Thursday, November 24, 2011

The Speed Map

The speed of traffic and the dynamic feel differs across the States. As you move outward from the center of the country, traffic speeds up in the cities. Traffic is faster in Nashville than in Memphis, and as you move east from Tennessee into North Carolina or from Ohio into Pennsylvania, you are precipitated into the great frenetic Brownian motion of The East. It’s a peculiar business, but speed is a different matter in the I-95 corridor of the eastern states from the speed on Los Angeles freeways or on any roads in the wide-open spaces of the southwest.

In the west drivers change lanes purposefully: they want to exit or they enter the express lane to move ahead. In the east the pace is as fast but without order. The concept of an express or passing lane seems unknown, and it is all futile speed and lane-changing, chaotic motion.

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