Re: Tidbits of driving

On 6/7/2012 10:16 PM, Ron wrote:

One nice thing about Texas is many of the two lane highways have
wide shoulders so when someone gets behind you you simply maintain
your speed and pull onto the shoulder and let them pass.

+++++++++++++++++++++ A very good way to pickup crap in your tires
and ruin them. Besides you may get a ticket. I have never seen a sign
in TX that says slower vehicles should feel free to drive on the
shoulder, but I have seen signs telling you not to drive on the
shoulder. In TX you will see many people pull over on the shoulder to
let people get by, but we have a number of TX friends who have told
us not to drive on the shoulder! Ron ++++++++++++++++++++
You made me look up the legality...


The Texas shoulder pullover is one of the quirkier aspects of driving
in Texas, inspired by equal parts politeness and necessity living in
a massive state crisscrossed by narrow roads.

"You don't see it in a lot of other states," said Mark Marek,
director of the Texas Department of Transportation's roadway design
division.

It works like this: You're driving on a two-lane state highway or
farm-to-market road and suddenly the person in front of you eases to
the right and continues to meander down the shoulder. They're waiting
for you to pass.

"Because it's a nice thing to do," explained Tela Mange, spokeswoman
for Texas Department of Public Safety. "People are very considerate
for the most part when you get to the country."

Well, that and the fact that the shoulder-driving motorists can sense
you're in more of a hurry and would rather not have you riding their
tails.

Is the shoulder pullover legal? Perfectly so, Mange said.

According to the Texas Transportation Code, a motorist may drive on
an improved shoulder to the right if they can do it safely and
quickly return to the road after the motorist behind them passes by.

Motorists should pull over only if they can see they are not about to
come up on an obstacle. A driver must slow down when moving to the
shoulder and accelerate before entering the highway again.

The passing motorist also has a duty not mentioned in the
transportation code.

"Wave," instructs Mange. "It's always appropriate when somebody does
something nice, they let you into traffic or they move so you can go
around them, it's always appropriate to wave, to say, 'Thank you.' "

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Tex-Arcana-Why-do-Texans-move-to-shoulder-to-let-1653057.php

Hunter
.

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