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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!mcnc!duke!ucf-cs!giles
From: giles@ucf-cs.UUCP (Bruce Giles)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Left Lane Blues
Message-ID: <1177@ucf-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 8-Feb-84 21:39:32 EST
Article-I.D.: ucf-cs.1177
Posted: Wed Feb  8 21:39:32 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 14-Feb-84 01:28:37 EST
References: <661@houxz.UUCP>
Organization: University of Central Florida
Lines: 56

[crunch crunch gobble gobble is it safe up here yet?]

Okay, right-2-laners, how about this:

Driving in the evening rush-hour mob today, I saw an unbelievable sight --
approximately 1 mile of traffic was doing a close-pack at 90 km/hr
(o.k. -- 60 mph for you yankees :-)) in the *left-hand* lane, with only
one merging vehicle in the right, on one of the local expressways!

Perhaps I should explain that at this point the road was only 2 lanes wide,
with a major onramp just behind me and another major offramp just behind me.

But anyway, it was a *beautiful* example of collective intelligence (very
rare nowadays).  Everyone knew they could act like sardines in the left
lane, but travel the next couple miles at 90 km/hr with no interruptions, 
or they could travel in the right lane, let slower traffic merge into
their lane, slow for exiting traffic, let traffic from the left lane merge
in order to exit, and ......, generally speed up/slow down/speed up/slow
down.

So, everyone being courteous and polite southerners (horsefeathers --
nearly no one except me and m' kinfolk are natives) decided they could stand 
another few minutes behind the car ahead of them, until we're all past this
segment of road.

And, the state can't say very much about this practice  (it's actually
common to have heavy traffic in the left-hand lane and passing in the
right); it seems some bright young traffic engineer decided that *six*
lanes of traffic can merge into *two* continuing lanes and one off-ramp
in less than 1 kilometer, even with the local tendency to get up to 90
km/hr as soon as possible.  (For those visiting Orlando, it's the
eastbound toll plaza on the East-West at Semoran Boulevard).

Let's just say that you learn to ignore 90% of what you were taught in 
Driver's Education, unless you don't mind exiting when you didn't plan to
and/or continuing when you didn't plan to.  And once the pattern of 
anything goes is imbedded, it occurs everywhere, and everyone (except
the huddled masses of tourist, yearning to visit Dizney; uh, sorta got
carried away there) know what to expect --> it's actually safer than
driving on the interstate which does *not* follow the same pattern.

The bottom line is -- when you decide to visit Orlando, remember all new
residents are *shocked* to learn that they can actually travel 20 miles to
work in 30 minutes, in rush hour, across town, with heavy traffic,
if they keep to the center and left lanes except when exiting, just like
the natives and older residents they were cursing just last week.

And if it works, don't fix it!



ave discordia				going bump in the night ...
bruce giles

decvax!ucf-cs!giles			university of central florida
giles.ucf-cs@Rand-Relay			orlando, florida 32816