• gerbilOFdoom@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    Sounds like you’re not familiar with driving in the US. Passing along the shoulder is both illegal and incredibly dangerous. These long roads without passing lanes, often with frequent curves making a safe line of sight for passing impossible, create a situation in which courtesy is suggested: if traffic builds up behind while you travel drastically below the nominal speed of traffic with no opportunity to pass coming up, pull over to let them pass.

    Unfortunately, the middle of nowhere exists and that’s where people tend to vacation when they want to exist outside of a concrete jungle. The middle of nowhere also lacks funding for significant road infrastructure; that will not change and changing it would be so inordinately expensive that doing so would be foolish. The answer here is simple courtesy as a driver.

    Also, emergency vehicles aren’t going to be stuck behind am RV - they obligate everyone to pull over by law. The issue is that emergency vehicles do not exist in these areas. None. No help available. No funding, no people to do the job. The US is vast and significant portions of land exist with barely any residents.

    You can also be sure that hospitals are at least an hour’s drive away in these locations where no opportunity to pass exists. There’s no way around it: someone impeding the flow of traffic significantly without allowing faster traffic to pass is dangerous, both because of emergencies and the inevitable human tendency to pass in risky situations due to frustration.