Day 2, By The Book

This driving by the book thing has been quite a learning experience already. Today doing 35 in a 35 I was honked at, cursed at, passed on the right when someone decided to squeeze through where there wasn't a lane, and also passed on the left when someone else decided the double yellow line didn't mean that much. When I was in the few sections of 25 mph I got lucky in that no one was behind me, but still trying to do the absolute speed limit in a 25 has it's challenges. Simply driving that slowly feels almost impossible in the real world. You have to consciously make the effort, and the cruise control on my vehicle certainly doesn't operate at that slow of a speed.

I had another crosswalk incident today as well. Complying with the very law that started me on this whole social experiment drew the wrath of another motorist behind me, who couldn't for the life of him understand why someone who was waiting to make a right turn when the pedestrian was already past them and walking away from them in the crosswalk wouldn't just go already. Keep in mind the onerous crosswalk law in effect for two years now in NJ says you aren't allowed to move at all until that pedestrian is completely, totally out of the crosswalk. Again today, compliance was met with first an angry waving of arms followed a few seconds late by the classic prolonged laying on of the horn.  And the day's not even over. I've been keeping notes so on Friday check back in for a finally tally of how many horn blows, angry words, tailgatings, flashings of lights and other acts of rage obeying all New Jersey traffic laws will really get you.