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.
If you're not passing anyone, get out of the left lane.
When I lived in Alabama in the late 1970s, the highway patrol would routinely drive down the intestate side by side at 55 mph.
The traffic backed up behind them went back for miles.
" No. He is doing the speed limit, which means he is obeying the law."
Well, sometimes it is not about speed. In most states there is no problem with doing the speed limit in the passing lane, unless someone wants to pass you. At that point you are (in most states) violating a law that has nothing whatsoever to do with actual speed. It has to do with relative speed. And if you are in the passing lane and someone wants to go faster than you are, and you are blocking them and you are not passing someone, you are breaking the law if you do not move right.
The speed limit is not the only law regulating your driving style.
Oh, and unless your speedometer is certified calibrated, it is only an aproximation of the actual speed. Therefore you have no authority to determine who is or is not speeding based on your speedometer reading.
That clinches it. It's genetic.
I think we've shared this fantasy telepathically or something!
"Hmm... How can I mount a CO2 LASER in the engine compartment? I'll need some lenses and a mirror mounted on some servos under the control of a microprocessor..."
I will do the same thing. I hate a tailgater. If they think they are going to push me to go faster, well..... they better start pushing, cause I ain't speeding up.
BTW... I am one of those slow drivers on the highway. I will do about 60 mph and that is all I will do, but I do stay in the slow lane (since I never pass anything anyway, except maybe a road sign or two).
My first response is to turn on my emergency flashers for a moment, and they will back off because they think you're pulling off the road. Sometimes they don't run right back up to tailgate.
If that doesn't work, I wander off the road a bit to throw a little gravel from the shoulder up at them. That usually does the trick.
Amen to that brother. Though most times it's the idiot talking on the cell phone ignoring all else sitting in the left lane.
I was on a business trip to CO last November and drove from Denver north to Cheyenne,Wyoming.(forget the route #). I remember the slowest vehicle was going between 90 -100 mph.
What a sweet ride.
Seeing that you live in Nebraska, I pull up the following law:
60-6,131
Driving on right half of roadway required; exceptions.
(2) Upon all roadways, any vehicle proceeding at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall be driven in the right-hand lane then available for traffic, or as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway, except when overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction or when preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.
There now, are there enough facts in evidence for you?
Need this BADLY in California (but it will never happen ...).
It is illegal to hog the left lane in Nebraska, Pablo64's asserted state of residence. See citation above.
I've driven in a few different places. In Europe, indeed, they've got the autobahn etiquette down pat (including in the UK). In Asia, with the lone exception of Japan, they are poorly disciplined - almost any speed in any lane up to the limit. The US, by and large, fits in more with Asia and Latin America than it does with Europe, in terms of driving style.
My daily drive back and forth on 35E allows me the chance to make 3 new road rage buddies every day.
Left lane drivers are the worst...the worst. I cant believe how absolutely TYPICAL it is to simply get on the freeway and just get in line in the left lane...occasionaly passing a car in the right lane. Where is the road construction to alleviate this situation?
The only thing is that Colorado needs to put up posted sgns.
I still like "Keep right except to pass" better, because nobody thinks they're "slower traffic."
"Flash to pass is all you need to do. In the US, that'll get you shot at."
In Colorado and many mountain states that was also true. Until we got a ton of yuppies from California and Texas we never had a problem with flash-n-pass. Now, few know what it means.
I was behind a slow poke on a 2-laner coming back to Phoenix, AZ from Vegas just past the dam and he had, no kidding, 30 cars in line behind him...That's just beyond illegal! When we all finally got a 2 lane opening, it was like the Grand Prix Race to get out ahead of him!
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