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.
There are a number of highways where it is posted that the left lane is for passing only and it is strictly enforced in KY. It works. Everyone drives in the right lane only except to pass and traffic flows just fine.
On the highways where no such restrictions exist, traffic sucks.
It isn’t about the speed limit, it is about traffic flow, sometimes it is the 55 mph driver blocking the passing lane, sometimes 65, sometimes 75, all on the same stretch of freeway, it’s just that on different days, traffic flows at different rates.
If there’s a speed limit, the “slowpoke” will have an ironclad defense as long as he’s going the legal speed limit. You can’t make laws that contradict each other.
“… going 62 in a 65 …”
Understand: the normal cruising speed on a 65 stretch in GA is 80MPH.
What, you expect sense?
Naw. We gotta make the guy who’s overcompensating the most for a small je ne sais quoi, the hall monitor now. If he wants to go 90, get out of his way. Bullies rule!
I don’t get in the passing lane very often. I stay out of their way but I do get tired of seeing cars run up behind them like they’re going to smack their rear end flashing their lights because they’re impatienti. I call it pushing because it’s exactly what the’y’re doing. They get so close to their bumpers that if the driver ahead of them hit their brakes there would be a massive pile-up. It ‘s very revealing about their personalities.
Got it, your vote is that it is impossible to anything about it, is that your desired result?
I think it is revealing a weird personality to get into the passing lane, and not pay attention to cars coming up on you and moving at a faster rate.
Actually, that indicates someone who might need to be retested since they are losing track of conditions around them.
Around here, illegals are the slowest. Afraid of interaction with officials, so they go slow.
Stupid, and it gives them more power to control and fine.
I'll admit in my younger days I'd sometimes be late and speed when I could. But even then, I never resented the law abiding slowpokes for what was my fault, not theirs.
We don’t need any more laws.
This proposal is absolutely assinine.
LOL, so you are one of the anal types that assert your control over order, by blocking the passing lane.
Why didn’t you just say so, instead of pretending that laws cannot be written to outlaw your incredibly dangerous behavior?
that is against the law... and i have seen some a$$hole pulled over for it... when i see someone coming up on me, i move on over... let them pass...
I doubt seriously that police have the time to enforce this sort of thing or that they will.
We have a hands free law here and I watch people texting, talking and sometimes even reading email as they drive down the road, I have yet to see anyone getting a ticket for it.
Blocking the passing lane is one of the most dangerous activites on the freeway, it breaks the flow of traffic and causes hundreds of high speed lane changes.
While the weirdo is squatting in the fast lane, eyes straight ahead so that he can pretend not to see the havoc he is causing, the rest of the thousands of people on the freeway are all having to adjust to his psychologically caused, deliberate driving incompetence, it is a serious problem, not a pet peeve.
While people driving well below the speed limit can cause problems on freeways, by far the biggest dangers are caused by the habitually late or habitually impatient.
it isn't always about running late... sometimes i'm just going to the mall... :)
p.s. i like your name...
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