We recently took a 10 hour drive down from where we lived to visit family. Or at least what should have only taken ten hours- it ended up being about 13 hours.
When a 75 year old man is driving under the legal speed limit the whole time, it tends to extend your drive about three hours. As opposed to a 25 year old who drives the speed limit (or maybe five miles per hour faster) the entire time.
I've learned that older people like to stop a lot more often to go to the bathroom and actually walk into a restaurant to eat instead of just going through a drive-thru to make the trip go quicker. Sometimes they even like to stop because they saw something cool on the side of the road that they want to check out.
It can be nice to travel with your grandparents since they are never in a rush. But if you are trying to get to your destination a little faster, then the experience ends up being more frustrating than anything.
Anywhere in California you can expect to hit traffic in the morning from about 7 am. - 9 am. and then again in the afternoon from 4 pm. - 7 pm. When we started the 10 hour trip at 5:00 in the morning, we thought we would just hit the beginning of the afternoon traffic towards the end of our trip.
Because we ended up stopping so many times and taking forever to eat our lunch, we hit the traffic right at the worst time. It took us about two hours to travel a short 30 miles.
My grandparents didn't seem to mind, they apparently enjoy sitting in the car for hours on end. But I was going nuts in the backseat because it was taking so long.
The traffic in that area of California amazes me. I am always trying to figure it out and why it happens so much and so often, but it just continues to confuse me.
While sitting there in traffic watching all of these other people driving, I figured out how some drivers make traffic even worse. Most of the people out there should not even have gotten issued a drivers license since they are horrible drivers that do not follow the rules.
At one point along the freeway, for a stretch of about 10 miles, there were orange construction cones set up along the right shoulder. Not a worker in sight, yet there was supposedly construction happening in that area.
There was an arrow board telling cars that the right lane was merging into the one right next to it. They gave us probably a mile or so to move over into the next lane.
As soon as my grandpa saw the arrows directing us to get over, he did. He put on his blinker and merged into the next lane at an appropriate speed.
But not everyone does that. Several people would wait until the very last second until they had to merge over which caused our lane to slow down and added to the traffic buildup on the freeway.
When one person does not follow traffic signs right away and wait until the last minute, then it causes more traffic and problems for everyone else. These traffic signs like the arrow board and orange cones are there to help warn us about driving conditions and what is going on.
Far too many people do not pay attention to these signs and do not realize that they are adding to the problem that they are complaining about in the first place. Traffic signs are there to help us drive safe and keep us out of automobile accidents, yet everyone just wants to complain about them.
If we can get other people to start paying attention to all of these construction and traffic signs, ultimately it will help ease some of the unnecessary traffic. And learn to be a defensive driver yourself.
If you allow other people to merge in front of you instead of making them wait because you are in a hurry and do not want another car "beating" you, then you will help ease the flow of traffic. Be a cautious driver as well and considerate of others.
Author Resource:-
Tom Selwick is a public safety representative for 25 years and has authored hundreds of articles relating to public safety and barricades. He has worked in public safety for years promoting safe transportation practices.
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