Or the danger of driving two lane highways.... As most of you who follow my blog are aware, I drive the back roads. Not the dirt roads, but paved, two lane byways. One of those is US 97... 97 has to be one of the busiest stretches of two lane road in the nation. I was informed by someone I trust in the '90s that there was a tractor trailer rig every minute in both directions on the road.... Sometimes a lot more than one a minute, and sometimes a lot less....
However in its infinite wisdom the state of kalifornikation has set the speed for tractor trailer rigs at 10 miles per hour slower than for automobiles (not that I see either one obeying the speed limit...) which means that people get impatient (even I've been guilty of that) and pass tractor trailer rigs whenever there is a break only about three inches more than needed to make the pass. Which, I must say is frightening if you're in the opposite lane. Or if you happen to be like me when I'm driving (which I can't right now, but more on that later) my motorized roller skate. The other day (and part of the reason I'm not driving said roller skate) someone decided to pass me. Now I know I was going at least the posted speed limit (which in Kalifornikation is pretty much treated like a suggestion that no one will follow) when some person decided they just must pass me... I looked up and damned if I didn't think 'he' was going to do a header into a TT rig...!!!!! I threw the binders on and put my skate into a skid... When all was said and done I came out alright, but for some reason throwing the binders to the skate left it with a hard hop on the right front side... I haven't taken time to check the front end entirely, just de-torqued the wheel and re-torqued it in case I had a wheel slip slightly due to having lug nuts work loose. But that isn't the case, so sometime soon (very soon given the price of gas!!) I need to get the skate off the ground and crawl under it to see what else might be the issue...😂
But people are people and there is no turning lane on most of 97 (well it goes through some of the least populous areas of Kalifornikation, Orekaliforikated, and Washikalifornikated....) so the PTB don't see the need for such in most places, that suicide lane will do just fine... So today someone turned onto A-12 from said north-bound suicide lane with about 6-8 feet of clearance from me as I headed south-bound to visit the heat of the central valley... Not that I'm not sweating through my boots already...😢