Posted on 04/04/2005 11:07:55 AM PDT by KidGlock
Colo. Cracks Down on Left-Lane Dawdling
Mon Apr 4, 9:15 AM ET AP
DENVER - Colorado is serious about its no-dawdling law in left lanes. Drivers who insist on staying in the passing lane are risking tickets as the State Patrol has begun enforcing a law requiring motorists to use the left lane for passing only.
Since the patrol started enforcing the "Left Lane Law" three months ago, troopers have written about 460 tickets or about an average of five a day to drivers who dawdle in the left lane.
The law applies in zones with speed limits of 65 mph or higher. It took effect July 1, but troopers gave drivers until January to get used to the new law; warnings were issued instead of tickets.
Master Trooper Ron Watkins said that since the ticketing campaign began three months ago about 90 percent of the drivers he has pulled over for dawdling or cruising in the left lane said they didn't know that it was illegal to do so.
Violators of the left lane rule may be fined up to $41 and have three points tacked onto their driver's licenses. The law is not enforced when the highway is too congested to allow drivers to pass.
Methinks you jump to conclusions. I never said I wouldn't get over to let someone by. The ones that I get upset at are those who try and give my car an anal probe while I am passing a string of 18-wheelers in the left lane on I-80 even though I'm going the posted speed limit!!! These morons even bob to the left (toward the median) as if they were trying to see if it's clear to pass me. Perhaps they are the ones who need to lower their blood pressure and let the natural course of events play out. If the traffic in the right lane is going slower than the speed limit, and I am in the left lane going the speed limit, then it is inevitable that I will pass them.
Not if I'm passing someone.
We transplanted to Southern Maryland over six years ago. Love living here with one exception.
It must be bred into long-time residents to engage in "side-by-side" driving. That's where you get into the left lane, pull up next to the right-lane car, and slow to their exact speed.
That way, you can't get around on either side. It is an epidemic.
While I'm on a rant, I want one of those cell-phone disablers that movie theaters are starting to use. Only I want mine to be mounted on the front grill of my vehicle, so I can disable any cellphone within a half mile in front of my car.
Introduce this law in Washington State, please!
Probably true from some, but just read through this thread and see the true confessions of the control freaks. Human nature is human nature - some petty minded types just like to be in charge in pathetically small but irritating ways, and they're even proud of it.
You are assuming facts not in evidence.
I wish this would catch on in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Nine times out of ten, traffic's caused by the clod in the 1983 Volvo 240 wagon in the left lane going 55 MPH.
Who said I was?
(By the way, Michiganders really shouldn't talk about obeying speed limits after what I've seen on the highways there.) :-)
"I never heard of it being illegal, and I lived in Colorado for many years. My question is, how are they dealing with it when the driver is maintaining the speed limit and is only blocking drivers that want to speed, or is it that maybe drivers who drive the speed limit in the left lane are cutting into their revenues from speeding tickets.
For the record, I find it annoying, too, but really, unless the driver is dawdling below the speed limit, how is he doing anything wrong?"
He is impeding traffic which makes for a very dangerous situation. Some of these people feel they are self appointed traffic cops. The CHP doesn't need this kind of help.
While on the Autobahn, I also remember that if someone comes up behind you with their left directional blinking, that was the signal that they are on the fast track and your should move yourself over.
Of course I am correct (please see my tagline). I never said that I did anything other than that, however there are certainly a lot of FReepers here who seem to think I did (or just like to jump to conclusions in order to justify their own inferior driving abilities) ;-)
Speed limit's 80 here.... :)
the unofficial one that is.
I drive I81 everyday and I80 once or twice a week and I'm always stuck behind some idiot, often a semi, cruising in the left lane and I can't get around him.
Pass the semis a little quicker (even if you go a little over the speed limit) or slip in between a couple of trucks to let the person pass. I've seen people start their passing 200 yards from the vehicle in front of them, and then proceed at about a mile-per-hour faster than the vehicles in the right lane. Of course, they back up traffic behind them because they take forever to complete their maneuver.
Amen neighbor.
You're part of the problem, my friend. Nobody appointed you hall monitor of the highway. If you aren't passing, get right.
No. He is doing the speed limit, which means he is obeying the law.
It's called "pacing" and Alabamians have elevated it to a statewide pastime. If there are three Alabamians on a road, two will be pacing one-another to prevent the third from passing.
You are absolutely correct.
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