
When I become god emperor, all mothers will be required to whisper to their newborn 1000 times a day until age five the following phrase: “the passing lane is for passing, slower traffic should stay right).
This! 1000 times, this! Ohio is one of the states that doesn’t have a law against driving in the passing lane unless you are passing. I see Ohio (and Michigan, and Indiana) drivers all the time here in the northern section of east-central Illinois, and they always seem surprised when they get passed on the right. I never see them pull that crap on the interstates in Chicago, probably because they value their lives.
Martin
So, counterpoint to the $16 Idaho McDonalds meal that is obviously Biden’s fault is the $7.50 In N Out meal (burger, fries, drink) here in Southern California where they’re paying $21/hr plus health benefits. And it’s a way better burger. And better fries.
Maybe it’s not Biden’s fault that McDonalds got greedy?
Jeffro
Here’s what’s funny: I didn’t even know that there was an I-77 that went through Virginia until just now.
It’s been I-95 (+ 495/395), I-66, I-81, and for the past 5 years, I-64. LOL
But have to agree with the left-lane-is-for-passing thing, Cole. I usually stay in the left lane the whole way ’cause I’m the fastest car out there, and it peeves me when I have to move right.
Martin
SoCal freeways laugh at your driving norms.
frosty
@phein64: PA law says you have to stay in the right unless passing. All I have to say about that is if you try that on the LA freeways, or hell, even the DC Beltway, you’re going to go nowhere fast.
There’s five lanes a side! Use them!!
@Martin: Exactly!
captain toast
@Martin: mcdons is horrible. Cant find anything but fries worth buying
captain toast
@phein64: so how fast is fast enough in the fast lane? 5 over? 10 over? 25 over? pretty bored with the freaks who’re mad that I don’t invite a ticket when I drive.
Yutsano
@Martin: Animal style or GTFO. It’s worth the extra buck.
Matt McIrvin
As I stated in another thread: I’d keep right except for all the left exits and left entrances that force me not to. On the Methuen Loop Connector, MA-213 (either way), if you don’t get to the left well before the end of the road, you’re not leaving on the exit that goes that direction.
Suzanne
@Martin: I miss In-n-Out a lot.
And Filiberto’s. And Salad and Go.
Martin
Will point out that speed limiters on cars (GPS based on current limits) is at least meriting a national discussion. That’s a pretty big change.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: I’d keep right except for the semis. I will always pass the semis.
EXCEPT! A week and a half ago, I was driving back to PGH from NoVA, and I took the route through Cumberland, which then turns north and goes near Ohiopyle. There’s one stretch of the highway that is a pretty steep downhill for a couple of miles. I was in the left lane, and there was a semi in the right, and it was not doing a good job staying in its lane. The trailer was swerving a bit., crossing the lane line. And I didn’t feel like it was safe to pass until we reached the bottom of the slope. Dude in the car behind me was SO PISSED that I wouldn’t pass. I was tempted to let him try and get creamed instead.
Omnes Omnibus
@captain toast: The issue is calling it the “fast lane.” If you think of it as the “passing lane,” it works differently. If you aren’t passing vehicles, move to the right. If there are multiple lanes, apply the same rule.
John Cole
@captain toast: as long as you are trying to get back in the non passing lane in a reasonable amount of time.
eclare
@captain toast:
I think the Egg McMuffin and hash browns are good. But nothing else.
Jeffro
@captain toast:
@Omnes Omnibus:
I hear you both, but my solution is to stay in the left lane and breeze by everyone, doing at least 10 over until some other
maniacfellow accomplished driver comes up in my rear view mirror. Then…I move right.It doesn’t happen often. ;)
Omnes Omnibus
@John Cole: It’s funny how it seems to work so well in Germany, but people here have difficulties with the concept. I really do think it is because we ended up calling it the fast lane and everyone’s definition of fast is different.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jeffro: I go around people and then move back to the right. Autobahn conditioning.
eclare
@Matt McIrvin:
I am the same, I am a timid driver and always stay in the right lane on any road. A newstation here in Memphis reported a study that Memphis has the most traffic fatalities per capita. I don’t even take the interstate anymore, if I am going to be in a wreck I want it on surface streets, where hopefully it is at a lower speed. Plus shootings on the interstates here are common. No wonder I’m timid.
tokyokie
@captain toast: But McDonald’s fries are awful as well. Highly processed, frozen until they’re dunked in the frier, and exceedingly thin, they taste like the well-used oil in which they were cooked.
