I must say I'm disappointed

with the mostly favorable reaction to last week's column, "Stop road

rage: Move to the right."

Why disappointed that so few

disagreed with the proposition that far too many drivers are clogging

up the left passing lanes? This while meandering along under the speed

limit but abreast of right-lane vehicles in a kind of rolling roadblock?

Why? Well, because most left-lane

laggards must not have seen my road rage confession last week, just as

they never seem to see the line of backed-up traffic suffering behind

them. Or they just ignored my ravings, just as they ignore all the horn-honking,

light-blinking drivers trapped behind their leftie ways. Either way, all

my entreaties to just please move over (if only momentarily!) to let faster

drivers pass are lost on those who most need to hear and heed them.

I did hear from two staffers

here at the paper. One gave me the Bronx cheer and bragged that she routinely

blocks the road from the left lane. Ha, ha, so there, she said. The other,

my wife, notified me that it would take more than a deputized bulldozer

blade to move her out of the passing lane, and, by the way, where was

I sleeping tonight? Maybe there are some camping accommodations along

the right side of the road, she suggested helpfully.

But, at the risk of great personal

peril, I persevere.

This week I solicit your input,

your votes on two other vexing issues of suburban life: Stupidly-timed

or poorly-placed traffic lights and dumb-or-dumber speed limits.

My vote for the worst traffic

light situation in Fayette: That daunting gauntlet of four traffic-fouling

lights within a half mile stretch of Ga. Highway 54 on the eastern side

of Peachtree City, beginning at the Publix shopping center entrance and

ending with the hilltop light at Robinson Road.

Two on-demand red lights for

one little shopping center? Even the Pavilion has only two, and it can

claim to be somewhat larger, by about a factor of 10.

(And by the way, whatever happened

to the goal of synchronizing traffic lights in Peachtree City? If ever

a set of lights needed better timing, it's those four.)

What's your personal favorite?

Send your nominations to [email protected]. We'll publish some

and contact whoever's in charge of these things to try to get some answers.

And stupid speed limits? Don't

get me started. How about 35 mph on the Brooks connector? Even the abundant

cows along the rural way must be astonished at such empty-headed bureaucratism.

There's another 35 mph limit coming across the Flint River on the Hampton-Woolsey

Road. And 35 on Hood Avenue, which is much less populated than the 45-mph

Gingercake Road, which it intersects. But down in the bowels of speed

limit bureaucracy, common sense doesn't penetrate very far.

Sometimes I think that bureaucracy,

and maybe some prosecutors, really desire for the top speed limit in the

whole county to be 25 mph. Things really would be safer that way, if they

could find anybody to obey such stupid limits.

The serious thing is that unreasonable

speed limits and unenforced "keep right unless passing" laws

combine to make scofflaws of us all. And in a supposedly civilized society,

that's not a good development.

Inside this section are some

letters about this great drive-rightward crusade, most of them lining

up for the hard right. I note that left-lane-laggardism seems to be an

equal-opportunity offender, since I have seen black, and white, and brown,

and male, and female, and other, and four-door sedans and four-wheel-drive

muscle trucks and service vans and moving vans and the whole gamut all

dedicated to keeping the left lanes thoroughly choked.

Many have cell phones attached

to their ears while blocking a dozen-car line behind them, but a few just

steer doggedly onward, both hands grimly gripping the wheel, intent on

slowing the traffic behind them to their preferred speed, almost always

well below the limit.

One left-laner put it this

way in an e-mail: "I pay taxes to ride on either side of the road.

If they don't like it, don't drive! People like in the article are always

in a hurry and most of the time they will stop at a store just after they

pass you."

Oh, my. Will it ever change?

One reader e-mailed his frustration from his new home.

"I used to say that if

you looked up the definition of the word 'Fayette' in the dictionary,

you would find it means, "French: OK to drive in the left lane very,

very slowly.' I have moved to Virginia. They have just passed a law here

targeting aggressive drivers who follow too close. Lefty Louies everywhere.

Tim."

Tim, buddy, I couldn't agree

more. But I'm going to shut up now. I want to sleep on the left side of

my bed tonight, not in a right lane.