Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ucf-cs.UUCP 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