OK Californians (and all you California transplants in Nevada), here is something you need to know about driving: The left lanes on a highway are the passing lanes.
Faster cars to the left, slower cars to the right. Got it?
Upon returning after a Christmas visit to friends in the Bay Area, I had the not-so-pleasurable experience of driving on a six-lane interstate going 20 miles an hour from Oakland to Rocklin, with only occasionally being able to hit bursts of speed of up to 40 mph.
California has a lot of traffic, it's true, but so does Pennsylvania, where I come from, and so do New York, Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C., where I have traveled.
Yet only in California have I seen traffic actually stop on a six- or eight-lane interstate where no accidents or other barriers could impede movement. Even rush hour in DC allows you to travel at least 60 mph on the Beltway.
Why? Because back East people understand that you don't drive slowly in the left lane(s). In many places, you can get pulled over and cited for holding up traffic if you do that.
It is unavoidable that vehicles coming from on-ramps and merging into traffic slows the traffic in the right lane of an interstate. Those drivers should move to the lane immediately left as soon as possible.
But to keep moving to the far left lanes, and then still driving as slowly as you did in the right lane, slows everyone down.
I don't know how many times I passed vehicles to my left who were allowing 10 to 15 car lengths in front of them. They were driving 20 mph with a ton of room in front of them, talking on the phone, eating or whatever, totally ignoring the traffic jam they were creating.
If the slowpokes would stay in the center or right lanes, the traffic in the far left lanes would be able to move.
This isn't the first time I experienced the left-lane-as-the-slow-lane California phenomenon. During a sentence I served working for a paper in San Bernardino for a year, I found the same thing. People got onto the interstate, moved to the left lane and then slowed down.
So folks, next time you get on an interstate and feel like going 20 mph, stay in the right lane.
•••
On another subject, Carolyn and Chris Eichin, who have painstakingly restored a shell of an 1870s home on B Street in Virginia City and turned it into a showpiece bed and breakfast, have received their certification for the home's preservation.
The B&B, called the B Street House, is certified by the National Park Service in light of the Eichin's adhering to Department of the Interior guidelines for historic preservation.
The house will be featured in a Park Service e-mail newsletter in the future.
• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 881-7351.
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