Deve’s Blog

My first freeway adventure yesterday, Milan-Bologna and back, to go hoard on tortellini and chocolate (Fiat Majani forever).

No one was severely wounded.

Impressions:

- Fog in the Val Padana: cars without fog lights could as well turn off the standard lights, they were invisible. Crazy. And I was going around 100 km/h, which seemed already quite fast considering the visibility, but I got systematically overtaken from all sides.
- Limits: by respecting the speed limits I was overtaken on the right by a Doblò truck and on the left by a Fiat 500.

After all, if for example I got radared at 141 km/h I would be 41 km/h over my limit (100 on freeways for the first three years after getting the driving license, rather than 130). That’s -20 points on the license, and it gets suspended… so I just briefly passed the limits to overtake quickly and safely.
And by the way, while on the leftmost lane a BMW even flashed their headlights at me, and after passing me sped away at probably 180 or so.
- Cruise control: very useful, but use with caution. In the foggy part I drove “manually”, and I was getting a backache because while the left foot was laying on a side, the right one was pressing on the gas, so I was unbalanced. Later on I could activate the cruise control and pull the right foot away: much more comfortable. And by the way it doesn’t disable when you accelerate, so it was pretty useful when I had to overtake; as soon as I was done I could just let the gas go and the car would go back to the set limit. If you break, instead, the cruise control is disabled. Obvioulsy you have to be extra careful when it’s on, ’cause you don’t have your foot ready to react to break or accelerate in case of need.

- “Lane of the shame”: sorry, despite everything they told me at driving school about “driving on the rightmost free lane”, I think it’s nonsense both in the city and on a freeway.
While in the city, on any kind of avenue, the right lane is full of parked cars, cars waiting, taxis dropping off people… and more. Just stick to the central lane until you have to turn somewhere.
On freeways, keeping to the right would mean zigzagging to overtake trucks and slow vehicles, being careful at every exit ’cause the guy in front of you might slow down to exit, being careful at every acceleration lane ’cause there’s people coming in. No thanks. Centeral lane on 3 lanes, one of the two central ones on 4 lanes.
- 3000 diesel: just touch the gas and it takes off. Very cool going back on the freeway after stopping at a service station. 40 km/h on the lane, than hit the pedal and it accelerates in a moment. On the other hand when you leave the freeway you risk to forget it, you get to 50 really quickly.
- Driving by night: ok, it was 5 pm, but it was already dark. All good. The anti-dazzling rear-view mirrors are cool, they go greenish-like if there are strong lights. But I find it impossible to read signs before I’m only half a meter away. I would have certainly missed the exit hadn’t my father been there, as he basically knows the Milano-Bologna by heart.
- Going straight: maybe I suck, but I never managed to keep going straight in the middle of the lane… I oscillated from side to side (with a long period, though). Maybe it’s the small bumps on the asphalt, or the fact that some times you think you’re on a straight but it’s actually a very light and long curve. Mah.

In conclusion, I feel better on a freeway than off it; with the exception of a happy truck, who had the brilliant idea of turning on the turn indicator and moving towards me without looking just as I was passing it, I didn’t have any kind of problems. Instead as soon as I got in Milan, still on the exit ramp of the freeway (which has a 40 km/h limit as it’s all curves and you really can’t see anything in front of you), I was going 50 and I got several flashes by an asshole, who overtook me as soon as possible (on continuous line), rushing in the midst of other cars… And down the big avenues leading to/from the freeway, where you can see several “50 km/h” speed limit signs, you can’t really drive at 50 km/h… it seems like you’re not moving ’cause everyone’s passing you at at least 100 km/h… crazy…
And finally, heading back home, a guy who was parked on the right side was trying to get on the road as I was passing. Usually when you do that you just turn on your turn indicator, point the nose of your car to the street, move slightly so you can see the street and just wait until the way is clear. He had total visibility, it was not like if he was coming in from a side road. Instead he began coming forward. I keep going on move to the left a bit. And he keeps coming, and I move a bit more, so I could pass him. Then I have to slow down because the cars in front of me (and beyond him) where slowing down. So he thought I was letting him pass, says thanks and dives in, so I had to break hard and honk. Thanks my dick.