Great thread Rob I was just thinking of this topic last night. Even here in Vt I have noticed a definite change in the flow of traffic which I attribute more to careless drivers than to more congestion even though we do have more people on the road here. I took my S out last night to run some errands and it was about a 25 mile round trip and other than one intersection its non-stop two lane highway with a speed limit of 50 and I was noticing that the traffic just doesn't flow people are going 40 then 50 then 40 then 55 then on/off the brakes and I can see people in front of me with a phone glued to their ear while they are doing this oblivious to anything that is going on around them. I'm hoping the day comes when cellphone use is illegal while operating a vehicle.

 

I'm currently on vacation on the Outer Banks of NC, and in the >400 mile trip to get here, I experienced the whole expanse of clueless drivers that have already been mentioned. I have come to the conclusion that there are two types of people operating motor vehicles: A) Those who enjoy driving and drive for the sake of driving (like those of us on here) and B) The vast majority who only drive because they need to get from point A to point B.
Left lane cruisers are the absolute worst. Next are the ones who can't use their turn signal. Cell phone and texters are next (illegal to do either in my home state of Delaware, though that does not seem to have any effect), and finally, people who do not turn their headlights on when it is pouring rain, again, it is illegal in most states. The drive here was mostly in the rain, and the worst offenders were as following: By far, pick-up trucks, especially Ram 1500's, for some reason. Next (sorry, Lainey), were Jeeps, and finally, mini-vans and SUV's.
And it's only getting worse.

 

If I may, I can understand a cell phone call but a lot of the people you see have a BRAND NEW car and you know DAMN WELL they have bluetooth but just don't use it.

Regarding turn signals on the highway, if I'm overtaking you at +5 mph or more, do you really need to see my turn signal as I'm getting back into the right lane?

 

I don't know. I recently read a report saying that talking on the phone, even via hands free or Bluetooth is dangerously distracting. When you're on the phone, the person on the other end of the call has no idea what's doing on the road. At least when you're having a conversation with someone in your car they can see what you see.

As for turn signals, yes I think you should use them even if you're going faster than the car you're passing. Going back many years ago, when I learned to drive, we were taught that any time you turn or change lanes you should use your turn signals. I think it was good advice then and its still good advice.

My experience has been, especially lately, that when people overtake you on the highway, many of them cut back into the lane dangerously close to you. I think the least people should do is use turn signals to let you know that they're coming into your lane.

 

I've been taught that turn signals attract an officers attention when speeding.

I agree, any phone call can be a distraction but people need to use the tech in their cars to minimize these distractions.

 

Well then, next year you have to come on the Solidarity Drive for Levi (NNY S2k). Not all the roads are as good as this one, but we're driving on this stretch for 20 minutes and see just a couple of cars going the other direction. Nothing in front to slow us down.

On the Connecticut - New York border north of New Milford where I live, there are still many open roads north and west.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLaJT-u4d6I

 

This evening Liz and I went to see a minor league baseball game, the Lakewood (NJ) Blue Claws vs. the Delmarva Shore Birds. Lakewood is about 82 miles from here about 35 of those miles along the Garden State Parkway.

The game was fun. I like minor league baseball in general and I love the smallness of the stadiums. To me, it's the way baseball should be. $13 for each ticket, second row behind first base. The hot dogs are lousy but hey, it's fun baseball.

Anyway, the game started at 5:05 pm so we left our house at 3:15 pm. One hour and 50 minutes should be a reasonable amount of time to go 82 miles, and it was. We made it with 10 minutes to spare.

Going home was a different story. The entrance to the Garden State Parkway is about 2 miles from the stadium. As soon as we got on the parkway, I knew we were in trouble. Traffic was crawling at about 15 miles per hour. About 15 miles down the road we got off and took Route 18N to Route 9N to I287. Better but still plenty of traffic. Where are all these people coming from at 9:30 on a Sunday night? Couldn't be the ball game, there were only 4,200 people in the stands. Don't they have to go to work tomorrow morning?

Anyway, it took us in the excess of two and three quarters hours to get home. That calculates to an average speed of 29.82 miles per hour. Pretty awful for high speed roads.


By the way, the Blue Claws (a Philadelphia Phillies AAA affiliate) lost to the Shore Birds (a Baltimore Oriole AAA affiliate). They were out played and out pitched. Next time I'm going to see the Brooklyn Cyclones (a New York Mets AAA affiliate) in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

 

Ouch Rob... Maybe end of weekend Shore traffic all going back to North NJ, and the greater NY area?

There's only 3 weeks left of Thunder (Yankees - Double A team) season in Trenton. and about 5 weeks in Somerset and Camden.

I'm not a huge baseball fan anymore, but minor league ball, as a night out for a $20 bill total is fun. Sometimes you get the person on a rehab assignment or some promising kid who's just that much better than everyone. He usually stands out during a game.

We should consider an S2K Metro/DelVal night out next season. They have all kinds of group rates in Trenton, and all kinds of freebies, fireworks and the like. I think there's some kind of promotion EVERY home game. Trenton, Somerset, even Lakewood could be options.

BTW: The BlueClaws and ShoreBirds are both Single -A.

 

Gary,

You're probably right. Some of the traffic on the GSP probably was shore traffic. Still it was awful. Even Route 18 and Route 9 were congested (some of that might actually have been shore traffic as well).

I used to be a real big baseball fan, but being a Mets fan makes it hard to stay enthusiastic. I was very disappointed by the 1986 World Series even though the Mets won. I still couldn't believe the way they won game six. For a very long time I was convinced that the game was fixed. I pretty much stopped paying attention to baseball for the most part after that season.

I have to admit, I do like minor league ball. I personally think its the way the game should be played, and I think it's much better for the fans as well. You sit much closer to the field, you can actually see the player's faces, and it's just more informal and comfortable. And you don't need to take out a second mortgage on your home to buy the tickets (but the hot dogs are awful).

I'd love to participate in an S2000 minor league night. We should talk about it for next season. Only thing is we shouldn't have it on a day when people are going to or coming from the Jersey shore. The traffic takes the fun out of everything.

 

I was thinking a late spring/early summer Friday night? There's no shore traffic in Trenton - or Somerset for that matter. Let's make it happen. Good family event too.

I have a contact at the Thunder from some of the charity work I do, so I'll find out about group programs. I'll also look for a good promo night when the season comes out. Put it in your calendar to remind me in March 2015!