Posted on 08/09/2004 12:25:49 PM PDT by Dog Gone
Two weeks ago I wrote that my traffic pet peeve is slow drivers using the left lane of a freeway and refusing to move over to let others pass.
This comment generated a flurry of e-mails and phone calls, with about a third of respondents agreeing that police should focus on ticketing these lane hogs who disrupt the normal flow of traffic, not speeders. The majority was critical, however, contending I was encouraging dangerous driving.
David Woerner of Houston called me "arrogant" for asking slower motorists to clear my path.
"If I am in the left lane and going 5 or 10 mph over the limit already, what right do you have to demand the lane?" he asked. "You have no more right to get there faster than me, as long as I drive the speed limit."
Several inquired about what the law says in this area.
My right to pass you in the left lane, even if I'm exceeding the posted limit, comes from § 545.051 of the Texas Transportation Code. The law requires that all drivers "moving more slowly than the normal speed of other vehicles at the time and place under the existing conditions shall drive in the right-hand lane."
So if you're doing the speed limit in the left lane and a line of cars is behind you waiting to pass, you are not only being rude, you are breaking the law.
Remember the saying: "Two wrongs don't make a right?" It's not your job to enforce the speed limits, which are kept below the normal speed of traffic because of poorly conceived environmental rules and the government's greedy desire to collect revenue from fines. Also, freeways are designed for very fast speeds; the design speed is usually higher than the legal limit.
Someone trying to obstruct traffic is creating a greater danger than a driver going faster than the artificially set limit.
"Thank you for finally pointing out the dangerous situation created by left-hand hogs, and the resulting impact on freeway capacity and mobility," wrote Andy Slavin of The Woodlands. "This has truly become an epidemic situation in the city."
I endorse a libertarian approach to traffic enforcement: If you haven't hit something, what have you done wrong?
Handing someone an expensive citation for nothing more than driving the freeway's design speed represents government money-grabbing at its worst and has nothing to do with promoting safety.
Robert Flanary of Houston endorses my call for higher speed limits on freeways or the elimination thereof, such as on Germany's Autobahn system.
"Lowering the freeway speeds in some Texas cities a few years back is not what's going to help reduce pollution," he wrote, "since bottled-up traffic causes more smog than the people doing 70-plus."
Although some respondents spoke out in favor of issuing more tickets to those of us who decline to obey speed limits, they declined to obey the "slower traffic keep right" law.
"If I'm proceeding down the left-hand lane at the speed limit or maybe slightly over, I shouldn't be a problem except to those who refuse to obey the speed limits, " wrote James Exum of Houston.
Folks, let's show some courtesy out there. If a right-hand lane is free, I always drive in it. The left lane is for passing only, unless the freeway is gridlocked. Go the speed you are comfortable with and allow others moving faster to safely go by.
With as many nutcases as there are in CA, I can't understand how these people live as long as they do, without attracting one of them to follow them home and beat the living snot out of them. Causing Road Rage is not a healthy activity.
This fascination with the left lane seems to be extremely prevelant with Buckeyes. The most irritating thing, however, are "racers". You know... those people that are driving along at 65 mph... you come up behind them at 70mph... you pull into the left lane to pass them and just about the time you get your front wheel even with their rear wheel, they've managed to creep up to 70 mph. So, you fall back and get back in their lane behind them at a safe distance... and they drop back to 60 mph. So, you pull into the left lane and start to speed back up to 70 to pass. Again, as you come alongside them, they speed up, matching your speed. Downshifting to 3rd, you fly past them at 80-85mph (before they have a chance to creep up on you) and get back in the right lane. After slowing down to your previous 70mph, they come back up on your left side, passing you with a drity look. They get back in front of you and slow back down to 60mph. For the rest of your trip, you repeat this cycle.
I do not understand what is so difficult about deciding on a speed and driving it. If you cannot keep your car within one or two mph of your desired speed on mostly flat road with no traffic, you need to turn in your license.
In Oklahoma we just pass the slow left lane people on the right.
a self-appointed 'citizen traffic cop' who disruts the flow of traffic in some 'lane-owning' exercise, which pisses people off?
According to the law, neither. The speeder is the more dangerous driver.
Personally, if I'm speeding and wanting to pass, I recognize that it is incumbant upon me, the law breaker, to go around slower drivers rather than expecting everyone on the road to pull over to get out of my way.
Everyone talks about the selfish driver observing the speed limits. In reality, it is the speeder who is being selfish.
I can't speak for every state, but where I live there is no such thing as a passing lane on a multi-lane highway.
The only place passing lanes exist are on two-lane highways and are marked as such with signs that announce the lane and request slower drivers keep to the right. Everywhere else, we all have to obey the same speed limits.
What's next? Clearing the roads at 2AM so the drunk drivers can get home safely?
