The I-84 in Portland was built as the Banfield Freeway, a horrid road on the east side of town, whose pointless twists and turns are traced along every property without political power at the time. Lanes are too narrow. Exits are too slow. One was terrifying. Is that 15 mph uphill turn still there? I'm too concerned about the other drivers on that road to notice.
Drivers exceed the speed limit in packs at any hour of the day. The "freeway" begins at an I-5 interchange and heads across the east side, and out into the gorge. By the time it gets there, it widens out into a more sane layout, but people come off the hills into that stretch like they are in a street race. There you have big rigs merging left into traffic because the lanes disappear.
Some of the big rigs are among the street racers. Others seem to be stuck in a compound low gear.
And there is a lot of work done to that freeway.
You can see workers up ahead nearly everywhere, if it's not a night of dense fog. Change lanes or slow down, NASCAR dudes and dudettes. You've probably already broken 15 traffic laws if you drove east from the I-5. If you're coming the other way, you're racing to make time before you hit slowdowns as the lanes eventually seem to become as wide and straight as Twizzlers. It's a good time to not press your un-ticketed luck.
Just change lanes. That's all. Change your lane away from where the workers are. If they are on the right, MOVE LEFT. If they are on the left, MOVE RIGHT. If they are in the center of the road, there's a cop on the other side tracking you. SLOW DOWN AND MERGE!
You must slow down to well below the speed limit (20 mph, preferably, iirc) if you can't change lanes.
How hard is this?
Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeallllllllllllly hard.
