Posted on 02/28/2014 6:12:43 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
One of my biggest pet peeves on the road is the left-lane highway cruiser. If you’re a compulsive reader of my articles (Why would you do that to yourself?), you may remember that I have written on this very issue before.
I don’t care how fast you are going. The leftmost lane on the highway is for passing. That is basic road etiquette, but, not surprisingly, few people here in Georgia follow it. And it is frustrating.
Well the Georgia State legislature is here to save the day. They are currently enacting a bill (dubbed the Slowpoke Bill) that would make lollygagging in the left lane a misdemeanor. That’s right. All those people with their left blinker still on … going 62 in a 65 … in the left lane … pacing the car on their right … with ten cars piled up behind them … Johnny Law is coming for you.
The reaction to the bill is hilarious. Some lady (armygirl1974), who probably has no idea how bad she is at driving, responded, “What if the speed limit is 65 and I am going 65, am I supposed to move over and let someone going 90 pass[?] Give me a ticket, I dare you.” Are you supposed to move over? Yeah. That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do. I mean, seriously? Is that a real question? Who made you the hall monitor of safe driving speeds? I’m looking forward to seeing you on the side of the road getting ticketed for just that.
The rules are there to allow everyone the maximum opportunity to drive the way he wants. The speed limit is an arbitrary suggestion, and that’s a fact. Depending on the police officer and the stretch of road you’re on, you can go as much as 15 over the speed limit (and maybe more in some cases) without having to worry at all about a police officer pulling you over. So the more likely scenario for the Slowpoke Bill is a person going the speed limit and someone else who wants to go even ten miles an hour faster pulling up behind them. Neither driver would be ticketed for speeding, but under the Slowpoke Bill, the person in front would be ticketed for blocking up traffic.
This is not just a hypothetical example. Here in Georgia, we have a loop around the city called 285. The posted speed limit on 285 is 55 miles per hour. No one, and I mean no one, goes 55 on 285. The average speed is a little under 70. If you went 55, you would be a danger to society. If armygirl1974 decided to go 55 in the left lane to keep everyone legal, she wouldn’t be doing a public service. She would be (and probably is) a public nuisance at best. The Slowpoke Bill would see her ticketed for those shenanigans.
So … Well done, Georgia legislature! This may be one of the only times I ever congratulate you. So savor it.
PING!
It’s as good as dead in the water when we find out gays and blacks are the most common slow pokers?
I’d rather less laws and PRIVATE roads
that might actually work where you would’t have all this traffic and can pay for how fast you want to get somewhere and not 40,000 deaths on U.S. gov roads per year
#1 big slowpoke is Korean lady. Everybody know that.
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What about moslems?
I doubt they can hit 55 on their camels.
I doubt the law will or can be enforced against anybody driving the speed limit in the left lane. Except in the cases of the most blatant left lane slowpokes, those driving well below the limit, there is too much subjectivity involved.
The Germans manage to keep people from blocking the left lane.
Alternatively I hate those who are blocking lanes by going slower than everyone else.
I hate these Maryland pu...y bumpers:
You, obviously, have never driven I-285!
The Germans don’t have speed limits. As long as we have speed limits and congested urban highways, this “slowpoke” law will have marginal effect.
Conversely, can we get the a$$hole who rides your rear bumper and tries to run you off the road while breaking the speed limit a new law?
It is simply a matter of curtesy.
Virginia passed a similar law - though not a misdemeanor - several years ago and it has had no effect.
Probably because the cops don’t enforce it.
Good luck in GA. If the cops don’t enforce it, and people like the woman you note don’t hear about it, nothing will change.
While I think this is an idiot law ... boy there’s a part of me that loves it. Of course, at my age, maybe I’m the slow one. lol
I don’t see the difficulty of the law making it illegal to block traffic in the fast lane, there are laws like reckless driving, obstructing traffic, weaving, driving a speed appropriate to conditions (not signs) and other laws that don’t have to be measured by a number.
I don’t think driving those nuts out of the fast lane is beyond the capabilities of modern man.
That is already against the law, but I hope you do what you can to let them by.
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