Local cultural observation #2: Driving

Driving is always fun to observe.


1. My husband says "The traffic reporters on the news are stealing a paycheck" reporting 2 small accidents a day. It's true. They will spend 6 whole minutes discussing a 3 block back-up.


2. When you live in a city with true, real, actually bad traffic, no other traffic is bad. In Louisville, "bad traffic" means a drive that's usually 10 minutes with no other cars on the road may be 15 minutes and people are driving the speed limit. Wow, that's so bad. It's all relative (which you already knew), but we have to keep our comments on how "bad" the traffic is here to ourselves. We laugh inside at what locals think is bad traffic.


3. Passing is out, tailgating is in. That's right. All the cool drivers will ride your tail instead of changing to either of the 2 lanes. All the kids are doing it.


4. Park your car anywhere. For example, if there is an event downtown, it's easier for the cops to just let everyone leave 4 hours later, than to attempt to enforce parking rules. This means cars will not only park in parking spaces, but all the driving lanes in-between, are also acceptable for parking during the climax of a big event (see "there's plenty of time" observation coming later).

5. You can get most places in Louisville in 15 minutes, from anywhere. You can get EVERYWHERE in 30 minutes. This is amazing since you couldn't get anywhere in Chicago or Dallas in less than an hour.