1840 hours
A light skiff of snow covered the service strip and the dividers as Car 56 swung back westward in the red lane . Snow was falling steadily but melting as it touched the warm ferrophalt pavement in all lanes . The wet roadways glistened with the lights of hundreds of vehicles . The chronometer read 1840 hours . Clay pushed the car up to a steady 75 , just about apace with the slowest traffic in the white lane . To the south , densities were much lighter in the blue and yellow lanes and even the green had thinned out . It would stay moderately light now for another hour until the dinner stops were over and the night travelers again rolled onto the thruways .