The Cul-de-sac Formation On a Four-lane Highway (Two Lanes Going Each Way)

	In the cul-de-sac formation, you have two cars in two lanes. The one on the left is going only slightly faster than the one on the right. There's a huge line of cars behind the one on the left. There are no cars behind the one on the right.
	It's tempting to move into the empty right lane. Approaching the cul-de-sac formation from behind, it looks like you can drive faster that way and pass the big line of cars on the left. Maybe you think you can go up to the front, then cut back into the left lane and bypass everyone else. Suppose you succumb to the temptation and move into the right lane. For a short while you are indeed moving faster than everyone else.
	But then you end up behind the slow car at the front of the cul-de-sac. The cars on the left are going slower than you were, but faster than the car you are now behind - and (very slowly) they are passing you. Worse, few people want to let you back into the left lane. They're just as annoyed about the slow left passing as you are, and nobody likes a line-cutter. You're stuck there until the back of the line has passed - which might be farther back than if you'd stayed where you were.

Don't go into the right lane. Yes, it's slow going until the car at the front left has finished passing - at which point it will either move to the right lane and allow everyone else to pass, or it will eventually pull far enough ahead that everyone else can pass on the right. Until then, just be patient and stay where you are.

Cul-de-sacs also form on highways with more than two lanes each way. It's possible for surrounding lanes to be so full of traffic that all lane-changing in and out is blocked. But the principle is the same - look far enough ahead at the cars in front of you and check how fast they're going before moving into what looks like an empty stretch of lane.

How to Get Into a Hot Car in The Summertime

Ever open your car door on a hot summer day and get blasted by a wave of oven-like heat? And then you have to stand there waiting for it to cool down so you can get in? Here's a way to get going a little faster.

Open All Doors
When you get to your car, don't go to the driver's side first. Start by opening the front passenger door. If it's an especially hot, sunny day, you can use the door as a shield between you and any blasts of heat that roll out when you open it.

If you have a rear passenger door, open that one too. If the back of your car is a hatch or gate or otherwise opens into the main compartment of the car, open that too. Keep going around opening all the doors until you get to the driver's door, which you open last.

Roll Down All Windows
Now roll down all the windows, starting with the driver's side door. Go back around opening windows until you're at the front passenger door again.

If your car has automatic windows, you might have to reach in and put your key into the ignition first.

Close All Doors
By now, most of the heat will have wafted out of the car - especially if there's any breeze. Close all the doors, starting with the front passenger and working your way back around to the driver's side. If your windows are manual crank, you'll probably want to close any that you can't reach from the driver's seat if there's any chance of rain.

Once you're back to the driver's side, get in before you close it. The inside of the car should be about the same temperature as the outside - much better than before you started. Now your AC (if you use AC) won't have to work as hard. :)

Other Heat Protection
A good, inexpensive way to keep the interior temperature down is car sunglasses, put in front of the windshield. These reflect sunlight away from the car at the place where most of the heat is generated (that is, through the windshield). Car dealerships often sell them specially fitted to their brands, while generic ones are available in department stores for less.

Fuzzy steering wheel covers are a good way to protect your hands from high heat (and also extreme cold in the winter). They make it much less painful to touch the steering wheel when you first get in.

How to Really Drive On a Highway (in the U.S.)

You've no doubt heard many times that you should drive no faster than the speed limit, leave ample room between your car and the car in front of you, and always drive in the far right lane. The people who say such things have obviously never driven on the highways before. Here's how it works in actual real-life traffic conditions.

About Speed Limits

Every road has a natural speed at which cars naturally want to drive. This speed seldom has any relation to the posted speed limit, and is usually higher. The other cars on the road will have a predictable range of speeds, with approximately 10 mph difference between the slowest and fastest. You should drive within this speed range if you want to avoid being a road hazard to everyone else.

If you're worried about police, just pay careful attention to how fast everyone else is driving. If all other cars on the road have suddenly, inexplicably slowed down, it means there's a police car ahead. Slow down along with everyone else to avoid becoming a target.

Following Room

The official rule of thumb is to have four seconds between you and the car in front of you. That is, there should be a four second gap between the time the car in front of you passes a stationary object (road sign, bridge, etc.), and the time you pass it.

