Life in the Fast Lane

It’s not just that the traffic in LA is bad. It’s not just that there are mattresses, rakes, nails, bags of clothes and lumber cast about the freeway lanes. It’s not just that so many people are bad, discourteous drivers who don’t use their turn signals. It’s not just that this city and the freeways have really poor signage that leads one in circles. It’s not just that the roads are pitted and cracked and uneven. It’s a whole host of reasons that make the driving experience demoralizing and dehumanizing and soul killing. But the bane of my Los Angeles driving experience, is drivers who either refuse to or don’t know that they are obligated to get out of the way when I come barreling down behind them in the fast lane.
People, the fast lane serves a singular purpose—to allow people to pass other cars going more slowly. That means, if you see a car fast approaching you, get outta the lane. It's not a lane in which you are allowed to park yourselves, oblivious to the fact that I need to get by. It doesn't mean you get to stay in there to pass "one more car."
If I am close enough behind to your car to see your thoughtless reflection in your rear-view mirror, then you are not going fast enought and you need to change lanes. By all means feel free to slip in behind me so we can continue the do-si-do. It does not mean that you get to sit there and "punish" me for going too fast. That's what I imagine a lot of people do...in that very unique American way of doing things.
I liken the slow-down in the fast lane to the unacknowledged class struggle in this country. As long as we are all zipping along in the same boat, or climbing up the ladder, it's all hunky-dory. But the minute I want to pass you, move ahead, get by, then no more "mr. nice guy." People just don't want to let others get ahead. It's as if the guy ahead of me wants to punish me for having a bit more pep in my step. It's that all-American, thumb your nose at the big guy. It's part of our psychological makeup to like to see people climb to the top only to pull them down. (Okay. Perhaps that is a bit of a stretch.)
Listen up LA driver and fast lane hoggers: Take a page from the Europeans. Go right and get the **** out of the way!
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