How do I select faces in a row incrementally (as opposed to growing a selection in all directions)? I cannot find a way to select faces in a row. In MODO I can press arrow keys and the polygons are added incrementally by pressing the up arrow key. The down arrow key goes backwards and deselects it. It is really fast. Is there a way to do that in Blender?
You probably want Ctrl Shift  Numpad + Select Next Active, which, as far as possible, will use the pattern of relationship between the active element and the previously selected one to predict the next to be selected
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So, for example, if in a face loop, you have selected two adjacent faces separately, the operation will continue to select in the same direction. If you have skipped a face, the selection will continue to skip faces, and so on. Very useful for selecting at intervals.
Ctrl Shift  Numpad - will deselect back down the sequence.