Spanish Moss
I haven’t driven in Ohio, but I have driven up and down the eastern seaboard many times and in my experience SC wins hands down for the worst left lane usage. I live in MA and you can notice the number of slow drivers in the left lane increase as you go south until it peaks in SC. And drivers not paying attention. So frustrating. It wouldn’t be safe to be that inattentive in MA. One of my sons got a ticket for traveling in the left lane when he was a newbie driver. We train them early!
Origuy
@frosty: Yes, if everyone stays in the right on California freeways, no one can merge in it from either side. And the far left lane is usually HOV only during the day; 24 hours some places.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I stick to the right lane and pass in the left, moving back to the right when done. I let one or two fast cars pass me and I pace them a ways back, letting them filter out the cops ahead for me. I pick my lane when approaching an exit, unlike too many other fucking morons who like to stick in the passing lane and then abruptly cut across the highway to take an exit at the very last second.
Don’t get me started on the dudebros in wankpanzers that drive their jacked-up emotional support trucks as if they handle like a Ferrari or Porsche.
Anonymous At Work
I love I-81 through Shenandoah Valley. Beautiful part of the world in summer and fall. And much better than I-95. I’ve never had problems taking I-81 to I-77.
mvr
@Martin: That whole “the right lane” thing doesn’t work when there are many right lanes.
Also too, LA drivers are among the best in the world but they have every incentive to be since someone dies when they make a mistake. Or perhaps it is explained by natural selection via the same someone dies mechanism.
rekoob
“Rechts ist Richtig” and “Sie fahren mit Abstand am Besten” were prominently displayed on the Autobahn when I was driving in Germanic Europe: “Right is Correct” (or better, “Right is Right”) and “You drive best with a bit of spacing”.
The idea, which is hard for many US drivers to comprehend, is that traffic on the limited-access highway has priority. Yield to those who pass, and those that wish to enter the road should yield to existing traffic. It will be interesting to see how autonomous driving adapts to all of this. Turning an Autobahn (motorway) into a car-based Eisenbahn (railway) seems to be in the cards.
CaseyL
I am much less of a speed demon than I used to be (a few tickets took care of that; plus I want to live), but I do still like to drive fast, and therefore I stay in the left lane, at about 10 miles above the speed limit. I’m happy to shift right if someone wanting to go faster comes up behind me.
Washington State posts signs on the freeways stating that cars need to stay right unless passing, but I have never seen that law enforced. Maybe it’s one of those things that if the State Troopers pull you over for something else, they can add that to increase the fine.
Some of the worst drivers I’ve encountered were in Maine, which shocked me. Truck drivers (flatbed, not semi) will come right up and ride your rear bumper regardless of how fast you’re going, and regardless of whether there are other lanes they could use to pass you. Just sheer ornery meanness, I guess. I pulled over to let them pass more often in a mere week than I have ever done anywhere else.
Florida has some awful drivers, too, and in more flavors of awful than Baskin Robbins has flavors of ice cream. Many came from somewhere else and don’t know or care what the local driving laws are; many are habitually paranoid and refuse to use turn signals, instead simply darting from lane to lane (and sometimes darting across three lanes at once to get to their exit at the very last second); plus the randos out to provoke a road rage incident so they can shoot someone. Plus the old folks who shouldn’t be driving at all, who can barely see over their steering wheel. I used to think the safest, most careful drivers in Florida were likely to be drug dealers scared to death of getting pulled over. (This was before drug dealers would simply shoot any State Trooper that came near them.)
phein64
@captain toast: The solution is simple: Stay out of the passing lane! In Illinois and other states I’ve lived in, you invite a ticket by blocking the passing lane.
