Driving made easy

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If you are not driver of third type, you will land up in trouble. But driving can become easier if you know few things about how the roads are numbered, named. Here are few tips that will help you.

1. There are many types of roads like interstate High ways, State Highways and county highways and other smaller streets.  Interstate Highways are also called Freeways , and as name suggests they don't have traffic lights and no other roads cross those highways. There are like one way - railway lines. Don't try to venture onto freeways, on your own. First be in a passenger seat and let your friend/colleague drive.

2.  All "even" numbered highways run from West to East and "odd" numbered highways run South - North.E.g I-90 ( interstate 90, even number) runs from Seattle(Pacific coast) to Boston ( Atlantic coast) and I-5 runs from Mexico Border to Canadian border along pacific coast.

3. On odd numbered highways( I-75), exit numbers increase from south to north. Similarly, on even numbered  highways(I-10), exit numbers increase from west to east.

4. Exit numbers let you know in which direction you are driving. e.g if you see exit number increase from 110 to 112, you are driving from south to north....

5. Also Exit numbers reset to one when highway enters a new state. e.g When I-95 crosses from Florida into Georgia, exit numbers start from one. (i.e I-95 starts in Miami exit number 1 and in Jacksonville it has exit number Apr 86, as soon as you cross over to Georgia, you will again see Exit 1).

6.Exit numbers are sometimes numbered serially ( e.g Florida) or in most other states they are actually number of miles from the start of highway. In such cases, distance between two exits is difference between those exit number , so distance between exit 177 and 154 is 23 miles. Also Exit 177 is 177 miles from the stare border.

7. The state and local highways follow almost similar conventions but they can change from state to state, city to city.

8. When you are driving within city, searching for Indian restaurant or grocery store, remember following conventions( they differ from city to city)

a. The roads are named as Streets( 42nd ST), Avenues ( 5th Ave), Boulevard (Bush Blvd). Mostly Streets and Avenues are perpendicular to each other. If you are want to go to 50th street from 42 street, you will have to travel on 5th Ave.....

b. The street numbers ( and avenue numbers) increase in a particular direction.
e.g in Tampa , Streets run south to north and 56th street is east of 22nd street.Too confusing, pick up a map, apply the above rules, things will be clearer.

c.The numbers within a street also increase in a particular direction( e.g, 2000 Bush Blvd will be north of 1267 Bush Blvd)

d.In some cities, addresses are very easy to locate. e.g 19703, 1st Ave N, will be near intersection of 1st Ave and 197th Street and in North part of town or it may also mean if you drive on 1st Ave, the restaurant you are trying to find will be in the block between 19700 and 19800.

There are penalties for speeding , for driving slow( obstruction of traffic), parking violations, driving without insurance, license. These are typically monitory penalties. Speeding fines  rise exponentially as speed increases e.g if you are driving 5 miles above the speed limit, your fine may be $50 , if 10 miles it may be $150 and 15 miles may be $300. Apart from the this one time fine, you will have a bad driving record and insurance premium will go up. Choice is clear, don't drive above the speed limit. For driving without license or insurance your car may be impounded ( seized).

America has very strict penalties for DUI- Driving Under Influence ( of alcohol). Never drink and drive. The blood alcohol level of 0.08% is the limit in most states and you can reach that in couple of drinks. Never drink even one drop and drive, its enough to land you in trouble. If caught ( alive)  you will wake up in jail ( or Intensive care unit) and may even face deportation.

Also driving in early morning hours( between 3AM and 5AM) is extremely dangerous. If you have not had enough sleep, eyes start closing while driving and you will end up in terrible accidents. If you feel sleepy, pull over or go to rest area and take a nap. All this advice of caution because a close friend of mine had such a sleepless night and drove a friend to airport and on the way back had accident ( in Jan 1999) and he is in coma since then ( its Mar 2000, now!!!). He was in hospital in US for 4 months and had to be taken to India ( as insurance companies refused to pay anymore). To take a coma patient to India, was not easy either, most airlines refused to carry him and finally one airline agreed on the condition that a certified nurse will travel with patient ...