Friday, November 21, 2008

Life in the Left Lane, Part 3

Theory #3 - Cruise Control

Alright, we've talked about political activism, and highway exit and toll logistics. This next one makes sense when you think about it. We've all done it. Cruise control helps you save gas, right? Well it's also really only useful on long stretches of road with minimal traffic. You know the drill. You're cruising along keeping up a good pace, when you get close to a major city. Suddenly the traffic gets thicker, and you have to click the cruise control off to keep from driving into the car in front of you. Sure you can move to the left to pass, but at some point you'll run out of lanes.

Here's the catch. Some people use cruise control not to help save gas for long distances, but just because they can. So to pass the guy in front, they maintain the same speed and hope to pass in the left lane without taking their car off cruise control...and they don't pass very quickly (unless the guy is going absurdly slow.) The result is that they hang out in the left lane much longer than if they were actually increasing their speed to pass like everyone else.

So you're a democrat, that can be forgiven. You have to exit or pay toll, understandable. You have your car on cruise control and you're too lazy to turn it off so you can pass quickly? Idiot.

Next up, Theory #4 - Ego / Power Trip