I drove to Ohio on Thursday and taught a class all day Friday. Its beautiful typical mid west. I'm always surprised to be surprised at how much land is farmed here. I love the huge irrigation systems sprawling over the fields. I like to see them dormant in the winter time and spraying in the summer. Lots of this as I drove in the early evening hours when spraying is typical. One unit had it's end so close to the highway that it was spraying the road. Dangerous to be sure as my car was pummeled with water in the fast lane my wipers having a hard time keeping up with the deluge.
On the 80/90 toll way they've im- plemented new safety technology where they sense the movement of an animal on the highway. They have sensors mounted two feet off the ground that work like your garage door such that if a large animal crosses between the two sensors pointed at each other, the signal is broken triggering a light to flash warning motorists there is an animal on the road. Niether the video nor photo can capture the text unfortunately. These sensors can be placed a half mile apart. I caught a flashing warning sign though saw no animal on the road; perhaps it was just exiting or something else triggered this 'false negative' warning.
"Animal present when flashing"
One 'habit' that I noticed more on this road trip however, was that when a car would eventually yield to my passing and merge into the right lane to allow my passage, they would swing almost violently back into the passing lane (at their slower speed) even though no more cars existed in the right lane; ie: there is no one for them to pass, the road empty in front of them apart from my quickly disappearing car.
Now I am prone to think that Ohioans are simply control freaks. If they drive in the passing lane they choose when they are passed. They choose who can pass. They control the frustration level of the car(s) behind them.
Bad driving habits, need of control, or just a sick sense of humor?
More information on these new road sensors installed in the early part of our century in many places around the globe; Indiana mentioned on page 10.
In my five hours of traveling I thought of another theory about Ohio drivers and why they love driving in the passing lane so much. On a cross Ohio state trip last summer, I had originally concluded that the bad driving habits of Ohioans was attributable to poor driving instruction in that state which must teach that the following is acceptable if not expected: All lanes can be driven on at any time for as long as you want at any speed. This of course leads to:
In my five hours of traveling I thought of another theory about Ohio drivers and why they love driving in the passing lane so much. On a cross Ohio state trip last summer, I had originally concluded that the bad driving habits of Ohioans was attributable to poor driving instruction in that state which must teach that the following is acceptable if not expected: All lanes can be driven on at any time for as long as you want at any speed. This of course leads to:
- Tailgating
- Driving along side a car in the far left lanes at the same speed for several miles
- Driving in the passing lane all the time
- Slowing speed to match a car to your left when you are about to pass a third slower car
- Not checking your rear view mirror to see if anyone is behind you (when driving super slow in the fast/passing lane)
- Do not let anyone pass you if you're not ready (this might also be attributable to the high number of Nascar fans in the state).
One 'habit' that I noticed more on this road trip however, was that when a car would eventually yield to my passing and merge into the right lane to allow my passage, they would swing almost violently back into the passing lane (at their slower speed) even though no more cars existed in the right lane; ie: there is no one for them to pass, the road empty in front of them apart from my quickly disappearing car.
Now I am prone to think that Ohioans are simply control freaks. If they drive in the passing lane they choose when they are passed. They choose who can pass. They control the frustration level of the car(s) behind them.
Bad driving habits, need of control, or just a sick sense of humor?
driving footage looking at typical fields
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