Thursday, June 18, 2009

Driving in Portland

It's official - Portland drivers (the Oregon kind anyway) are the politest in the nation.

This surprises me not at all. I've had several 4-way stops drag on while multiple people "after you" too much. I learned to drive in New Jersey - if someone motions me forward, I'm going. Even if they don't, I might go anyway.

Still, nothing illustrates the insane overpoliteness of this area like the following totally true story from last week.

Our town is located off a 2-lane highway...we'll call it Highway A for all the stalkers in the audience. To get onto Hwy A, you take a long, sweeping on-ramp. The speed limit for Hwy A is 55 mph, but thanks to the long on-ramp, you have plenty of time to get up to speed AND see cars already on the highway.

So it's a weekend morning, and I'm driving the kids in our minivan. As I start up the on-ramp, I see exactly one truck barrelling down Hwy A. (Doing 55 - they don't speed much around here either) There's nobody behind him for miles, so I take my time up the ramp.

Except, he slows down. A lot.

Yep, some crazy driver ON A HIGHWAY slowed down to probably 35 mph to let me on. FOR NO GOOD REASON.

And sadly, this is far from the first time.

I almost miss the offensive driving of NJ...