I’m stunned by people who think, “I’m doing the speed limit, screw you!”, but don’t abide by other traffic laws, like:
Driving in the correct direction
Driving in one lane
Driving without weaving
Driving with lights on in the rain/snow
Driving in the passing lane only when passing!
Ruckus
@Martin:
It’s $8.32 with tax.
And it’s not just better, it’s actual food.
phein64
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Remember the old George Carlin bit? “People who drive slower than you are morons, and people who drive faster than you are idiots”?
People who drive faster than me are radar detectors. I adore them.
Ruckus
@Martin:
Pretty much any more when I’m near the freeway I’m in the middle of it on a train which goes, well over 90% of the time, faster than the freeway traffic. During rush hours it’s faster 100% of the time. I have a choice of 2 trains, diesel/electric or electric. The electric is far cheaper and goes where I want to end up.
Ksmiami
@captain toast: Diet Coke. McDonald’s has great ice.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@phein64:
I call them “cop filters” and am always glad to let them pass me and haul ass while I follow (and speed) a safe distance back.
As far as tailgaters, I have no problem with someone who wants to crawl up my ass and ride it. I’m normally running at 5-10 over anywhere I go but when someone crawls up my ass I slowly slow down to the speed limit and smile. Semi truck, jacked up wankpanzer, car or whatever, I’ll gladly be their rolling roadblock if they insist. I never brake check, I just let them sit on my ass and frustrate themselves.
I’m not the one causing their angst, they are.
Ksmiami
@mvr: it’s due to the way liability insurance works in California. Basically, as a driver you have to do all in your power to avoid accidents because you will be deemed responsible and your insurance will rise, you could face criminal charges and more. I think this should be the standard everywhere.
piratedan
I will say as interstate driving goes, I-77 and I-81 in Virginia are some of the most beautiful scenery you can find. Granted there are a LOT of great stretches of road.i.e. I-84 thru the Columbia River Gorge, I-25 thru the Raton Pass from New Mexico into Colorado just to mention a couple, yet my childhood memories of coming down thru the Shenandoah in the early morning summers with the fog rising out of the valley are the ones I remember the best.
mvr
@Ksmiami: That’s plausible. I just remember going 75 in bumper to bumper 5 lane traffic and thinking that if any of several thousand people made a serious mistake, someone was going to die. And death focusses the mind, or at least mine.
But you’re right; they were also good when I wanted to jaywalk. I was going to wait until I would not inconvenience anyone and yet the minute I even looked like I might step off the curb traffic came to a halt. If it wasn’t so far between street corners I would have given up.
eclare
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
That behavior would get you shot here.
https://wreg.com/news/local/shooting-at-highway-385-and-i-240-leaves-man-in-critical-condition/
SpaceUnit
What drives me crazy is people who think that highway protocols apply to suburban corridors. Assholes will ride on your bumper and be like GET OUTZ OF ME WAY!!! when you’re just in the left lane and slowing down because you need to make a left turn into the fucking Safeway parking lot. Christ.
Poe Larity
I think the root of your problem is driving through Ohio to get from WV to SC.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@eclare:
Luckily I live in a fairly civilized state where people don’t seem to want to kill each other over traffic. That’s not to say that it won’t happen here but it hasn’t and the local attitude is such that it probably won’t. I also have high resolution dash, front and rear cams with audio and they are in constant recording mode.
I play a good “old man behind the wheel” when needed, even deliberately leaving a turn signal on after making a turn just for shits and giggles.
eclare
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
I’m jealous!
NotMax
Main reason for choosing to take the Palisades Parkway from the George Washington Bridge to the Bear Mountain Bridge rather than the Sprain Brook and lesser state highways across the Bronx, Westchester , Rockland and Putnam counties to drive Mom to the wedding in August.
