I'll drive

I’ll drive a few miles per hour over the speed limit, but I have my limit. My limit is as fast as I can feel comfortable driving past a police car without hitting my brakes. Which makes for a strange commute to Aspen.

The road between Basalt and Aspen is busy. It’s busy all the way from Glenwood Springs and points west, to Aspen. The little fifties style house on the small lot across the street from the Physics Center in the West End just sold for 2.5 million dollars. They knocked the little house down and they’re building a spec house on the lot. It will sell for 7 million dollars. People that work in Aspen don’t live in Aspen. The road between Aspen and everywhere else is busy.

The old two lane highway has been expanded to four lanes. One lane in each direction is designated as a carpool lane during rush hours. The interesting thing about their carpool lanes is that they made the right lane the carpool lane, so single drivers like me are required to drive in the left lane. That results in me, driving four miles per hour over the speed limit, in the left lane, pulling a train of single-driver cars in a hurry. The hurried drivers behind me are forced to choose whether or not to break the carpool rules and pass me on the right so they can proceed comfortably above the speed limit again in the left lane. Most choose to go around.

I’m okay with puttering along at the speed limit in the right lane and having faster drivers pass me on the left. It’s hard to drive in the left lane, holding up traffic. It’s a strange commute to Aspen.