On most actual highways, however, this means you're driving too slowly, and is an open invitation for everyone else on the road to cut you off. Why? A four-second gap is very large, which means everyone will be cutting in front of you. If you attempt to maintain a four-second gap after someone has cut in, you have to slow down. Soon you're moving far slower than everyone else - which makes you a road hazard via getting in the way of natural traffic flow.

Don't bother trying to maintain an officially proper gap. Give yourself enough room if you need to hit the brakes suddenly, but otherwise try to maintain the same bumper distances as other cars around you. If you pay careful attention to the brake lights of the cars in front of you in your own lane, and watch the cars in the lanes to either side, you will have plenty of warning before someone does something unexpected. Cars have body language, even when they aren't using their turn signals. Reading car body language is a learnable skill.

Defining Highway Lanes

A few definitions before we continue. Where I say "cruising lane" below, you may have heard it as "slow lane" or "driving lane." Also, when I talk about number of lanes, what I mean is the number that are going in the same direction. A two-lane is two lanes going one way and two more lanes going the other - usually referred to as a four-lane highway. But when you're actually driving on it, you don't care about those other lanes - the only ones that matter are the ones going your way.

The Slow Lane

If the highway has more than two lanes, the far right lane is never the cruising lane. If it's a three lane or five lane highway, you want to slow-cruise in the middle. On a four lane highway it's the second from the right. On a six lane or greater, third from the right. That's where you want to drive if you're on the slow end of the speed range, and you don't want to pass anyone, ever.

Lanes in General

Now let me expand on the above.

There are four basic types of lanes on any given highway. There's always one for entrances and exits. One for slow drivers. One for fast drivers. One for fast passing. On highways with less than four lanes, some lanes will be more than one type. On highways with more than four lanes, there will be multiple lanes for the same basic purpose.

The Far Right Lane

The rightmost lane has several purposes. It's for people who are entering the highway and merging in, preparing to exit the highway, driving much slower than everyone else (speed limit drivers tend to be here), or driving much faster than everyone else because they're executing a complex right passing maneuver because someone in the far left lane is being slow and oblivious.

Entrances and exits are the main thing, however. On any highway with three or more lanes, you want to reserve the rightmost lane for that purpose. On a two-lane, observant drivers will move over to the left lane as they approach entrance ramps if they see a car coming in. On a highway with five or more, the two rightmost might both be entrance and exit lanes.

Different Speeds in Different Lanes

As a general rule of thumb, slow driving occurs in the right lanes, faster driving occurs in the left lanes. The average cruising speed goes up as you move left. When traffic is heavy, this will include the leftmost lane - which is otherwise mainly for passing. On many highways with four or more lanes, big trucks aren't allowed in the leftmost lane at all.

Notable Exceptions

Then there are the occasional left exits and entrances. And the mountains with steep grades and runaway truck ramps - which can be left or right. If in doubt about where you should drive, try to stay in the middle.

How to get your car key into the ignition in a Saturn when it's stuck

Have a Saturn? Car key won't go into the ignition? You're not alone! Before you take it into the shop and start spending hundreds on diagnostics and replacement parts (some of which may be completely fictitious and made up by the dealership!), here are a couple things to try first, and also a way to help prevent the problem. If your car is like mine, you won't need to do anything more complicated or expensive.

Basically, near as I figure it, the problem arises during hot summer days when heat expansion in the steering column causes the ignition to go slightly out of alignment. To fix it, all you need to do is bang on it from underneath. Just use the base of your palm and administer a couple good whacks upward. The key should slide in easily after that.

arrows point to part of steering column to give a couple good whacks

There's also an easy way to keep it aligned afterward. When you've reached your destination and turned off the car, pull the key out of the ignition and then immediately slide it back in again. It may take a bit of jiggling to get it in the second time, but it should still go in. After that, when you next return to your car, the key should go in fine.

If the car key will go into the ignition but won't turn, it may have locked. This is a "feature" of all cars, not just Saturns. To unlock, put your foot on the brake, then turn the steering wheel while gently pressing the key in the direction you want it to go. If it doesn't work one way, turn the steering wheel the other way.

The above is how I solved the problem in my own Saturn. If none of those work for you, and/or if you have an additional solution, please let me know in the comments.