I live in Connecticut, so naturally I try to avoid the highways as much as possible. I’m sure most highways are frustrating these days with so many cars on the road, but here… ugh… My main problem is that I am a casual cruise control driver. That just doesn’t work around here. So many people weaving in and out, speeding up and slowing down, and just not paying attention. Cruise control should help a person relax, but it is just the opposite here.

There is always that one person you can’t shake. The one who has to get in front of you, and then slows down. You make the effort to get around them and once you settle back into your groove, they pass you and slow down again. Some people are crazy enough to do that on purpose, but I am sure that with most it is a simple issue of the driver getting on and off their phone. It is a shame, because with modern technology cruise control is a real treat and saves a ton in fuel consumption. Thus, I believe that our highways need to adapt.

If I were King, on a three lane highway where the speed limit was sixty-five, I would make the far left lane, currently the passing lane (here in the States), into the cruising lane. If the general speed limit were sixty-five, I would allow people to go between seventy and seventy-five in cruise control and encourage them to stay in that lane. The other two lanes would be limited to sixty-five and work as usual except that the center lane would then be the emergency lane. So, when a police car, or fire truck comes along with their sirens on, people would evacuate the center lane either way, left or right. That is better than trying to get everyone to go right as it gives people more options to move. Twice the options, actually. One hundred percent better.

Of course, the hard place in this equation is the fact that speed cameras would be used in force to make the system function properly. (Even ticketing people going slower than seventy in the cruising lane.) But this is happening anyway so I don’t feel bad about saying it is needed.

Certainly, there would be the people who hate this idea because they travel faster than seventy-five in a sixty-five. Screw them. It is impossible to make everyone happy, and when it comes to highway travel efficiency and safety, those are the right people to piss off.