I HAVE a healthy dose of respect for the many folks who get up and fight the Interstate 95 commute every morning.
More and more, I avoid that wretched strip of asphalt, taking back roads and more circuitous routes whenever possible.
But summer usually brings vacation travel and other trips that make total avoidance impossible.
All too quickly, I'm smack dab in the middle of maneuvering that's fraught with peril.
What's causing it all?
On recent trips, it wasn't hard to sort problem drivers into a few categories.
They're a pretty small percentage of all drivers, but they exist in large enough numbers to to make things difficult and dangerous.
The categories:
GOTTA-FLY GUYS
Not far from Williamsburg, an SUV driver intent on doing 90 mph changed lanes so quickly and often in attempts to fly by me that I was afraid to watch.
The driver, incensed because traffic was moving near the speed limit, began tailgating several of us in the pursuit of open road.
Unsuccessful, the driver lost it and pulled partway onto the shoulder to get by a compact car.
I'm sure all the other drivers nearby joined me in a sigh of relief to have this nut moving on down the road.
MIDDLE-LANE MOES
Although fast and frantic drivers are the most dangerous, others dragging along cause problems, too.
On recent trips, I noticed again and again drivers who got into the middle lane and never left it, come congestion or high water.
I understand the appeal of that middle lane, avoiding the right lane, where slow vehicles and merging traffic can put a hitch in your get-a-long.
But one of the key principles of traffic on multiple-lane highways is that slower traffic moves to the right.
Yes, we all should obey the speed limits.
But more often than not, the Middle-Lane Moes I spotted were blocking the safe flow of traffic.
They had chance after chance to slip into an open right lane, allowing people intent on traveling faster to move by.
Regular readers will remember columns devoted to the legal requirement in Virginia for drivers in the left lane to give way to those who want to pass.
The same thing that makes that smart in the left lane applies to the middle.
I'm not condoning people who fly in any lane.
But it's in any safe driver's best interest to let faster traffic, and especially extreme speeders, get by.
To that end, an empty right lane should be a Middle-Lane Moe's best friend.
CRAZY MERGERS
There are places on interstates where there's not not much room for merging.
But that doesn't explain the handful of drivers you'll encounter on any trip who merge into traffic without seeming to look first.
That's the kindest take on that behavior.
Another, just as possible, is that these thoughtless folks just expect everyone to give way like they're highway royalty.
PULL-OFF PAULAS
No fewer than five times on one recent three-hour haul did I see vehicles pulling off on the shoulder--not even far off--to switch drivers or retie items on a car top.
Have these folks not heard, time and again, about people killed doing just that?
The problem, as police officers will often report, is that it's easy for road-tired drivers to mistake a car-filled shoulder as a new lane of traffic and then pull into it, slamming into the back of a stopped vehicle.
Let me know what you think of my categories of offenders, and any others you would add to the list.
Rob Hedelt: 540/374-5415
Email: rhedelt@freelancestar.com