I cannot stand the NJ Turnpike or Garden State Parkway. These roads are scary and disastrous. I was so tense driving on them that my back muscles are now finally relaxing and the pain is incredible.
Where do all of the people on the roads come from? Where are they going? How do we fit that many people in this state? I was never so happy as when I crossed back down into south Jersey, back to my people, to my speed, and with roads with normal widths.
Really, could they make the lanes on the Parkway any narrower? If you sneeze and the car shifts a bit…you’ll hit someone in the lane next to you. The scariest part was seeing how many bloody people were texting. How? How can you possible think that you can text and drive? These people are bloody maniacs and will cause “Blood to Flow Red on the Highway” like the classic old driving safety film.
The traffic was basically moving at the actual posted speed. It still was a terrifying commute. I can’t stand my regular commute so this was like being in the fourth circle of Hell. And I wondered, as I gripped my steering wheel with white knuckles, who would do this commute every bloody work day?
I have a new appreciation for my commute, with lanes that are wide enough for actual cars, but I will still complain when there’s traffic. The roads around my house sometimes have slow traffic-mostly in the summertime. That’s my kind of traffic jam.
Having lived in the Tobacco belt (NC) for years, then moving to Denver, I TOTALLY get this post. I miss the tractor jams of old. At least you knew they were watching where they were going! I haven’t driven in 10 years because, in the last year I drove, three people in three different cars decided they wanted to meet me by accident. In EVERY one of the accidents, the other drivers were either texting or chatting on cell phones!
I didn’t even own a cell at the time.
I do wish there were some way of getting people to not text and chat. I don’t know what makes them think they are capable of driving while doing that. They are making a very selfish choice that results in too many accidents.