Hampton Road Drivers...

If not for having seen the occasional car pulled over by police, I would think that this area doesn’t even have traffic laws. I mean, I’ve been to places where drivers were bad, but seriously, this place is a free for all! This is not just your every day aggressive driving... I'm from Southern California... I know aggressive driving... This is flat out reckless driving! And when I say we have reckless drivers, I don't mean they're "bad" like they are in the rest of the country. People may say California drivers are lousy because they'll flip you off or cut you off, but at least they know how to drive. Hampton Roads drivers simply do not understand the fundamental concepts of how to drive. They don't understand simple rules of the road. They can't merge. They don't pay attention. They think red lights are suggestions and not requirements. They slow to a crawl at any curve, bridge, tunnel, intersection, puddle, flashy lights, loud noise, or for no reason at all.

The folks out here seem to confuse surface streets with the freeways. Folks insist on driving like an INDY car racer down the 45 MPH surface streets and when I drive the speed limit, I have to deal with constant aggression from tail-gating. Then when people get on the 65MPH freeways, they forget that they're no longer on surface streets. The folks out here need to learn to merge into traffic without slowing anyone down. This means learning to use the accelerator and not the brake when getting on the freeway. Don't impede traffic. If the speed limit's 65, then drive 65... Not 55 or 45. If you are physically incapable of driving the speed limit then get in "the show lane" that would be the right lane for all you folks who didn't know. If you wanna drive 100 MPH then get in "the fast lane" (the left lane) and stay there. Don't go swerving around me in the middle of the freeway... Just because you wanna kill yourself and whoever else is in your car doesn't mean I wanna die too. Additionally, if you're on the freeway and see a car fastly approaching behind you, be curdious and move into the right lane to let them pass. Then you can move back into your original lane.

On top of that, I'm sure if you live in the grater Hampton Roads area you've seen this move. My husband likes to call it "the Norfolk special". It's where someone will be in the far right turn name driving down a busy 4 lane rode at 50 MPH in the right turn lane and swipes across the entire road to get in the left turn lane in a matter of seconds. (I've seen this about 5 times in the past 6 months). Also, blatantly blocking intersections. Parking in the middle of streets... And i'm not talking about residential streets. Pulling into the right lane of a 2 or 3 lane MAJOR road and just turing on your hazards and parking there. And the thing that really gets on my nerves. NOBODY every pulls over for Firetrucks, Cops or Ambiences!

Adding to the haphazardness driving, most drivers here don’t even seem to know that they have a turn signal. Occasionally someone will discover the lever on the side of their steering column. “What’s this thing do?” They flip the lever. Their right signal comes on. They turn left. Not signaling at all is bad enough. Signaling the wrong way is just crazy! THEN when you try to be the responsible driver and use yours... Well it's almost if the other drivers are taking it personally, they speed up as to not let you have that spot 30 feet in front of them. OR if someone behind sees you put on your turn signal, they know someone slow must be in front of you, so they erratically jet out from behind so they can get in front of you before you can change lanes.

Ok, I'm done with the rant against the idiot drivers around here. I will grant them one concession though, the state of transportation around here is not entirely their fault. The pothole ridden freeways that don't have enough lanes. On-ramps that get you onto the freeway just as folks are merging into an off-ramp to get off. On-ramps with stop signs and no acceleration lane. Potholes that can swallow trucks. And the tunnels... Oh the tunnels... I'd really like to meet the Kindegardner who decided to design the entrance to the downtown tunnel so that four lanes immediately bottleneck to two mere feet from the opening of the tube.

Here follows a brief list of other geographic oddities of the place I reluctantly call home:

• The first problem that comes to mind is that no one really knows where they are around here. This area is simultaneously known as Tidewater, Hampton Roads, Greater Hampton Roads, and the Norfolk Metropolitan Area. Tidewater does not really apply since that refers to regions affected by the tidal flow stretching all the way to Richmond. Hampton Roads is supposedly a cool nautical term, but only people in Hampton think so, and no one knows what a "Road" really is. The only people who know what Greater Hampton Roads means is the Chamber of Commerce, and they aren't telling. And there's nothing metropolitan about Norfolk.
• Furthermore, Hampton Roads is made up of seven very disparate cities (Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Hampton, and Newport News), none of whom really like each other. And I call them "cities" only because of some really stupid clause in the Virginia constitution that differentiates cities and counties. The only city around here is Norfolk. Virginia Beach is not a city, regardless of what they would have you believe. Ask for direction to downtown Virginia Beach, and more than likely you'll be sent to Norfolk.
• The roads are just ridiculous! They're poorly marked, I have no idea what I'd do without my GPS. And the few streets that are labeled, the roads change names! You'll be driving down a road and all of a sudden it's called something else! Then, it's called the original name again! (Princess Anne Road, anyone? And that's just ONE example out of many!! I'm not sure what's going to happen with Nimmo Pkwy! GEEZ!)
• God forbid you don't have a GPS and can't seen to find the tiny misplaced street signs... Whoever named these streets/areas had no common since. Hampton Blvd is in Norfolk. Chesapeake Blvd is in Norfolk. There is no Norfolk Blvd. There is a Norfolk Ave. It's in Virginia Beach. Northampton Blvd is southeast of Hampton. "N.Hampton Blvd" is a completely different road. Hampton Roads Center Parkway is in the far northwestern corner of the area. Shore Drive, Atlantic Ave, General Booth Blvd, North Landing Road, and Mt. Pleasant Road are all the same road. The Great Bridge area has a tiny bridge over a canal narrow enough to spit across. Ocean View has no view of the Ocean. Chesapeake Beach is not in Chesapeake. Deep Creek sits next to a section of the intracoastal waterway that no uses anymore because it's too shallow. Hilltop sits roughly 5 feet above sea level. The tallest hill around here is a big pile of garbage. Norfolk Naval Shipyard is in Portsmouth. And in a region with at least a dozen separate military installations, the major thoroughfare known as Military Highway goes past none of them!
• On top of that, the roads are in such poor condition,which makes no since to me. The potholes could swallow trucks, and then when they finally do get around to repairing them, they just patch them up. And don't even flatten them out... Driving down the free way, it's like hitting speed bump after speed bump. We get taxed up the wazzoo, and all I wanna know is where is that money going? Certainly not into the roads.