I went to Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania via Euclid Ohio for a wedding this weekend. I tried to post a bit about I-80 through Pennsylvania a couple of days ago, but WordPress seems to have eaten it. I’m happy the road exists for our little excursion, but there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of reason for it to exist, particularly given the difficulties of building a major road on that rough terrain. There weren’t any major population centers to speak of in the 200+ miles between Youngstown, OH and Danville, PA where we got off the road.
As for Ohio, what is the penalty for driving in the right lane when you’re a slower vehicle? Clearly it’s not the death penalty since a few brave souls do it, but the penalty must be awfully steep given how many slow vehicles hang out in the left or center lanes despite having a vacant right lane beside them.
I am very impressed with my kids — we did the entire 650 mile or so drive home today without a lot in the way of breaks, and they held up beautifully. On the one hand, they have a DVD player that I didn’t have when I was a kid; but on the other hand, they are basically strapped into their seats whereas back in the benighted 70s, my siblings and I roamed the backseat freely without much concern for safety. Cole spent a bunch of time today with his notebook and crayon; mostly drawing super heroes, occasionally asking me how to spell stuff.
And then, it never fails, I got home with about 40 seconds left in the Colts game. So, I had to rush into the house to turn on the game and watch the last couple of plays. Sounds like the defense really stepped up. I love Bob Lamey, but I’m not sure his play calling is the most accurate. I don’t know how many times he’d excitedly blurt out the play as he hoped it had happened only to have to correct himself with what actually happened. Mostly of the “He caught it! No he didn’t” variety. Still, that’s a pretty big deal to go into Pittsburgh with a struggling Colts team and come out with a win. Maybe I should have just swung by Pittsburgh while I was in the area.
Govenor Rendell of PA had proposed making I-80 into a tollway,and they were underway trying to figure out how to mitigate the tolls for residents.Thru-traffic is by far the largest per centage of traffic. But in the midst of these discussions, late last summer, the PA legislature said ‘no’ to tolls so I-80 will stay free.
It’s becoming more and more common for slower drivers not to keep to the right lane.This used to be a sacred law when I first started driving. There also used to be a parallel unwritten law that you should never pass traffic on the right because the car to the right is in a blind spot and passing on the right is just ‘bad driving’.But now there is just no choice.
I think people stay in the left lane in oblivion just not wanting to bother to pass anyone.It makes driving more dangerous generally.I have driven I-80 through PA to Chicago many times as well as the turnpike through Harrisburg,Columbus through Indianapolis to my family in Champaign-Urbana.Great roads(compared to years ago) but increasily bad driving habits have made the trips more and more difficult
I have plenty of experience with certain Ohio area drivers.
It must be something they were taught. For some reason they think the left lane is the “cruising” lane.
Still, no one I’ve met claims to drive that way.
Indiana drivers who drive a lot in Ohio seem to learn to drive that way as well.
Maybe I’ll succumb one day. Ohio zombie driver.
i don’t know if it’s fair to blame ohio drivers for their poor driving skills. their roads and cities are so poorly designed and ill-thought-out that they can’t help but pick up bad habits.
The Twin Cities were equally bad with the left-hand driver situation; that’s where I first experienced it in the early ’90’s on a grand scale.
In our neck of the woods it never fails that a driver hogging the left-hand lane has an Illinois plate.
Even in my limited travels Ive come to the conclusion that bad drivers exist at a constant rate in every state in the Union.
And it appears to have little to do with general education or any other sociological determinate for a state.
Ive decided its directly correlated to the percentage of a given population that cannot blow bubble-gum bubbles.
Adjusted for mean age of course.