My wife left on a daytrip with her co-workers at her new job today for training. The training site is about two hours away, and there are two common methods for getting there. One is a two lane road, and the other is a four lane road.

My wife and I thought that the four lane road would be preferable...more traffic in case of a break down, and easier to tell law enforcement in case they don't check in.

Because of the possibility of road construction, the other two women, a bit younger, thought it would be faster to go the two lane route.

My wife and I thought they should go the four lane route because of the reasons listed above. I was VERY uncomfortable when I found out they would be going the more rural, less travelled route.

Am I getting paranoid? <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

YES, you are.
Two hours in decent weather? Three people? Cell phones?
What do you expect; "Deliverance" type woodsmen? Yeti?
You've been spending too much time listening to the paranoids on this site.
Why not leave her, barefoot, in the basement all day? She obviously has no clue of the dangers out there and is totally incapable of protecting herself, even with help.
How dare you let her out into the world!

"There is nothing so frightening as ignorance in action."

I would say that worrying about something this minor for you and your family is maybe a bit over-cautious, but worrying about it for other people is moving up the ladder towards inappropriate control of their actions (I don't think paranoia is the correct word - micromanagement is).

<shrug> Should be simple to gather some facts and then decide. Go to the Iowa DOT website and get the traffic counts on both stretches, along with any other info they post that is relevant. Go to the Iowa State Trooper website or whichever Iowa state agency maintains incident info (varies from state to state) and grab the accident and/or incident statistics for the same two roads. A little simple math - perhaps weighted however it makes sense to you - and you can calculate the likelyhood of an accident, etc.

FWIW, I absolutely HATE driving the interstates in your neck of the woods, especially I-80. Between the truck traffic and... well, don't ask me what I.O.W.A. on a tag means to us on the Illinois-Iowa border <grin>

Regards,

Tom

Yeah, that's a little paranoid.

Although, slightly paranoid is a prerequisit for being here, I think. :P

Yeah, Some People are wired way to tight for living. Loosen up she will be fine, but she probably is having an out of town affair <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I'm just remembering the girl a few years ago, in the same area they were travelling who was driving a short distance in good weather, ran off the road, was pinned in her car with her cell phone...could hear the highway traffic and road crews working but couldn't attract any attention even though she was very close to the road down an embankment...that girl was on Dateline one night, after recovering from having both legs amputated due to that incident. Yeah, maybe I am becoming a little paranoid, but considering that I don't know the other people in the car well, and what their ability to handle various situations would be, and the fact that my wife is six months pregnant, perhaps, just maybe I'm feeling a little overprotective. I guess I'd just like to reduce the likeliehood that someone in my family becomes "the other guy". And my wife is as aware as anyone the dangers that are out there. It was HER idea to take the four lane route instead of the two lane that they ended up taken. And I'm sure that girl didn't expect to lose her legs when she was going to work that day. No Yeti, no "Deliverance", just a guy concerned for his wife and baby.

When I read your first post, I incorrectly thought you were saying your wife was driving in one car and her friends in another. And you wanted to tell her friends which road to take. Hence my "inappropriate control" statement.

I still think you worries are overblown.

But if your wife was accepting a ride from others I would consider it perfectly acceptable for her to say she is not comfortable on two lane roads and would prefer a different route. Equally appropriate would have been for the car's driver to say "no" (this would be maybe a bit rude or insensitive, but still within their perogative). Equally appropriate after that refusal would have been for your wife to decline their offer for a ride and drive her own car.

Around here, a four lane road clogged with cars and constuction would be much MORE dangerous than a less traveled two laner, but of course your neck of the woods might be different.

I agree, on a four lane road, people tend to drive faster, there's more cars, and a more likelyhood of a pile up. More people die in car accidents every year than shootings and airplane crashes combined.. That's probably not making you feel better, but I also believe you are being over paranoid. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Guys, there is a parameter that we missed.

His spawn is involved. (BTW, Ors, belated congrats.) Hormonally, he's in "big monkey" mode, and being protective.

*offers Ors a banana*