skipnchar wrote:
One of the strangest I've encountered is the driving on the shoulder in Texas. I believe they refer to just about any two lane with a 4 foot shoulder as "a Texas Four Lane". They would arrest folks for doing that in many states (including mine). The only scary thing for me is trying to figure out what I'd do if I had a flat tire. Thinking maybe park in the middle of the road lol cause almost NOBODY drives there.
I grew up in a rural part of west Texas and it was common practice to drive on the shoulder in order to let someone pass. Never gave it a second thought, until I gave it a second thought. What the what??
It's insane. There's all kinds of debris on the shoulder, and on the rare occasion you crest a hill or come around a bend, you're coming in blind in a lane that might be harboring a disabled vehicle or deer carcass or who knows what.
I had a huge line of pickups behind me a while back because they wouldn't pass me because I wouldn't drive my 30,000 pound motorhome and toad on the shoulder. I'm usually very sensitive about being in the way but tough tacos for them.
The thing is, if you want to pass and it's not safe to be in the oncoming lane, maybe you shouldn't be passing! The last thing you need is to be three abreast on a 70 mph two-lane road, with one going in the opposite direction.
What really got me was that nobody would pass even when there was no oncoming traffic at all, i.e., safe to pass. Crazy.
Also crazy is the "Pittsburgh Left," where the first car turning left at a stoplight jumps the green (or relies on oncoming cars to yield because they know about the convention) to turn left before the oncoming traffic starts coming straight through.
