The Freeway - Part III

So we're on the freeway, driving along, listening to the radio and minding our own busi... hey! get out of my lane! Crazy driver!

That's right, today we're discussing the swerve. Perhaps my least favorite of the '900 signs you may be a bad driver'. Swervers, for many reasons, just can't seem to keep their car in one lane. Sometimes they're distracted (ooh, shiny!), sometimes they're sleepy, sometimes they're changing shirts, shaving, and drinking a coffee while talking on their bluetooth (I saw this on Foothill once). Maybe they just don't feel like letting 'the man' keep them in one lane, and want to express their free drivinig spirit. Whatever the cause, to all swervers out there I only have one simple request: flush your car keys down the john, because you're a danger to yourself and those around you. Seriously, get help.

According to American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) (PS. any time your acronym needs an acronym, its time to shorten your name); the minimum - that's right, MINIMUM allowable width for an interstate freeway lane is 12 feet. For reference, the width of an average car is 6 feet. That means, that the lane is twice as wide as your car! It should not be that difficult to avoid other lanes!

Remember that Brady Bunch episode where Greg and Marcia are competing about who is the better driver? The final test is who can park the closest to a traffic cone with an egg on top without knocking over the egg? No? Ok, maybe I watched too much tv as a child. In any case, the point is that Marcia (who won), knew how big her car was and had a good sense of where she was in the lane. Let's all be like Marcia (first time I've ever said that) and focus on keeping all parts of our car in one lane at a time when driving.