Collegiate Times

A word of advice to all you fellow students out there: do not pick the morning your classes start to drive I-81 south back to Blacksburg, it will only irritate you.

I?m from Roanoke, so the commute from Roanoke back to school in Blacksburg isn?t all that complicated. However, I have come to a few conclusions about driving in the dear old state of Virginia. The most vague of which, people in Virginia cannot drive.

This is not to insult all drivers in Virginia, obviously I haven?t seen everyone licensed to drive in the state attempt to do so. Furthermore, just because someone is driving in the state of Virginia doesn?t mean Virginia drivers are bad. It could just mean people from out of state don?t pay attention to the laws.

Consider that last statement. How many times have you taken a road trip out of state and been unaware of safety belt laws in whatever state you ended up in? Virginia can be tricky, I suppose. After all, in the northern part of the state ?High Occupancy Vehicle? lanes exist, and aren?t we all grateful for those? Also in Virginia, specifically pertinent to those of us that drive I-81 south from Salem to Blacksburg, we have a special stretch of road known as a ?Highway Safety Corridor.? This was introduced to hopefully diminish the amount of traffic accidents in this area of Virginia, as this stretch of the interstate is heavily trafficked and has seen its share of accidental nightmares.

Finally, throughout major highways and interstates in Virginia many times there are signs suggesting slower traffic stay in the right-hand lane. This applies most notably to tractor-trailers, as their ability to maintain speed diminishes during uphill travel. In some locations, Virginia has gone so far as to make a special lane for trucks of this size. In fact, one such lane exists in the commute from Roanoke to Blacksburg, around the area that the Highway Safety Corridor ends.

I?m not sure how many of you have had the lovely experience of traveling down an interstate full of tractor trailers, but without stretching my limits too far, I will assume most of you have; considering this is a college campus and not all of you have lived in Blacksburg your entire life and never made a trip past Christiansburg. Following along with that assumption, it seems quite acceptable to believe that most of you have at one point or another been irritated by traffic, roadwork, giant trucks, or something of the sort.

We all have to appreciate the work that the drivers of tractor-trailers do; however, sometimes I find it difficult to appreciate their sense of driving skills. I am aware that I shouldn?t criticize someone for doing something I could never do, but at the same time, I simply find it at least decently okay to criticize something that endangers my safety, as well as the safety of every other driver on I-81 or any other interstate for that matter.

Now, I could ridiculously go overboard and suggest all sorts of things the drivers of 18-wheelers should have to do but instead I have but one suggestion. Obey the law.

Most drivers I have seen that hold commercial drivers licenses and are legally allowed to operate a vehicle of that size follow the laws. However, all too often, ignorance of the law is allowed to be an excuse. The simple and plain truth is sometimes these drivers do not follow the laws that are specifically posted on road signs. Tractor-trailers operating in the left lane of traffic through areas with ?truck lanes? impede traffic and endanger the safety of those of us who drive smaller vehicles on the interstate. I certainly don?t think these drivers purposely try to offend other drivers like myself by doing such a thing. I think it is simply an ignorance of the law that causes the problem.

Thus, I suggest that all people who obtain a commercial drivers license be advised of specific laws, such as these that apply directly to them, and be made aware of the fact that an ignorance of such laws will not be made available as an excuse just because a driver is not from the state he or she is operating the vehicle in. Something such as that seems like it would be common sense, a law may even already exist, but if it does, drivers aren?t paying attention to it and nothing is being done to make sure they do.