The Rules Of The Road

I'm reminded of a story of an older couple from many decades back, when automobiles had taken over, but this farm couple still traveled by horse and buggy. One day, as they came in to town, there was a sign that said, "Speed Limit, 25 MPH" The old farmer handed the reins to his wife and said, "Here, you take the reins, and I'll get the whip, and we will see if we can get the horse to get us up that fast."

I am sure the two or three of you that actually read my drivel, already know the rules of the road, and obey them. So, I will just talk to those who don't know or don't have time to read. How many people driving an automobile know the rule about cross walks. You know, the place where people walk across the road. There is the cross walk, but before you get to it, there is another line, where you are supposed to stop your vehicle, thus providing a measure of safety to the pedestrian. How many people stop at the actual cross walk, even with their vehicle intruding into the cross walk, and inching forward, hoping the red light will change faster, or something. Or those who come up to a red sign that says "STOP" but they don't, they actually see this sign as a triangle, with the word "YIELD" on it. And when they see a yield sign it's just get out of the way, here I come. OK, Ok there is a point to this story. There is one other safety rule that you won't see a sign for. It is, Keep 1 car length between you and the car in front of you, for every 10 MPH you are traveling. Thus, if you are traveling 60 MPH, you should have 6 car lengths between you and the car in front of you.

MLWFAE, ( for any new comers, that refers to my wife. Refer to a previous post to see the actual meaning ) and I recently traveled to a distant city. Since the speed limit on the freeway is 75 MPH, and since we had more time that gas, we drove 70 MPH, thus is was easy to keep 7 car lengths between me and the car in front of us. Oh! the car in front had just passed, at 80 MPH usually, and was soon out of sight. But as we came to the city, the traffic increased, and the speed limit reduced to 65 MPH. So, keeping 6 1/2 car lengths between me and the car in front, caused 6 1/2 cars to squeeze in between us. OK, so it was only 6 cars, but I backed off and another 6 cars came in. I soon realized we were back at the city limits and losing ground fast. At this rate, we would soon be back home, without ever getting to where we were going. So, I bit the bullet, or would have, had I had a bullet, and ignoring the rules, I closed up behind the car in front and finally made it into the city, and to the motel where we were staying. No wonder it takes us longer to get where we are going, than it does every one else. We had the same problem while traveling about the city, so I had to bite another bullet, ( the previous one had been chewed up and spit out ) and travel the same crazy way the rest of the people were. Boy, sure was good to get out of the city a few days later and get back to the small city where we live, where the people are just as crazy as the big city folks, just not as many of them. Maybe some day we will all get where we are going, then we can park our cars, ( bumper to bumper, if we want to, as they will not be moving ) and just enjoy life in the slow, Uh!, parked and stopped lane. And That's The View From The Ditch Bank.