No traffic to speak of in any lane. What she insisted was a 2+ hour drive clocked in at one hour and twelve minutes, without speeding.
Martin
@Ruckus: I too prefer trains, but sweet jesus the freight railroads are fucking up rail so bad. Amtrak up to Oregon was pretty nice, but despite having right of way we had to stop for an hour for every passing freight train because they were all 11 miles long and couldn’t fit on sidings.
Leto
@Omnes Omnibus: another reason it works so well in Germany, and the rest of Europe, is the fact that most drivers spend at least a year in driver training before they’re allowed on their own. And they don’t start driving till at least 18/19. And then when they do get a vehicle, they’re start out in tiny little car because that’s the safest for them and the rest of the public.
This is another distinctly American problem. I have a lot of ideas on how to fix it, but they’re basically non-starters because it would require such a radical shift in our car culture that it just wouldn’t work.
mkd
@Poe Larity:
after so many (legit) stories of standard driving craziness, this made me laugh out loud, what was he doing going through Ohio???
Jay
@Leto:
Cousin in the UK was freaked out that I could buy, (and did) a Kawasaki 1100GPZ as my first motorcycle. They were limited to 125CC’s to start, and it took 5 years to work your way up.
sab
@Poe Larity: LOL. Although in Cole’s defense, we Ohio drivers really do suck at driving.
sab
@sab: But Nevadans are exponentially worse than Ohioans.
Leto
@Jay: exactly; the talk in this thread, and the previous driving one, about speed limiters and GPS limiters… you’re not solving the problem. You can’t even tackle this basic problem, but sure, speed limiters.
Jay
@Leto:
In BC, at the time, under 550cc motorcycles were $1500 in insurance a year. Over 550cc were $3k a year.
Still, organ donor vehicles.
I didn’t buy a clue until a Police Officer suggested that I get my “speed out” at Westwood Racetrack. Had a long series of bikes.
When I got divorced, thought about buying another bike. Probably a penis thing.
Passed when I was looking at a 1980’s BMW RS1000, classic right? Safe right? Won’t do anything stupid right?
Then found myself finding Bremo brakes, 4 valve heads, etc to make it a 1990’s BOTT twin.
Then I bought a boat instead. 8 knots top speed, 9.2 mph.
Ruckus
@Martin:
I’m speaking of the Metro trains which have their own tracks, rather than the MetroLink diesel/electric. Of course if you talking about leaving town……
Martin
@Leto: So, I bring up speed limiters not because I think they are a thing that will be implemented, but because they are a thing that is being discussed, which alone is a substantial change. Generally we have cared fuck-all about vehicular and pedestrian deaths but a lot of work by activists (myself included in that) is trying to change that. None of us have any real idea how things might change, but the fact that you have cities repealing right on red ordinances because of their role in pedestrian deaths is a big change. You have the UN now advocating for a 30kmh maximum speed limit in urban areas, because of pedestrian deaths.
Much of this was driven by Covid when WFH policies meant you could safely ride your bike again. Restaurants reclaimed parking space for dining, which boosted sales and tax revenue. Cities discovered that eliminating parking spaces boosted tax revenue by a LOT, and saved them taxpayer costs to maintain that space. And as Covid has ended, a lot of people started to recognize what we’re sacrificing.
I work with my city’s planning commission and they are actively designing cars out of future plans. They’re trying to substantially reduce road speeds and they’re exploring ways of doing that. Now, that’s unlikely to be speed governors, but it’s going to be _something_, and honestly speed governors might be preferable to some of the alternatives.
One big change in the space is that there is increasing recognition that speed limit policy has been a complete failure, and that its replacement need to be something proactive rather than reactive. Understand too that some cities (like mine) are also approaching this as a defund the police angle because traffic stops are by far the most common discriminatory act against people of color by police, and the impetus for a lot of the violence we see. So the city is looking for ways to reduce the need for those interaction, and eliminating the level of reactive enforcement is one such mechanism.
