Days 177 - 178 Florida City - Key West - Florida City - Titusville
One of my main goals in my trip to the US was to visit Key West. So on Friday it was time to make this goal reality. Right after breakfast I hit the road.
Distance from Florida City to Key West is about 125 miles. Most of the way the road is following islands (either natural or man made). I was surprised how little there actually was that famous bridge over the water. Maybe 2 or 3 miles altogether. Lot of normal bridges though.
Sometime on the way there I started to suffer a headache. And it seemed to get worse all the time. When I reached Key West I really felt bad. So I limited my stay to only necessary things - the southernmost point of the US and the beginning of highway one. I took a couple of photos of the town and turned back to get to the mainland as soon as possible.
After getting to the motel I laid down for a while and slowly started to feel better. I took a walk to a pizzeria nearby and bought a pizza to go. By the way. According to local maths $15 - $13,50 = $6,50. That guy definitely earned that $1,50 tip I dropped to the bowl and I got a cheap pizza.
On Saturday morning I challenged myself by taking highway one all the way. That ment riding through downtown Miami. I was smart enough to start at 7:30 so there was not much traffic in the city. I took a little detour via Miami Beach. I've never seen so many Porsche 911's in one day. It seems 911 is some sort of national car in Miami Beach.
Riding highway one all the way to Space coast was slow. That about 270 miles took nearly 10 hours and I didn't have any really long breaks on the way. But finally I got to Titusville to a motel I had booked.
I have told my opinions about traffic in Russia and Mongolia and Australia. If I recall also Thailand even though I didn't personally ride there. Well here's my feelings about the traffic in the US.
These people just don't have a glue about proactivity. Mostly it seems they are in a huge hurry to the red lights. And when they get there they leave a car long gap between each other. Then they slowly close that gap so at the time of green light the cars almost touch each other. That means getting to the move takes enormous amount of time. Of course after the first car has finally got going. I cannot understand how it can be so slow to get on the move with automatic transmission. All you need to do is release the brake and press the throttle.
I don't wonder there's a lot of crashes on the road. People seem to drive extremely fast all the time - no matter the weather or the amount of other cars on the road. And of course without any kind of safety distance. And as the roads are unbelievably slippery when wet it doesn't need much for a crash.
Considering how this country is made for cars they really should give some attention to teaching of driving.
A lot of things should be considered in other countries though. Here's couple of examples:
Turning right on red light. It makes things easier.
Signs telling "1st street on next signal" and bigger signs about street names in junctions. At least in Finland the signs are 5 cm high and usually hidden in bushes.
Different green light options for turning left. "Yield on flashing yellow" etc.
Central lane for turning left. Both directions use the same turning lane which acts as a divider at the same time. Probably wouldn't work when there's snow on the ground.
Distance from Florida City to Key West is about 125 miles. Most of the way the road is following islands (either natural or man made). I was surprised how little there actually was that famous bridge over the water. Maybe 2 or 3 miles altogether. Lot of normal bridges though.
Sometime on the way there I started to suffer a headache. And it seemed to get worse all the time. When I reached Key West I really felt bad. So I limited my stay to only necessary things - the southernmost point of the US and the beginning of highway one. I took a couple of photos of the town and turned back to get to the mainland as soon as possible.
After getting to the motel I laid down for a while and slowly started to feel better. I took a walk to a pizzeria nearby and bought a pizza to go. By the way. According to local maths $15 - $13,50 = $6,50. That guy definitely earned that $1,50 tip I dropped to the bowl and I got a cheap pizza.
On Saturday morning I challenged myself by taking highway one all the way. That ment riding through downtown Miami. I was smart enough to start at 7:30 so there was not much traffic in the city. I took a little detour via Miami Beach. I've never seen so many Porsche 911's in one day. It seems 911 is some sort of national car in Miami Beach.
Riding highway one all the way to Space coast was slow. That about 270 miles took nearly 10 hours and I didn't have any really long breaks on the way. But finally I got to Titusville to a motel I had booked.
I have told my opinions about traffic in Russia and Mongolia and Australia. If I recall also Thailand even though I didn't personally ride there. Well here's my feelings about the traffic in the US.
These people just don't have a glue about proactivity. Mostly it seems they are in a huge hurry to the red lights. And when they get there they leave a car long gap between each other. Then they slowly close that gap so at the time of green light the cars almost touch each other. That means getting to the move takes enormous amount of time. Of course after the first car has finally got going. I cannot understand how it can be so slow to get on the move with automatic transmission. All you need to do is release the brake and press the throttle.
I don't wonder there's a lot of crashes on the road. People seem to drive extremely fast all the time - no matter the weather or the amount of other cars on the road. And of course without any kind of safety distance. And as the roads are unbelievably slippery when wet it doesn't need much for a crash.
Considering how this country is made for cars they really should give some attention to teaching of driving.
A lot of things should be considered in other countries though. Here's couple of examples:
Turning right on red light. It makes things easier.
Signs telling "1st street on next signal" and bigger signs about street names in junctions. At least in Finland the signs are 5 cm high and usually hidden in bushes.
Different green light options for turning left. "Yield on flashing yellow" etc.
Central lane for turning left. Both directions use the same turning lane which acts as a divider at the same time. Probably wouldn't work when there's snow on the ground.
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