OK, I will stipulate for the record that traveling I-40 was pretty much a monumental amount of suck pretty much from the east end to past the mess that is White Oak just west of the county line.
But only the first third of it can be blamed on that scary wall of water descending in one fell swoop from those nasty rain clouds.
Once we got past that epic waterfall that people who have lived in Florida know how to drive through, the other two-thirds of the JOCO suck is pretty much on the many people who were doing ALL of the following simultaneously:
- Clogging the left lane of travel preventing anyone from overtaking in the usual fashion and creating an epic backup as a result.
- Driving with your hazard blinkers ON.
- Maintaining the posted speed if not getting a little adventurous if not creative in your interpretation of your velocity vis-a-vis the white rectangular signs.
I accept that #1 is pretty much unavoidable in a state where a majority of drivers have no clue as to the intended purpose of the OVERTAKING lane (this would be the one on the LEFT as opposed to the one on the RIGHT where those of us who want to actually get somewhere have to do the UNDERTAKE in one of the few states it is actually legal because for it to be otherwise would snarl traffic hopelessly thanks to the people in the LEFT lane who ought not to be there in the first instance!)
But if you’re going to do #3 when the rain is a best a drizzle if not sprinkle, then you don’t need to run the hazard lights and you sure as hell don’t need to be doing so at the posted speed in the LEFT lane.
Doing all three doesn’t make you a considerate driver who is concerned about the safety and well-being of other drivers.
But it does make you an ignorant asshole of elephantine proportions that are royally pissing off those of us who know what in the hell we’re doing.
Thank you for your kind attention to this public service announcement…normal service will now be resumed!