Huh, either things changed since I learned, or driver’s ed was overly cautious.
What I do see frequently is freeway on-ramps that are confusing. E.g. you’re headed east on a road, perpendicular freeway. Right line is almost always southbound, but it’s a crapshoot for northbound whether it with be left or right lane, and the sign telling you to get over is often seen when it is too late.
That’s the point!
The best system is to have the exit numbers be mile markers. Some states do this. So if I’m at exit 42 and I’m looking for exit 52 I know I have ten more miles to go.
The more common system is just to order the exists by number. So if I’m at exit 42 and I’m looking for exit 52 I know I have ten more exits to go.
The CA system is basically anarchy. No numbers at all. I have no idea how anyone gets anywhere without missing their exit. Plus, how do you even know you missed it?
Madness.
California started putting up exit numbers in 2002.
Where the heck do you live? I moved to LA from the Midwest about a year ago and I’ve been having the most enjoyable driving of my life. Aside from the frequent traffic jams, it’s very stress free; I move with the flow of traffic at 10-15 MPH over the speed limit. I’ve never seen anyone get pulled over when going with traffic, even at this excess. Meanwhile, back in the Midwest traffic would go exactly with the speed limit at best, and was frequently 5 MPH under. God forbid you would try to pass; there were speed traps practically every five miles on the interstate. I still can’t get over how much my home state feels like a police state compared to CA.
Edit: I diverged from my response to your original point… I’ve never encountered the behavior you described. At worst I’ve seen two cars going side by side, which is not a huge deal on a four lane highway.
I would be concerned if you guys believed in an afterlife. As it is, He’ll just recycle my page when I die. 
I know that, thus my response. But I think we can agree that the cliche that Germans are hyper-organized, massively full of themselves, and strictly follow every order, regardless the consequences, fits in with the OP’s idea of lane discipline.
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I have never seen exits numbered this way. I have only seen the exit number corresponding to the nearest mile marker for the highway.
They’re numbered that way on the New York Thruway. The mile markers go up past 480, I think, but the last exit is in the 50s or 60s. Pennsylvania only switched to miles a few years ago. For a while there was an “old exit #” sign at every exit.
Everything in New York is numbered that way. Most people will be most familiar with the Thruway, but it’s true for the Northway (un-tolled I-87), I-88, I-81, and the Berkshire Connector (where I-90 becomes tolled again after Albany to the MA line) as well. Having grown up in a state and driving through states that use mile-marker exit numbering it drives me crazy.
In Atlanta we have both exits and entrances from the left lane. Our exits used to be in strict numerical order now they’re numbered to the mile marker with a letter if there are more than one exit per mile. The State Troopers have publicly said they wont pull anyone over unless they’re doing more than fifteen miles per over. That’s why we get bumper to bumper traffic at seventy five miles per hour. I285 west to Ga400 north runs you through a hairpin turn at 20 MPH and dumps you into the left lane on 400 right after the toll booth where traffic is always at full speed. Not for the faint of heart.
San Luis Obispo County. Just moved here about three years ago. I had no idea exits were unnumbered until 2002. I would never have imagined such a thing!
Maybe that’s why The Californians talk driving directions all the time.
I don’t think lane discipline is a German thing, I’d say it was a general European thing. Here in the UK, people loath 'middle lane hoggers, and passing on the inside (aka undertaking) could get you in serious trouble with the police for careless or dangerous driving if you’re involved in an accident.
I think driving fast on the autobahn would be pretty nerve-wracking. There’s always someone faster, after all, so you still gotta keep an eye in that rear view for the BMW coming through at 160 mph. Do most typical “fast” drivers (say, those going between 100 and 130 mph) stay in the left lane or do they weave in and out of the slower traffic in the middle lane? Is there some speed at which you stay left at all times? Or do even the 160mph+ drivers change lanes every time they encounter traffic?
I don’t think most people in the states think anything of cruising in the middle lane. I cannot understand why a defensive driver would want to, because you have no escape if the shit hits the fan around you. Cars on your left and cars on your right mean you have nowhere to swerve if you need to. At least in the right lane (left in the UK), you have the breakdown lane available to you if something happens.
People often move over to the middle so they don’t have to deal with merging traffic. But then you end up with faster drivers going around you on both sides, and with faster traffic in the right lane, people on the entrance ramps have a harder time. It’s easier for them to merge with slower traffic than faster traffic, especially people (like me) who drive gutless four-cylinder economy cars.
That’s one of the important reasons for the keep right rule, I think. Not just for order on the freeway, but making it easier for people who need to merge from an entrance ramp.
I would say you only get to 160mph when it is really, really quiet and you have a very straight road with great overview. Like everywhere else, your speed depends on the driving conditions (including other traffic).
I drive in Germany regularly, though I rarely reach 100mph, and you still stay as much right as possible. Only if it there are many trucks and/or caravans you sometimes get in the situation where ‘normal traffic’ stays on the middle and left lanes. Only the people who want to be a lot faster than the rest all the time, will stay left… say the ferraris, maclarens, lamborghinis.
I’ve been a passenger in a car going 150mph+ a few times, but we only get to this speed if it is really quiet and you could almost say you have to lanes to yourself. The guy who was driving was actually using the middle lane.
You mean they don’t have a front license plate? I’m not sure that’s required. But they’re very strict about the rear plate and the registration tag.
California requires both a rear and front plate. Here’s a map of the state laws, I do not know if this is current.
Around here the main confusion is Arizona, which doesn’t have front plates, throwing off some people who don’t know that. Also, their licenses last something like 40 years(!). I think the plateless California cars you see are just flouting the law. California is different than some states in that the plate is not attached to the owner but to the car itself, and you’d transfer the person the plate is registered when you transfer the car. There may be a (short!) window after buying a new car before it has plates, although it’s been a long time since I bought a car/went to a CA dealership and never since I bought a new one. I can’t recall if the plates are there in the lot.
I listen to German news occasionally and this usually happens around 8 or 9am their time. The traffic reports suggest strongly that even their laws and customs concerning driving don’t completely eliminate congestion. Traffic jams or stretches of slow-and-go traffic of several kilometers’ length seem to be routine occurrences, although the overall impact of this may be less given that German commuters are more likely to have better transit alternatives available.
What part of California are you talking about? I’ve lived in the Bay Area my whole life, and neither of these things are true around here.