Right, but I don’t think that would persuade people like Dr. Nestor. He doesn’t claim that the way he drives is safer, just that it’s more convenient for him. And he’d probably argue that, if it’s less safe, it’s not his fault but the fault of the people who are exceeding the speed limit.
We could try pointing out that emergency vehicles sometimes have to travel faster than the speed limit, and are legally entitled to do so, and by camping out in the left lane he’d be impeding them.
In other words, junior Highway Patrol, kind of like junior mods.
Perhaps we should direct our disapproval to the police (and whoever sets the speed limit) rather than those who are obeying the law.
The sense of entitlement people have with regards to ignoring speed limits is interesting. Maybe because I’m rarely in a hurry any more, but I’m more bothered by people dangerously tailgating me because I’m not exceeding the speed limit as much as they would like (for example, when I’m going 30 in a 25 mph–which happens daily on my commute) than I am bothered by people going the speed limit in the right lane of the interstate. Although I do agree with the majority here who think the OPs driver was in the wrong.
Oh no, he was being self righteous, as a later comment makes clear.
Dr. Nestor justified his strategy in early November. “It became obvious that the police couldn’t or wouldn’t control speeders,” he says, and “I feel it’s up to the public to protect themselves.” Perhaps it was his final thought on the subject that kept the discussion alive. “The American public are like sheep.”
From this page.
Lest we unfairly defame dear Dr. Nestor for a single personality quirk, we should remember his more noteworthy achievements, which make up the majority of his Wikipedia page:
During World War II, he served in the United States Air Force as a flight surgeon and was awarded a Bronze Star for valor.
During his employment at the FDA, Nestor revealed to the public that FDA leaders pressured reviewers, demanding new drugs be approved without adequate testing. He testified to Congress about the influence of pharmaceutical companies at the FDA[4] and about FDA officials allowing drugs to stay on the market even after serious side effects had been identified.
Robert G. Vaughn wrote in his book “The Successes and Failures of Whistleblower Laws” that Nestor “became one of the best-known FDA whistleblowers of all time.”
Seems like the same personality quirk that so irriates people on the highways is what also made him such a good whistleblower - “something’s not right here and I’ve got to stand up and make it right.”
Of course, he was in an official capacity at the FDA, which I suppose makes the difference.
Whether or not you’re entitled to remain in the left lane at the speed limit, there’s another expectation or law that if there are five or more cars lined up behind you, you should pull over to let them pass.
There was a similar guy in the 90s on Usenet who would post on rec.boulder.general (or whatever) about his exploits driving exactly the speed limit in the left lane to slow down speeders. Lots of ranting similar to comments here about speed differentials and such never changed his mind.
This was absolutely the sense from this guy. He’d been a police dispatcher for a few months years before, so considered himself an honorary LEO, and not a traffic vigilante.
I think that was the first place I heard the term “left lane bandit.”
I suffer the same thing on my neighborhood streets. I’m perfectly happy going 20+ over on the freeway, as long as I’m going with the flow of traffic, but I’m going to be within 2–3 MPH of the speed limit on residential streets. Like in many places, some of the neighborhood streets here end up functioning as arterials, so people want to go 45 on streets posted 30. What do they care? They live in the next neighborhood over. These are streets with pedestrians, kids playing, bicycles, dogs, parked cars, backing cars, double parked deliver trucks, and all of that.
I’ve mentioned this before but when I was living in San Jose, Palo Alto’s speed limits were 5 to 10 miles less than surrounding cities’ on similar streets. I used to drive at precisely the speed limit for two reasons, to piss off all the Beemer speedsters and, being in a beat-up I obviously didn’t belong there and was cop-bait if I did speed.
I completely agree with Procrustus. I drive a LOT, and it blows my mind that people so cavalierly put theirs and others’ lives in danger, but that they often justify it with a flippant remark like “I just drive fast.”
I have actually had three cars in a row (Probably people who knew each other…and who were big fans of “The Fast and the Furious…”) pass me on the left in the median on 71 north of Cincy. My life flashed before my eyes.
There is no excuse for speeding. Definitely not for excessive speeding. I agree that the left lane is for passing. I disagree that speeding is alright. Tailgating is less than alright.
