Thursday, January 10, 2019

The Driving Chronicles: In Which Both Lanes are Blocked by Big Trucks

This is the first of what I hope is a series of pieces about driving in the Washington, D.C. Metro area.  I got the idea to do this because it seems every morning or evening when I am commuting, something weird/annoying/unnecessary happens.   And maybe occasionally a good thing.

Anyhow, the latest was this morning. I was getting off to the left two lanes on 495 West, to split off onto 95 South.  In these two lanes, ahead of me in my lane was a white car with its hazards on; I'm not sure why but good for them for putting their hazards on rather than not; a yellow county truck that said something about pre-snow treatment; and another yellow county truck in the the left lane next to me that said "Keep Back 100 Feet."

Now, I get that we need to have county trucks out and about, especially if there's a storm coming (I don't think so, but I better check the weather).  But do they have to be in *both* lanes, so no one can pass them? Can't they stay single file on the right lane?

As it was I simply went slowly behind all three of these guys until I could break out and get into the other lanes when we merged onto I-95.

But is it too much to ask that people, especially people in big heavy vehicles, don't stay in the right lane?  In Germany, they use the left lane only for passing. I think we need to adopt that rule here in the DC area.

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