~Come to Zion, come to Zion
And with in her walls rejoice~
It turns out that getting to Zion (National Park) is harder than you'd think. It's 20 miles from La Verkin to the park entrance, but park visitors are doing everything in their power to make sure it's the slowest 20 miles possible. The speed limit is 65mph through much of it, but on our trip out there yesterday, we were stuck behind a van (from North Dakota. I'm keeping my eye on you, North Dakota) going 45. The road is one lane each way, so you have to wait for a spot before you can pass. A few miles down the road we found someone going 55. Passed them, too. Then, a motor home pulled out in front of us. And proceeded to to 40. Again, we had to bide our time behind him for a mile or two before we could get around. And this happens every time we go. There is always some driver who is going significantly below the speed limit. I'm not asking people to speed. I'm not asking people to make way for me, because I want to speed. But I'd be happy if we could just keep it reasonably close to the speed limit, not 20 or 25 below.
~Come to Zion, Come to Zion,
Ere his floods of anger flow.~
On a slightly related note, there is a car commercial out there which repeats about 20 times how their cars are great because they get to many "MPGs". And they say it just like that: "Em Pee Gee's". That's a lot of Em Pee Gee's! I have no problem with the acronym when written, but it shouldn't be said. Besides, saying "Miles per gallon" is only one syllable longer. I don't know what car company it is, but if I did, rest assured that I wouldn't buy any of their amazing em pee gee cars.
5 comments:
I'll be honest, I don't know why you would want to go to Zion's anyway. All that ugly red rock for miles and miles...
honestly, you do realize that the posted speed limit is the maximum, right? I mean, people are legally allowed to go less than the maximum, right? That's why it's called the "speed limit", not the "only speed you can go".
Yes, I realize that. But by that logic, it's ok to get on the road and creep along at 30 feet per hour. There must be a reasonable expectation that drivers move at a speed appropriate for the road. I assert that this appropriate speed for the road is within, say, ten miles per hour of the speed limit.
Doesn't Utah have a minimum speed law of within 20 miles of the speed limit?
Even if not, almost every state has a detaining traffic law which says that if you're delaying more than x vehicles, you must pull off the road. In Idaho x = 3; in WA x = 5. Don't know about Utah.
I like my car because it gets so many ems pee gee. I'm driving a lot of ems next week, and it will be nice to use fewer gees than if I were driving, say, a big brown Dodge van or the space shuttle or a Hummer or something. Hay Honda!
And, since I've been googling up laws at work today, I can also tell you that "A person may not operate a motor vehicle at a speed so slow as to impede or block the normal and reasonable movement of traffic. '41-6-49(1)" [in Utah] And the Utah Driver's Handbook says that "traffic officers are allowed to issue tickets if you are interrupting the normal flow of traffic."
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