Life in the fast lane
Will surely make you lose your mind

Colorado Luis is unhappy about a change in state law:

It’s weird to be driving out on the interstate in rural Colorado and seeing the flashing highway signs (the ones that otherwise warn of icy roads or Amber alerts) saying “Keep Right Except To Pass.” Now, that was my driving habit to begin with, but why did the Colorado legislature feel like it was important to actually make that a law last year instead keeping it as just a good guideline?

If anything, I think making that the law makes things a bit more dangerous, because it leads to more cars in the right lane when people are coming onto the freeway — and Coloradans are notoriously bad at merging. But putting that aside, I can’t see what the benefit is to the rule except for making it easier for people who want to speed.

Works for me.

Of course, I’m probably the only driver who was taught how to merge at gunpoint.

Thirty-five years ago I was driving my VW bug in the right lane of a Detroit freeway. When a car coming down an entrance ramp attempted to merge in front of me, I sped up so that he had to slow down. He entered the freeway behind me, then came along side in the middle lane and honked. I gave him a friendly gesture (it wasn’t the peace sign). He honked again. This time when I looked over he was waving a revolver pointed at me (holding it in front of his passenger). He gestured to pull over.

This didn’t seem like a good idea, but the VW couldn’t out run his Oldsmobile. I attempted to lose him in congestion at the next exit, but he caught up to me when I got to a stop light.

He came up to my car, identified himself as an off-duty Detroit police officer (he was partially in uniform), and — at gun point — and despite the fact that he himself was profane — made me apologize to his woman passenger (his wife I was told) for my obscene gesture. He seemed as rattled from anger as I was from fear — his badge was upside-down when he showed it to me — but he did have his service revolver pointed in the right direction and I did what he said.

In the process he educated me to the difference between “merge” (give and take) and “yield” (right-of-way).