This Memorial Day Weekend, I drove to Akron, Ohio – the Midwest smelled like a barbecue. The state troopers were thick as flies on the Ohio Interstates. And, here is the peculiar thing. For some reason, Buckeyes are repelled by the right lane of their highways. I drove I-70 from Richmond to Columbus, then I-71 up to Akron. In a lot of spots, the Interstate is 3 lanes. A normal scenario was this – the middle lane occupied by one vehicle traveling at about 65 mph, the left lane occupied by a line of vehicles with the lead one traveling at about 66.5 mph, and the right lane empty. What’s a Hoosier to do on Indy-500 weekend? Go about 75 mph in the right hand lane, of course. (Making me a criminal-alien in the Buckeye state, I suppose.) The only problem is that some deviant would occasionally use the slow lane for going slow, throwing the whole thing off. It’s an annoying driving scenario that happens everywhere to some extent, but it always strikes me as being particularly bad in Ohio for some reason.
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Doug brought up some interesting observations on driving habits.I still do a great deal cross country driving and there are different ways of driving in different areas.Pennsylvania pased a law a couple years ago that anyone driving continually in the left lane of interstate will be fined(left lane is for passing),so drivers there have been keeping to the right except to pass. I learned to drive basically in the metropolitan chicago area,and did commuter driving for many years.Drivers there have been predictable and professional usually with drivers going faster in the more toward the left..Drivers are aggressive but predictable.Anywhere on the East Coast drivers are more aggressive and more apt to be rude also.There are more and more aggressive unpredictable drivers on the road everywhere.Could they be the illegals? But I just drove through Richmond Washington,Baltimore and Philadelphia(and everything in between) and the normal driving can be nightmarish,so some drivers are already ready to explode.
IMO,The most dangerous drivers are in Florida with Miami recently getting an award for the rudest drivers in country. But the problem there is a mixture of older people who like the left lane because there’s no cross traffic and they go there and go barely speed limit,if that,then there the bulk of the drivers who just want to get where they’re going ,but there’s a significant very noticeable group of very aggressive drivers who go over,even way over, the speed limit and weave across lanes.Also in south Florida there is a habit of running red lights,as many as 3-4 cars after the light is obviously red.I notice other parts of country some drivers are running red lights deliberately so its a bad culture that is spreading.I used to watch the French run red lights as a matter of course,but never thought it would catch on in the states.
Theres a certain ‘attitude’ among some drivers that as long as theyre doing the exact speed limit they cant be a problem.They make chaos around them as cars try to get around them from all sides.My philosophy that has kept me out of having a a major accident( injury involved) in 40 plus years of driving just about everywhere in most american cities is ‘go with the flow’Pick out the pattern and try to follow it.Always be defensive,and don’t change lanes unless necessary and only after you’ve looked more than once.And always leave space in front of you,space is reaction time.If cars cut in, so be it.
One change over last 40 years is that there is little difference now between male and female driving habits. But years ago, except in metroplitan areas, women didnt drive or drove only locally,so a ‘woman driver’may have been an issue back then,but no more.
An Indianapolis pattern that is annoying(to me) is that people seem afraid to merge onto an expressway during rush hours.Many maintain a very low speed and block the right lanes for too long a period,making them very slow and congested,while the left lanes whizz by.
Somewhere, people have to be being trained that’s it’s OK to drive in the middle lane.
It ain’t.
As a Buckeye, I think I may be able to offer some perspective to this discussion. Ohio is (unlike Indiana) littered with major metropolitan areas. No matter from which corner of Ohio citizens hail, they inevitably are forced–with some regularity–to drive in and/or around these areas. The highways in these metros are all of a fairly substantial nature, meaning 3 lanes (or more) in each direction. While negotiating these highways, it becomes quite apparent that during peak traffic hours it is absolutely self-destructive to pin yourself in the outside lanes (whether right or left) for any period of time. Pass on the left, merge or exit on the right…thru traffic in the middle. This can be easily observed in California as well, where the left lane is for carpool, the right lane is in a constant state of flux from merge/exit, and everybody else sets their cruise and stays the hell out of the way of the fast and/or slow lanes.
Now, with this in mind, enter the Ohio State Police. These guys are bastards about speeding…absolutely relentless! Ohio residents know this, so even when passing, we tend to not get too happy with the gas pedal. It is commonplace for drivers here to regularly be ticketed (not warned, mind you…FINED) for driving 4 MPH over the limit. Even people in the passing lane keep a careful eye on the speedo.
So, you combine the elements, and voila! You get Doug’s weekend highway adventure.
Nice explanation Mr. Kaduk. And, fwiw, I have no beef with this driving strategy in the metropolitan areas. I notice myself doing the same thing in Columbus — I figure you just relax and enjoy the ride in the big cities. But on I-71 between Sunbury and Lexington? Come on.
I think what you were seeing is part conditioning (as I described) and part apathy. I find it difficult to change my MO even on fairly uncluttered roads, for 3 reasons:
1. I’m used to it.
2. If I stay in the middle, I don’t have to change lanes to make room for mergers or passers…even if interchanges are sparse and traffic is consistent…I can just stay put.
3. Defensive driving dictates that if you are in the center lane, you have the maximum amount of options for an escape path in the event of a problem. Riding right or left minimizes your options.
It’s entirely possible that my observations are completely wrong, because I’m making a bold assumption that other Ohio drivers think like I do. It’s possible that most of them could just be morons…hell, I might be a moron too.