South Carolina is the only place I've ever been where a minumum highway speed sign actually seemed to make sense. The lurching slow scary drivers on the road doing just barely 45 miles an hour driving rust buckets all seem to be either really old or really drunk or both. Contrast these people with the other drivers on the road, who think 80 is an acceptable cruising speed for the SUV and are damned unlikely to give you the right of way even when you're entitled to it and you've got a peculiar and dangerous mix. Actually to be fair, some of the hyper aggressive drivers are driving rust buckets, too. It's not all SUVs. Gack.
And of course my rental is an underpowered Ford Escort. It's funny. I'm used to DC driving, which I think of as being preparation for anything short of Boston. In fact, I've driven in Boston -- and I feel safer there. It's these really slow drivers that scare the bejesus out of me because they're completely unpredictable. Will they wander into your lane? Will they just STOP in the middle of the highway?
I think the other thing I find disturbing is that if you look at the cars and their inhabitants -- pokey or aggressive -- a LOT of them show signs of screaming poverty. There's a decent sized class of people who are haves in this town. You see the volvos, the SUVs, the beamers. But they no way no how outnumber the poor. The odds are 50/50 at best.
Anyhow, chalk this up to yet another of the world's ills I can do nothing about. At this point I just want to escape with my life and my rental car intact.
Posted by karen at June 26, 2002 12:00 AM