I am.
>280, especially the stretch between Millbrae and Palo Alto,
>is glorious. On the other hand, 101 for the same stretch
>is pretty miserable. Even driving North into SF from
>San Bruno on 280, the left lane usually moves at 70mph.
Trust me, I do take 280 whenever possible, but as I live on the east side
of 101 I have a hard time justifying heading down 92 just to get to 280.
That's another thing that I never understood. The discrepency between 280
and 101. It makes no sense to me. However, it's not just 101 where the
slowness problem exists. The major road near my house is a 40 mph road,
but on an average day I will almost always get stuck behind someone doing
25 - 35. I learned to drive in NY where the rule is pretty much go as fast
as you can, because there's going to be traffic up ahead anyway.
What surprises me about all this as well, is that in NY you see a hell of a
lot more people pulled over for speeding then you do here. I would think
that would lead to more speeding here, and less there.
And, now that you've gotten me started, it's not just the speed, but the
pure stupidity of the drivers here. They don't look at what's ahead or
behind them to figure out what the hell is likely to happen if they speed
up/slow down/change lanes. It's like their own little world. In NY
everyone claims the drivers are bad, but the fact is that they're crazy
bad. They drive fast and they cut you off and whatnot, but they know
what's going on around them. If someone cuts you off in NY it's because
they know (or think) they have that 0.5 inches of space to cut you off in.
In CA, it's because they don't bother to even look.
I once asked a native Californian why the drivers are so bad, and he
explained to me, "You have to realize that at any particular time, chances
are 50% of drivers on the road here are stoned."
Comforting.
-Mike