THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 2, 1994 TAG: 9407020003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A13 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: George Hebert
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
You're driving along the interstate or some other thruway, already tense from hazardous traffic conditions which seem almost routine these days - vision-blocking semis, manic motorists generally, for a couple of mentions. Suddenly you see orange-barrel trouble looming as you top a hill or round a curve. You begin passing notices about a speed reduction just ahead.
Then comes the specific directive: The limit for the upcoming road-construction segment is 45 mph (or thereabouts) instead of the regular 55 or 65. This generally heralds a reduction in lanes.
So, if you react sensibly to road rules and risks, you slack off, only to find you're not only a minority but apparently a stumbling block to almost every following driver. This seems to be true not only here but in a lot of other places around the country as well.
Those nearby motorists who don't give it the gas (to beat you into the barrel-squeezed chute) pile up right behind you, in your 45 mph mode: tailgaters and aggressors unlimited. If, in the slow-down stretch, there is nothing right behind you at first, there soon will be, with angry faces and gestures framed in your rear-view mirror. You'll be lucky if No. 1 in the roaring-up parade isn't a brute of a big rig seemingly intent on driving right on over you and your 45 mph.
The drivers ahead, in all likelihood, will have breezed on, unconcerned, to some point practically out of sight. You're left puttering along with a mocking ribbon of empty lane in front of you, your conscience legally clear put your rear bumper in imminent, continuing peril.
True enough, contempt for speed rules and for the unfortunate wretches who try to obey them is pretty general on our highways anyhow. But at least in normal, unobstructed situations, there are usually enough lanes for the law-abiding to escape the brunt of the lunatics' frenzy.
In the case of the work zones, with their temporary emergency restrictions in such tight quarters, this is not the way of it. And the feeling of helplessness for non-speeders is made all the greater when they so rarely see any offenders pulled over - despite the tough talk in the signs.
And that talk can be very tough indeed, as in the outsize dimensions of the posted limits and in the proclamation of special penalties. There were, for instance, those dire admonitions put up for some recent work along the expressway between Norfolk and Virginia Beach - threats of fines up to $250 for violation of the work-zone constraints.
Are these threats serious? Well, I and some others take them that way. But in my experience we are vastly outnumbered.
For all the compliance I've seen, such warnings might as well be back in the highway people's storehouse. MEMO: Mr. Hebert is a former editor of The Ledger-Star.
by CNB