I choose to drive in the right lane on the expressway most of the time.
This is much different then my parents, who always suggested the safest and easiest place to drive on the road is the middle lane on those three lane highways. The right lane has a lot of advantages to the middle lane, including that traffic tends to go slower and drivers are less aggressive in the right lane. But there is another big advantage too – an emergency escape should something happen right in front of your car.
In drivers ed class, they always teach you to plan to have an escape route should something happen immediately in front your vehicle and you lack time to stop. The right lane on most interstates has the shoulder, which in an emergency can be used for stopping should something cut you off or traffic stop right away, and you don’t have time to stop. The shoulder provides a margin of safety that is unavailable in the middle lane, especially if you have cars on both sides of you in the middle lane.
Granted, the right lane isn’t perfect. People are slowing down in the right lane to enter and exit the expressway. Sometimes you have very heavy traffic getting on a ramp, so you best move over to center lane to let traffic on. In the right lane, you have to move over when there is a broke down car or a policeman, which can inconvenient to have to switch lanes. Not to mention, all of the slowest vehicles drive in the right lane, which means you have to move over to center lane to pass.
Driving in the right lane does mean you have to change lanes from time to time and be aware of slow traffic. But the pace is so much more leisurely, and you rarely get traffic on your ass in the slow lane. People just expect you to drive slow. To me, the right lane is the place to be on the highway, whenever traffic allows it.
Tomorrow is supposed to be sunnier, Mom and Dad are going to pick me up tomorrow for a visit. But today I’ll probably ride down to Hannaford to pick up a few things for the pantry, and I don’t know maybe visit a preserve on the way. Never been down to Norman’s Kill West in winter, maybe that’s an option.
I was originally thinking about biking to Walmart 🚲 but I don’t think I really need anything in particular there. I also was considering biking down to the Coeymans WMA but maybe not. Honestly, it depends how icky it ultimately turns out today. ☀️ The sun and mild temperatures will be tomorrow, which would be nice be able to get out but I’ll be visiting with family then and I can do my wash 👖 and put off having to go to the laundromat on the bus before work.
Other then that it’s just another winter weekend. ☃️ I’m hoping the warm weather and rain tonight will do a number on the snow 🏞️ and then the bike path will be good for riding in much of the week that looks to be fairly mild. ☀️ While it’s still a few more weeks of busing it home in the evening after work, it’s not as dark as it once was riding back downtown and catching the local downtown. And then by mid-February there will be enough light to ride both ways.
Going to do some reading today, 📚 and that’s about it for the list of things to do. Just a quiet weekend, nothing too big to do or think about. Continue investigating trucks, learning the ins and outs of the industry. Think more about my options. People say I’ve fallen in love with the Ford SuperDuty trucks, but I don’t know I haven’t reached a conclusion and I’m still more then a month before the first test drive, and two months out before I want to seriously be studying my dealership quotes and options 🔎 and figure out which one I want to actually buy. Or maybe I still have Big Red’s registration live, so that’s an option too. Honestly, it’s more fun to studying and learning then taking title of a vehicle, so I”m in no rush for those days to come.
This is kind of the SuperDuty truck I'm looking at... I think I do want the skid plates and FX4 off road package, still undecided about regular cab long bed vs extended cab short-bed, if I'm okay with the fleet white or if I want to pay for a different paint/appearance package. Depends on what is avaliable I guess, still have a lot more research to do.
