No shit - I rented a Kuga 3 years ago and was having a blast on the autobahns. I swear sometimes it looked like the people in the right lane were parked. I just wish I had a dash cam.
But I think the 3 lane [passing, travel, entry/exit] lane system if the damned Americans would actually follow the rules would be marvelous. I think the enforcement of the laws would have to be seriously draconian for the first couple years [or until the old fogeys died off and the young generation who grew up with the rules dominated] to get it functional.
But then again, in Germany they are draconian when enforcing driving laws, there are even laws against making rude or obscene gestures at other drivers, the driver eating or using a cell phone in cars and the like. And the process for getting licensed in the first place is pretty draconian compared to the US [back in the 1970s I got a learners permit, then 6 months of ‘practice’ then I took the 3 hour class of watching the films like Blood on the Pavement, then took the test and a 16 year old was womanhandling 2000 pounds of deadly weaponized metal and plastic.]
Hell. you don’t get more self-important or self-entitled than Israelis, but even here, if you flash your lights at someone in the left lane, nine times out of ten they’ll either speed up, or move to the left and let you pass.
I assume that changing the law would not be enough in the US - given the existence of left exits (something that I considered pretty weird when in the US) current practice is poured into billions of dollars’ worth of concrete.
Legally, overtaking with less than 10 km/h speed difference can incur a fine of 80 euros and one point on your license. Practically, in such a situation you indicate to the left (as if you’d mean to climb the guard rail to overtake) and the driver before you will step on it.
It’s very unlikely to happen. The concept that you must stay on the right when driving a slow vehicle and pass only on the left is fairly ingrained in Europe. It’s not solely a matter of law. It’s that all drivers expect this behaviour. Not passing on the right, not driving slowly in the left lane are amongst the most basic concepts of driving. It’s perceived as unacceptable and stupidely dangerous to do otherwise (even more dangerous since nobody expects another vehicle to pass on the right).
LA’s problem is not traffic laws or anything so much as too many damn people.
This thread is about differences between two counties, but I see some of you Americans talking and I realize that your traffic laws/mores are completely different than those I’m used to (NorCal, Northern Nevada). “Left lane for passing only” is an alien concept to me. Those “slow traffic stay to the right” signs mean trucks, please don’t hog the left lane unless passing a slower truck*.
Not legal in many places in the US (I don’t know of any exceptions personally, but can’t say with certainty that they don’t exist). That doesn’t mean that people don’t do it. Generally, driving faster in the right lane is fine because, as stated above, the left lane isn’t always the fastest, and certainly isn’t almost empty in most areas. Just don’t go right, pass the car, and then immediately go left. But really, I hope you turn your head when you switch to either lane.
I can’t remember ever seeing that either, unless it is 1) an “exit” to switch freeways, or 2) on a highway (defined as open to cross-traffic but you have rightaway most of the time), turning to side streets means sometimes you make a left. I don’t doubt that this occurred wherever you were, just not something you see everywhere in this country.
*Weird traffic sign I saw on a highway two weeks ago: a sign that said “Speed limit 55 mph” followed by “Trucks and autos with trailers max 55 mph.” How do I interpret that? Go 55, unless you big, in which case go 55? Or speed limit is 55, but wink wink you can go faster as long as you’re not a truck?
The Germans taught your people well. Alessan, forgive me, but I was going to burst if I didn’t say it. I know, I know, I’m blaming the victim for my own lack of fortitude, but your people taught me that you can’t leave a straight line just laying there. Someone will pick it up. Just be glad it was a friend who stabbed you in the back.
I agree, it’s not that common as it’s extremely bad highway design. Off the top of my head, I can only think of a few left exits I’ve seen that are actual exits and not an interchange. I-25/I-40 in Albuquerque used to have left exit interchanges until they rebuilt it, I-80 E to I-81 N is a left exit, staying on I-90 eastbound (and going through the Exit 24 tollbooth) on the NYS Thruway where it heads south as I-87 is a left exit. That’s three interchanges off the top of my head. Left exits are generally a question of available land and right-of-way issues. I think that one of the plazas on I-44 in Oklahoma is placed in the median and is a left exit and left entrance both ways.
Please, do not infect our NorCal language here with an extraneous “the” in front of freeway numbers. We are trying to keep those all south of San Luis Obispo!
In MA, where I spent most of my youth, you would quickly get a flashing headlight if you were blocking the left lane, and most people know to pull over. Here, they will wave to you and smile, and think they are being cute. (Cue: * If I had a rocket launcher…*) I’ve even had people *slow down *in response to that.
In Illinois AFAIK it is still the law that you must move out of the left lane unless you are actively passing another car. This is never enforced, and I regularly encounter dawdling drivers who refuse to budge from the left lane, so that cars zooming up on them dart into the lane to their right (where I might be driving) to get around.
And interesting thing I noticed in China was that some highways had different speed limits on each lane – 80 kph right lane, 100 kph center lane, 120 kph left lane. Mind you, they had no driving discipline and traffic that would make the Italians blanch, but I wonder if something like that setup might encourage American drivers to stratify logically.
As long as we’re discussing crazy CA driving issues…
What’s up with the fact that at least one out of four cars there doesn’t have a lic plate? It seems to be optional to have one from what I can tell. It must be a great place to be a car thief.
The exits on the highways don’t have numbers. Just a name. So if I’m at exit 33 and I’m looking for exit 36 I don’t know how many exits I have left since they are all just called “Main St Exit” or whatever.
What would help more would be a speed minimum on coasting in the non-rightmost lanes. Having differing maximum speeds might or might not help but would still leave the problem of people dawdling in the left hand lane when it is free to move over, or speed matching the car on their right. (I say coasting because there should be leeway if you are stuck behind a slowpoke in the right hand lane and can’t get up to the minimum before moving over.)
In the San Diego and LA area they are labeled both by name and by number. The name of the exit is generally what is on signs leading upto the exits. The sign with the number for the exit is generally only posted just at the exit which does make it hard to use the exit number in directions for people. I don’t think I have seen a street map which labeled the exits by either number or street name. You can usually infer the street name for the exit by looking at the street names on the map but sometimes exits get you onto two or more streets and not all of them are on the freeway signs. Directions from google maps gives the street names for the exits when you print out directions.
I’ve seen minimum speed in the US. Three guesses which state
Florida of course! Where you want to get dinner at Waffle House by 4 pm, but aren’t in that much of a hurry because it wastes gas and the Kaiser would like that, wouldn’t he?
It’s especially interesting along that route I was talking about, above, for Hwy 1 in Monterey County. There must be 5 different exits for “Del Monte Boulevard” between Moss Landing and Carmel. The joke is to tell someone to “take the Del Monte exist-- you can’t miss it”.