Must be a disproportionate number of the drivers on I95 then.
I've seen, more times than I care to count, 3 cars each pacing each other in all of the 3 available lanes. I'll be 1/4 to 1/2 mile ahead of them and there is nobody between me and the clump of cars that the 3 idiots up front have created.
This happened to my nephew when I was riding with him in Washington near Spoken, except it was a regular two-lane highway, not a freeway. The car was an unmarked, and an old Chevy Caprice, at that. It was going just below the speed limit up a hill, nephew passes. Car speeds up a bit and appears to be "pushing", so my nephew sped up a little bit to put some distance between them. Car appears to be pushing a little more, my nephew started getting a little bit steamed about it, so he speeds up a little more. Flashing lights come (in the grill), speeding ticket issued. In retrospect, my nephew should have just continued on at the speed limit, but he felt like he was getting pushed, which it really looked like he was.
"Road hogging is really a phenomenon of the Americas and Asia."
Yeah, I see the "Go for the reft rane!" phenomena among Asia women the most. And always below the speed limit, of course!
Well, I certainly didn't mean for him to go into the wall. He was only a few feet off my bumper and I was simply trying to get him to back off (I'd hit the brake pedal just hard enough to make the brakelights come on), when he panicked and wrecked himself. Not my problemo senor.
As for travelling in the left lane on an empty freeway, I again point out that in California the left lane isn't designated as a passing lane, and that I could drive it legally at any speed above 55. I was driving in the left lane because it tends to be the smoothest, and this guy had three lanes to my right that he could have passed me on (it was about 2AM and there were very few other cars on the road).
Heck, if he hadn't been such an @55, I'd have yielded anyway.
when I visit my dad in Mesa, same deal. I'm all for mandatory yearly testing for people over 60 or 70 years old.(espcially eyesight) We've had several cases of oldsters in MN killing people with their cars while doing the "I thought the throttle was the brake" thing.
Who knows. But that does sound weird. CHP usually just hops in the carpool lane and speeds by everyone. Because there is no one in there way. Because there is no one in the freaking carpool lane! Carpool lanes really really make my blood boil.
"The other type are those folks who discover the only way to feel powerful is to hinder others. It's their God-given right to drive the rest of us up a wall, and by-God, that's what they're going to do. There are several Freepers who fall into this category, from the responses on similar threads."
Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner!
A couple of weeks ago, I saw an accident almost happen between a slow, left-lane driver, and a semi. I'm behind the guy in the left lane, and I'm saying to myself, "I bet the truck driver doesn't see this guy at all, since he has been driving in the blind spot of the truck for a mile". Lo and behold, the truck decides to go into the left lane, and an accident almost occurred.
Of course not, but its so much easier to leave the thinking to others and come up with cutesy strawmen like 'you think normal traffic speed is 100 mph'. Nobody objects to people driving the limit as long as you're not obstructing traffic. And deal with it, in CA the rate of traffic is about 75 mph and the cops aren't going to pull everyone over.
I would use it on a judge, were he being a left lane cruiser.Who's more dangerous, they LLC holding up 50 cars
bumper to bumper or the guy who passes you while he's going
75?
When will Americans learn...
Highway Patrol officers are not there to increase public safety...
they are there for STATE REVENUE ENHANCEMENT!
Speeding ticket = more $
Technically speaking, some states and localities have margin of error statutes that prevent ticketing for 5 or so mph above, perhaps more. Some states also have technicalities that let you go as much as 15 mph above the speed limit on certain roads. For example, Texas has a statute that prohibits the enforcement of any speed limit under 30 mph unless its in an active school zone during specified hours. There's a large road near me though that has a posted 20 mph speed limit. If any cop tried to ticket you on it for anything less than about 34 or 35 (30 mph + informal margin of error) they wouldn't be able to sustain it. They keep the 20 mph posted limit, even though its unenforcable, simply because it reminds drivers to go slower since it's residential.
Needless to say, whatever the speed limit laws are they are for the cops to enforce - not you and not any other driver on the road. If the cop enforces it properly the flagrant speeder may get a ticket. And if he errs the guy can challenge it in court. But unless you have a badge and sirens on top of your vehicle it is not your right or business to do anything that would impede them.
There were other lanes open but they couldn't be bothered to change lanes (and I was hardly going slow).
The countless other times I've seen them pushing cars out of lanes (or even tailgating me) they never used their flashing lights.
These whackjobs are not as rare as they should be. Best to not let them back in front of you if you can help it. They'll rarely keep up the act for longer than a few miles.
I look at it like going into a Mens Room with a row of twenty urinals that are all unused. I pick one, and then 5 seconds later some guy comes along and picks the one right next to me. It's like an invitation to a relationship in which I have no interest. :-)
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