I have a young driver. If anything happens to him because of a disrespectful driver, that driver better hope the accident kills them…
Not really. It’s more “justified” by pointing out that in the real world that we actually live in, other cars are driving over the limit, and by driving at lower than the speed of traffic, especially in the left lane, you are putting yourself and others in danger.
By median, do you really mean they drove in the grass? I know that I-71 north out of Cincinnati has bus only lanes on the leftmost side. I suspect what you actually meant to say was that they were driving in the bus lanes? Does your life pass before your eyes when you get passed or pass a bus in those lanes?
But yeah, if they were passing you that way, that means that you were in the left lane while not passing, and travelling slower than the flow of traffic. Meaning that you were the one breaking the law and creating a dangerous situation.
Aside from your implication that you would mete out extrajudicial punishment here, the disrespectful driver would be the one that is impeding the flow of traffic. If an accident hurts your child that comes about because of someone camping in the left lane going the speed limit, will you remain steadfast in your desire for vigilante justice?
They passed in the grass. “North of Cincy” is a long stretch of nothing until Columbus. I’m not clutching pearls, here.
Furthermore, I WAS passing vehicles on the right. I just wasn’t going the 100+MPH they were going. It’s nice of you to jump to that conclusion, though.
And if someone causes an accident that injures or kills my children because they were breaking any law, and they managed to survive, they would soon wish they had not.
If you are one of those people who believes it’s your god-given right to drive like an asshole, I sincerely hope you reconsider. It’s careless and selfish. It only takes a second to chonge your or someone else’s life, irrevocably, forever.
Let’s face it; everyone driving faster than me is a crazy asshole while everyone driving slower is a slowpoke asshole.
John Nestor sounds like an early Karen.
Serially, folks, a lot can be accomplished with a diplomatic attitude (catch more flies with honey than vinegar).
Non-diplomatic method: “You sure are driving like an asshole! Why the fuck are you hogging the left lane? Doncha know you can get a ticket?”
Diplomatic Method: “Would you mind moving over to the right lane? It would be nicer to others, and I think it is the law. It would also make me more comfortable.”
Wait. This confuses me. I always took “no passing on the right” to mean you couldn’t do things to pass on the right like drive on the shoulder or use a turn lane.
Are you saying that on a multi-lane highway, if the person in the left lane is going some speed that is slower than most of the rest of the traffic wants to go, then everyone is obligated to stay behind him and not use a legal travel lane to just go around him?
This seems insane to me. There is just no way that 2 or 3 lanes of traffic are going to travel at say… 60 in a 65 just because some person is in the left lane doing 60. Ain’t never going to happen. Why make a law that no one is going to obey?
I’d like to see a cite to a state law prohibiting passing on the right.
In Ca, on a good freeway in decent weather, 5 over is pretty standard, and no, the left lane is not for passing.
Take your average 4 lane CA Freeway- that’s 4 lanes each direction. The far right lane is full of slower semis, going 50-55, or for people getting off soon. The next lane over has semis, trucks, and dudes pulling trailers- the speed limit for them is 55, but that lane goes 60. (Trucks& etc are limited to the right lanes).The next lane has a limit of 65, and goes that or 70. The far left is going 70+.
Same idea in Miami. Except the rightmost lane is ~50 mph in a posted 65 zone. As our freeways are typically 4 lanes wide, the other three lanes are 70, 90, and 110 mph. Plus maybe one or two innermost express lanes separated by plastic poles that operate under Autobahn rules.
Plus the cocaine-fueled weavers working through the rest of the crowd. And the crotch-rocket motorcyclists.
I love this place.
Have you read anything in this thread about speed limits? We make laws that “no one is going to obey” all the time!
Assuming that by “crossing” they exclude the start and end states:- technically you could drive Ohio->Kentucky->Missouri->Oklahoma, thus “crossing” only two states. There are no bridges connecting Kentucky and Missouri but there is a ferry at Hickman.
Of course the only reason to drive such a route would be the sheer geographical nerdery of it.
I assume it varies by state? I know it’s common in my state, and the statue that says to stay to the right gives so many exceptions as to be nearly meaningless on a road with more than 2 lanes.