So lower speeds combined with things like traffic calming are on the table, much narrower lanes, obstructions near the edge of the road like trees, speed bumps. Basically, making it sufficiently difficult to navigate the road that you don’t want to go fast, etc.
Speed governors might be a preferable alternative, but that’s a national solution, so the local ones will almost certainly win out. But transportation planning priorities are changing. We can’t keep killing 30,000+ people a year when there are other countries getting road fatalities close to zero. Norway has gotten fatalities below 100, down 80% during a time frame when miles driven increased 4x. And pedestrians are making up a growing share of fatalities, as is what’s happening in the US, which is shifting policy further.
But the point is, it’s a problem we increasingly feel we need to solve, as marked by the willingness to discuss it.
Matt McIrvin
@phein64: Many urban highways are designed in such a way that they violate the “left lane is for passing” rule: there are exit and entrance ramps on the left, so you have to intrude on the left lane when not passing– but other traffic will still treat it as the passing lane, so merges pretty much have to be done at an unsafe speed. You can get trapped there when entering because the traffic passing you on the right at 90 miles an hour won’t *let* you change lanes to get out of the left lane.
This is terrifyingly endemic in Seattle and the DC Beltway and fairly common in the Boston area.
Matt McIrvin
@CaseyL: Were those trucks allowed to pass you? On some highways large trucks are banned from the leftmost lanes; laws vary.
That said, New England is terrible for drivers passing on the right or tailgating when there are wide-open lanes to the left. I understand the frustration with slowpokes in the left lane but people using the right shoulder or a right exit as a passing lane are worse.
Nukular Biskits
The path from WV to SC goes through OH?
seaninclt
Damn Cole – wish I knew you were nearby. If you come back through here and stay in Rock Hill again, there is an AMAZING bbq joint about 10 mins from the 77/485 interchange in Charlotte/Rock Hill. If you have take 485 East and go about, oh say, 5-7 miles to the exit for St. Johns Road, get off and make a right. Drive for about 5 mins to a place called The Rock Store. Out of this world pork.
Nukular Biskits
It’s the law in a lot of states you’re supposed to pass on the left, cruise on the right.
Having said that, however, some above have asked a valid question: What is the maximum acceptable speed for passing on the left? The correct answer is, of course, the maximum posted speed limit.
I admit to being somewhat irritated at pulling up behind someone cruising in the left lane at 65 mph down here on I-10. But what really pisses me off is some entitled asshat (usually from LA or TX headed eastbound, probably to FL) who zooms up behind me at +80 mph in his (and it’s almost always a male) truck (pickup drivers are the worst and I own an F150), riding my bumper and flashing his lights as I’m going around someone in the right lane.
Quite frankly, I know what the law says but it doesn’t require me to kill myself to get out of the asshat’s way. I will move over when both convenient and safe to do so.
Finally, I note that the asshat behavior is more often than not exhibited if I’m driving the Camry as opposed to the 2002 F150. Generally, my attitude then is, “My truck is worth $600, yours is worth $45K. Go ahead, make my day.”
Chris T.
@Martin:
Yes, well, when you have 473 lanes going in each direction, who cares which one you’re in?
The weird part is how every couple of miles it narrows down to 2 lanes in each direction, then promptly widens out again.
Paul in KY
@captain toast: If someone comes up on you & you are in the left lane (no matter how fast you are driving), you should move over. To me, there is no absolute “I’m breaking speed limit by X MPH, so I’s staying here”.
Paul in KY
@Omnes Omnibus: I think 1/2 time it is someone who’s in left lane, going faster than speed limit & objects to the people going faster than them in left lane. Thus, they stay there instead of moving over.
Paul in KY
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Those superfast people are called your “Front Door” by truckers. They are useful in flushing out cops. You do have to stay within eyeball distance, however, for them to be useful.
LeonS
@Origuy: Good thing there is no chance whatever Southern California drivers stay right, or use lanes in any sort of rational fashion.
ann
A 100% accurate assessment of Rte 77. A nightmare every time I had to drive it to see family.