Re: No AAA member, what if I get a flat tire?

>If it happens on the freeway, the smartest thing is to leap from your
>car and flee for your life before somebody hits you.  I meant on surface
>streets.  I usually drive in the slow lane on the freeway so it wasn't
>much of a problem to get out, check the tire, make the decision, etc...

"the slow lane" != "the rightmost lane".  Freeways tend to have
entrance and exit ramps which you don't drive in unless you are
entering or exiting, but you have to cross them to get to the edge
of the road.  Having at least one entrance/exit lane at any given
time seems to be the norm on city freeways, at least where I usually
drive.  I know of at least one spot where I'd normally be driving
where there are 3 lanes to the left and 5 to the right to get to
the edge of the road.  That's unusual, but having two entrance/exit
lanes to the right of the "slow, going straight through" lane isn't.

>> The one situation which I almost got stuck in the actual middle of
>> the freeway was a HUGE backup (I later found out there were helicopters
>> landing to take injured to the hospital, and the whole freeway was
>> shut down for many hours, and I arrived near the end of it), where
>> after several hours I came close to running out of gas.
>
>That would have been cool -- to have to wait several more hours for AAA
>to deliver a gallon of gas.

Actually, I wouldn't have had to wait long.  There was a gas station
in sight, with maybe a quarter-mile walk to it, although getting
to it with the car would have been several miles.  I still would
have had to abandon my car in the middle of the freeway during the
walk.  Do you carry a gas can?  Several cars tried to get out of
the traffic jam with a "what the hell, I'll make my own exit", and
started driving on grass.  Until the first couple of cars got STUCK.
What they got stuck on, I never did find out, but that area between
the freeway and access roads has deep ditches, rocks, and ridges
too high to drive over easily.  That cooled down the mass exodus
until someone found a path out which worked (seeing deep ditches
wasn't easy in the late evening), and many cars left.  Until the
cop car showed up.  The cops didn't actually seem to do anything
about the mass exodus (I think they were just trying to get to the
accident), but few really wanted to risk it.  I was boxed in anyway,
and most of the time, still on a bridge.


                                                Gordon L. Burditt