Suppose I’m cruising the interstate at 5 mph over the limit in th left lane, passing a line of cars in the right lane. Some guy comes up behind me doing 10 mph over thee limit. The only way I can clear the left lane is by hitting the brakes and hopping in between two slower cars to the right.
Do I have a duty to do that? As far as courtesy goes, shoould I expect the other driver to keep off my butt til I complete the pass and can move over without beaking, or should he expect me to clear out of the way as soon as space permits without other considerations. Does it matter how long the line on the right is?
Is there an answer in terms of legal obligation, given that both of us in the left lane are violating traffic laws?
I’m mentally reversing left and right, and giving you Australian law here, but I suspect the US would be the same:
You have a duty to return to the slow lane as soon as it is practicable and safe to do so regardless of whether there is an aggressive tailgater behind you or whether nobody is behind you, unless you are overtaking a string of cars, and you intend to overtake more of them. For example, the slow lane cars are doing 45. You’re doing 55, and the chap behind you wants to do 70. The laws of pyhsics however, dictate that he can only do 55 too, as long as you are there. You can choose to be courteous and merge back in halfway along the string of ten cars you were overtaking, let him go past, then cut back into the fast lane to resume your overtake, but you’re under no obligation to. There might not be a gap for you to do this anyway. Many is the time I’ve been on two lane blacktop stuck behind a couple of slow trucks. Finally, an extra lane opens up, but the second truck uses it to overtake the first at a fraction of an MPH difference, taking forever. I have to put up with that, as the slightly faster truck driver is within his rights. The tailgater will have to put up with you.
Don’t let the guy behind you intimidate you into merging into the slow lane if you’re not ready (you’ll be left swapping insurance details with the slow lane driver, and the fast guy will be twenty miles away), but also don’t play cop and try to teach the fast bloke a lesson by slowing too much, tapping your brake lights etc. Just ignore him and merge when you can.
Just ease on in the right lane for a sec and let him go. It doesn’t slow you down too much (except for a brief tap on the brakes), he’s on his way, no less happy than before, and you no longer have to be annoyed by some fellow riding your tail.
It sure beats the alternative of the both of you fuming in your respective cars imagining what a butthead the other is being. In some parts, it can save you a dangerous encounter.
In general, the fact that someone else should do something out of common courtesy does not get you off the hook. In many cases, common courtesy would have both of you acting to smooth the way of the other. Since someone usually drops the ball, as long as one out of two is courteous, things go smoothly.
Not sure about any legal aspect, but the courteous thing to do is to get back in the right lane when you judge it to be safe and reasonable. If I close in on someone in the left lane and that car is actively passing the cars on the left, then it is no concern to me. I may be delayed a few precious seconds, but not a big deal.
If the car isn’t moving faster than the cars in the right lane, then there is cause for irritation on my part.
Exactly what I wanted to say. There are too many people that think they are passing, but they are not “actively” doing it. They remind me of “The Little Engine” that kept saying “I think I can; I think I can.” In Italy you’d better be “very actively” passing or they will not just tailgate, but blow the horn and flash lights.
There have been several threads on this subject and someone always comes along with the idea that they are doing the speed limit and don’t have to move over for someone that is breaking the law. I once came up behind a car that was staying even with the car in the right hand lane. I had just been to Italy so I did everything but blow my horn. He held up 7 fingers to show he was going the speed limit and when he did he lost control and veered off onto the shoulder. He regained control, but I wondered if he was such a stickler for the speed limit, why was he trying to pass someone going the speed limit?
I had to come read the OP because of the title. Highway Traffic courtesy?! I don’t believe it exists.
I don’t know about the legal obligation, but I have to agree with what the others here said. Slowing down to get behind the slower cars so you can get out of Joe Speeder’s way is going to delay him just as much as you finish passing whatever slower cars you were passing before changing back to the slower lane. Even I, who get pissed daily by any large number of things while driving don’t get so much as a twinge of irritation with slowing down slightly to wait for other people to pass people going even slower than they were.
Never argue with tailgaters!
They are unsafe drivers, not to mention potential road ragers.
You don’t want them near you at all, since accidents are so much more likely.
Do anything to get them off your back, yes even slow and merge into another lane.
That’s the key. When I’m in a situation similar to the OP’s I speed up a little bit to complete my pass so the other guy can get around without waiting forever. When I see someone coming up behind me going quite a bit faster than I am, I’ll pull in behind the car I was going to pass and let them by first.
I like to drive fast (sometimes very fast) and am often in the left lane. If I come across someone going slower than me in that lane, I’m fine with that as long as they are making some kind of progress in passing the other cars. I woiuld simply ask that when it is safe for you to move to the right, that you do so (I would not expect you to squeeze into a situation where you find yourself tailgating someone or in a tight spot just to make way for me).
As mentioned before, it is when the person in the left lane is going the same speed as the guy to his right that I get cheezed, as well as the oblivious dolts who just cruise in the left lane without a care in the world, causing me to have to pass them on the right. Of course those thoughts are best saved for the pit.
I’d believe in a rodent giant enough (and intelligent enough) to drive a Toyota before I’d believe in any thing being polite enough to let a fellow driver cut in front of them.
If you are actively passing cars, that is one thing. But, as soon as there is room cars should move to the right.
My usual tactic is to flash lights at the offenders. I figure it’s safer than passing them on the right. Also, it helps them learn the errors of their ways.
Here’s an idea- observe the speed limit. Then you wouldn’t be passing a string of cars while going 5 mph over, and you wouldn’t have to worry about someone going 15 mph over. If we all observed the speed limits, not only would we all be safer but you’d be getting better gas mileage too. If enough people got just a little better gas mileage by observing the speed limits, then the demand for gas would go down as well as the price. A win-win-win situation.
BobLibDem, those are all excellent points, and certainly true, but I’m in a hurry here!!
I recently heard a radio/TV talking head postulate that, in the future, speeding will be viewed as as irresponsible and rashly unsafe as drunken driving is now, and it will be difficult to imagine a time when it was widespread and generally acceptable. 'Course, by then, we’ll all be gliding to work on our robot-controlled hover cars, on the speed-controlled mag-lev highway, and talking to our grandchildren on the Moon Phone.