Thursday, February 10, 2005

I've been seeing a lot of posts about driving in Phoenix

This is one of the better posts... it really is like this!
Driving in PHX can be hazardous to your health.

I learned to drive in rural Pennsylvania. Most of the roads there were curvey and 2 lanes, one in each direction. The speed limit was how fast you could get your car through the curves without going off a cliff or into the woods. Winter driving was even worse, the goal there was to keep your car heading in the same direction you started and front wheel drive was a must.

I got my drivers license when I was sixteen and by the time I turned 17 1/2 I had hit just about everything in God's creation, including a person. I grew out of that phase before my mom let me drive to NY. Driving in NY was horrible, the roads bad with bridges and potholes, crazy drivers that don't use signals and never stay in one lane with no speed limit. I was so proud the day I was able to drive there and weathered it pretty good.

Then I moved to AZ and experienced a whole new kind of bad. No one knows bad driving until they attempt to drive here. Freeways that are 6 lanes across on both sides, soccer moms in their minivans and SUV's bigger than houses. To top it all off they allow people to drive 65 mph.

The speed limit here is just a suggested limit. If you are not going at least 10 mph over that, you are too slow. Those people are usually located in the left hand lane.
Most people don't understand the concept of merging in or out of traffic. It is NOT acceptable to go from the left hand land to the off ramp in 500 feet.
Nor do they understand the concept of taking their foot off the gas to slow down... No instead they hit the brakes causing everyone behind them to hit the breaks. Traffic moving at 80 mph will go to a screeching halt because some person bent down to pick up there cell phone and hit the brake.

For the past year I have been lucky to not have to deal with the freeways here. I wont even begin to talk about the surface streets that's a whole other story. Now that I am driving to and from school I have begun to develop road rage. If someone was to take a video of me driving one would think that I have Turrets. During a typical drive to school I usually say every four letter word in the book and probrably a few new ones.

So if you ever come out to visit Phoenix or if you live here and see a woman driving a little purple car hurling down the freeway at speeds close to breaking the sound barrier, chattering to herself and looking crazy, it is probrably me. Beware.
[Burning in the Desert]

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