{"id":39523,"date":"2014-07-24T00:28:11","date_gmt":"2014-07-24T04:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=39523"},"modified":"2020-07-13T00:28:21","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T04:28:21","slug":"virginia-is-the-worst-place-in-the-country-to-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=39523","title":{"rendered":"Virginia is the worst place in the country to drive"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Whatever a traffic sign estimates in Virginia, assume it to be double, for accuracy.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Typically, whenever I visit my old stomping grounds, I fly into whichever Northern Virginia airport has the most availability (usually DCA), and then I\u2019m at the mercy of whomever is willing to give me rides or let me borrow cars, in order to do my business or get from point A to B on my own volition.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the span of the last year or so, be it for a myriad of circumstances, I\u2019ve grown really weary over the notion of traveling in and out of the greater Washington D.C. area airports.\u00a0 Old convention doesn\u2019t seem to apply like it used to. \u00a0I honestly can\u2019t remember the last time I had a trip where I didn\u2019t get tragically locked in place in some leg of my trip.\u00a0 Demand to or from D.C. is unpredictable and completely without logic, and I\u2019ve had flights that looked open fill up at the drop of a hat due to weather, or some giant student group being unaccounted for until it was time to board the plane.<\/span><\/p>\n

Needless to say, I took an opportunity to try something new during my last visit up to Virginia, because in theory it seemed like a very good idea: fly into Richmond, pick up rental car, drive to NOVA, Charlottesville, NOVA, Richmond, and leave from Richmond.\u00a0 Richmond has direct flights to and from Atlanta, is a smaller airport with a smaller demand to and from Atlanta, and with a rental car, I wouldn\u2019t have to inconvenience anyone for rides, or take time away from them.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the end, it turned out to be a pretty good trip: I made it to Richmond in one try, and in spite of a car rental reservation snafu, I actually managed to come out slightly better with a daily rate.\u00a0 I saw my friend sing the National Anthem at one game, I collected bobbleheads with other friends and another game. My extended family was clearly too shell-shocked at my appearance at a family function to bother lecturing me, I spent some time with both my parents, as well as my sister and her kids, and I left from Richmond on my first try with no difficulty.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everything about my trip went pretty well; except for one thing:<\/span><\/p>\n

Having to drive in the Commonwealth of Virginia.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the worst place in the country to drive.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the past, I defended Virginia driving, because it\u2019s where I learned to drive, and my general upbringing in the Commonwealth made me a little defensive to those who thought to criticize them, regardless of their logic.<\/span><\/p>\n

But things have changed.\u00a0 I\u2019ve lived in Georgia for the last eleven years now, and it\u2019s beyond the point where I have the same attachment to Virginia as I once did.\u00a0 Furthermore, the Commonwealth has apparently decided to become the state with some of the highest and most severe penalties for any sort of automotive moving violation (read: speeding) in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m all for attempting to curb dangerous driving, reducing aggressive speeding as well as trying to make a little bit of revenue.\u00a0 But Virginia has apparently gone a little overboard with how zealous the entire state is about enforcing all things cars, and what\u2019s left is an entire state filled with drivers who are so scared to drive, in fear of penalization, that they themselves become risks on the roads, and more passively dangerous than those that would be considered aggressive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Basically, the Commonwealth of Virginia has become a prime example of what happens to an entire state when it\u2019s been whipped into a state of submission and fear of speeding tickets.<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for my driving nightmare to begin, because on my entire trip up I-95 between Richmond and NOVA was an endless trek of getting stuck behind some asshat cruising the approximate speed limit in the left lane, not moving out of the way when they had countless opportunities, resulting in everyone being forced to \u201cillegally\u201d pass them on the right, out of necessity, not aggression.\u00a0 And then the scenario would repeat itself time after time after time, until I finally got off the highway in Woodbridge, because I couldn\u2019t stand it anymore, and there was a Wawa that I wanted to go to.<\/span><\/p>\n

The thing was, every time I passed Driving Miss Daisy in the left lane, I noticed that every single time, they had Maryland plates.\u00a0 Naturally, the native Virginian in me chalks it up to Marylanders being Marylanders, which is to say completely inept, but I felt a little na\u00efve to believe that such issues were because of all the Maryland drivers trolling Virginia roads, because as my trip went on, it wasn\u2019t exclusive to just Maryland retards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Basically, what this entire gripe post boils down to is the fact that the Commonwealth of Virginia doesn\u2019t have left lane laws, and they desperately need them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sure, I had plenty of agitation from the legions of geriatrics and stereotypical slow Asian\/Indian drivers that clog up Northern Virginia streets, but when the day is over, it\u2019s all the left lane cruisers that made me feel kind of ragey.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t matter if I was on I-95 going north or south, or when I was going to and from Charlottesville on US-29, all these lengthy drives that I normally enjoy immersing myself in music and my own thoughts, were all ruined by legions of completely oblivious drivers chugging along in left lanes, oblivious to common road courtesies that aren\u2019t law in Virginia, but really should be, causing drivers like me to have remain vigil, and incapable of enjoying a relaxing drive.<\/span><\/p>\n

After four days of driving around asphalt hell in Virginia, I reached a tipping point.\u00a0 Slammed in I-95 traffic heading towards Richmond, caused by absolutely nothing other than people randomly slowing down to the speed limit in every single lane, causing massive backup avalanches behind them, I finally decided that I was through defending the roads of Virginia from those who claim it to be an unkosher place to drive.\u00a0 The roads are not the same Virginia where I got my driving chops on, and are instead streets paved with eggshells that everyone is afraid of, and alters their behavior for, regardless of the fact that by being overly cautious, they\u2019re often times creating more dangerous scenarios for their fellow drivers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout all the traveling I\u2019ve done, especially on my baseball travels, I can say that I\u2019ve driven around a lot of places now.\u00a0 When it comes to a singular city, I can still say that Miami is probably the worst city in America to drive a car around in, but overall, the state of Florida isn\u2019t the worst; at least people will get out of the left lane to do their cruising.\u00a0 No, the dubious distinction of worst state to drive in, most definitely belongs to the Commonwealth of Virginia.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how my friends that live up there do it.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Typically, whenever I visit my old stomping grounds, I fly into whichever Northern Virginia airport has the most availability (usually DCA), and then I\u2019m at the mercy of whomever is willing to give me rides or let me borrow cars, in order to do my business or get from point A to B on my … Continue reading Virginia is the worst place in the country to drive<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51,173,45,71,83,15,105,10,27,49],"class_list":["post-39523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-cars","tag-driving","tag-fail","tag-famiry","tag-observations","tag-og","tag-rage","tag-traffic","tag-virginia","tag-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39525,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39523\/revisions\/39525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}