You don't have to tell me that some of the highways here in the Texas Panhandle are dangerous, I've had some close calls on quite a few of them. And I'll tell you where the danger in these highways is: the passing lane.

When I head to my hometown of El Paso, I'll take US-60 To El Paso over US-54 any day. The reason? Highway US-60 is a nice and roomy four lane highway the entire way through the Panhandle and Eastern New Mexico.

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Sure, there's a couple of times you slow down to go through small towns, but for the most part you don't have to deal with passing lanes.

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The smaller routes like US 87 and US 385 are just itty bitty two lane highways winding down Texas. And there is nothing that drives me nuts more than getting stuck behind a slow truck on one of those two-lane highways.

We all know the dance... get behind a slow truck, creep over a little to the left to see what's in front only to see oncoming traffic and getting back in line. When you finally have that free shot, you know you need to hit the gas and get around quick. We're talkin Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch or Dale Jr, NASCAR quick.

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Unfortunately that wasn't the case near Channing the other day when a driver made a move in a no passing zone at a pretty high rate of speed on US385. Fortunately everyone survived this collision but that is not always the case.

Yep. And the other car:

 

Besides the road signs, keep an eye on the center striping in the road, Here's a handy guide

  • Two Solid Lines - No Passing
  • One Dashed Line - Pass With Care (Mindful of other oncoming traffic)
  • One Solid and One Dashed - Depending on which side the solid line is indicates which side cannot pass. If it is on the right, you can't pass, on the left, you're in the clear.

When you have no passing zones like the last one where one side is restricted, be mindful if one side cant pass there's a good chance you should watch the road as well. usually you'll see these coming into turns or blind hills.

Make your move and get out of the way. As tempting as it is to use the shoulder, it is definitely against the law to do that too and honestly it's not safe.

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