I love driving as much as the next guy. No, wait, I love driving significantly more than the next guy, but even I hate highway driving. It's a ceaseless, mind-numbing progression of traffic and missed exits and bad merging and left-lane hogs.
So what the hell would it take to make it less awful? I'm not talking about 'try an audio book' or some shit like that. I mean like, tear out all the on ramps that lead directly into off ramps and force people to merge left into traffic that's trying to exit right across the same goddamn piece of highway. There's an exit/entrance combo like that five blocks from my apartment right now, and there were a half-dozen of them in Sacramento near where I grew up. They are traffic-birthing pieces of crap, and the country is worse with 'em.
So what the hell would you do to make commutes, long trips, and any other kind of highway driving less awful? I'm willing to hear any kind of suggestion, from mind-altering psychedelics to reverting to a nomadic society, permanently living on the move Mad Max style. Or, you know, something less drastic than that if it strikes your fancy.
In the vein of what it would take to make public transit viable, what would it take to make highway driving not suck?
Photo Credit: Raphael Orlove