My husband and I were pulled over in Dekalb County, GA. The officer was all, “Why y’all in such a hurry that you gotta go 80 miles an hour?” My husband sighed and said, “I was just following traffic.” (Which was true, cars were whizzing past us at that speed.) The cop was pleasant, he said (picture the Southern accent): “Oh don’t follow these guys, they’ll getcha in trouble.” My husband was pleasant and they made small talk about “Where y’all from?” etc. We were all set to pay the fine right there but because it was a “Superspeeder” ticket he gave my husband a court date. Well as tourists there’s no way we’re gonna come back for that, and we realized later that the cop transposed the last digits of my husband’s licence number on the ticket. I don’t know if that was intentional or not, but we won’t be visiting Georgia ever again, just in case…
Why does this make it a *requirement *to speed? As a 41 year old female who’s been driving for over 20 years in several states and a variety of environments, I say screw you if I want to drive the speed limit on the highway in the far right lane. There are at least two other lanes, go around me if you feel you must drive faster than the posted speed limit. Unless you are inclined to donate generously to my gas money and car maintenance funds, I’ll drive as sensibly as I damn well please without regard to how aggressively everyone else is driving. I’m not going to be bullied into driving faster than is necessary. :mad:
There is no problem with anyone who wants to drive the posted speed limit on the button. Just do it in the right lane.
There are lots of funny and cute lines in this thread, but the above line is the winning one to use in real life. Show respect, show contrition, admit nothing.
I didn’t say that “make[s] it a *requirement *to speed”, albeit I guess you could construe my statements to mean, I think that you might ought to, if only for the reason of contributing to smooth traffic flow. 
With that said, I applaud your intelligence and common sense for moving to the far right lane (whenever possible, I presume) if you realize that you’re traveling slower than the general flow. 
In Texas the law states (and there are signs on the Highways) “Slower traffic keep right” (if and whenever possible).
For that matter, there are even Highways where certain portions are designated “Left lane for passing only”.
Yet all too often, there will be some sanctimonious ‘yahoo’ driving *‘the speed limit’ *in the left hand (or ‘fast’ lane) even though traffic in the right hand lane is moving faster than they are! :mad:
I have queried various LEOs on this matter, and the general consensus is “go with the flow of traffic”. Now of course, if you’re out on the ‘open Highway’ and you are the one ‘setting the flow speed’ you run the very real risk of getting pulled over.
There’s an old saying that goes something along the lines of “If you ain’t the lead dog in the pack, the view never changes.”
Of course, being the ‘lead dog’ ain’t always being the ‘best’ dog! 
Some months ago I heard a Washington State trouper on TV discussing this business of “left lane camping”. He gave the information that in 2009 the State Patrol issued around 9,800 citations for cars in the left lane that were traveling slower than the rest of the traffic, even if they were doing the posted speed limit. He said that the Patrol did not consider it the duty of ordinary citizens to enforce speed limits by their own actions. He sort of compared it with vigilantism.
Niiiiiice.
The problem, though, is that in the very likely chance that you have to explain the joke to him, he’s probably going to think you’re a meth dealer, and toss your car.
I’ve always had good luck with "I’m sorry. I was driving too fast,"and then being fully cooperative when the officer asked for drivers license, insurance, etc. Twenty six years of driving, probably pulled over a half-dozen times, zero tickets - just warnings to slow it down. (Twice, though, I probably got special consideration because the officer recognized the name from the registration, but I wasn’t married to a cop the previous times. Dunno whether I’d have received warnings or tickets otherwise.)
As for camping in the left lane, the hubby has been known to ticket for that. It’s posted “slower traffic keep right,” around here, so the charge is impeding the flow of traffic.
ETA: I just remembered (Hey, I’m old! What else can I say? :smack:) that the above ‘scenario’ has happened to me!
I was in a group of three vehicles, mine being in between the other two, as all of us topped the crest of an overpass. Sure enough there was an HPD cruiser running radar, parked on the inside shoulder.
We were all going at the same speed, and no one was ahead of anyone else.
The cop turns on the ‘red and blues’ and catches up to the pack and proceeds to pull in behind me, motioning for me to pull over.
I stop on the outside shoulder, the cop rights me up for 10 over the limit (we were all going* at least *18-19 over the posted limit).
As she’s handing me back the citation I asked her, “So… What’d you do… just pick me out of the middle at random?”
Her reply… “Well… I couldn’t catch all of y’all.” :mad:
I took that as my cue to STFU. 
(Dismissed in traffic court, cop didn’t show up.)
Fair enough. Carry on, just don’t tailgate me while you’re waiting for the lane to your left to clear so you can zoom around me. 
I want to make it clear that my reasons for driving the speed limit has nothing to do with trying to be traffic cop. I personally abhor that behavior and have been the recipient of that obnoxiousness a number of times (usually when it comes to fully utilizing available lanes in heavy traffic). My motivation is to reduce fuel consumption and wear-and-tear on my car while trying to make the best of my commute. It’s not a race, nor a competition for me. I just want to get to my destination safely and in a good mood.
Yes, I make a habit of staying to the right and only moving left when it becomes necessary for me to pass or when the right lane is loaded with 18-wheelers continuously bearing down on me. I’ll let them have the lane because, well…I don’t have a death wish or anything.
That pisses me off, too.
One day I was driving to work, and got stuck following somebody for a mile or so doing 40mph in a 55mph zone. There’s no passing on that road, so I was pretty annoyed. The weather was clear, roads dry, visibility excellent; there was no reason I could see to go so slow.
Later that day I was grousing about it to someone in my store, and she said, “Oh, that was me. I think that speed limit is much too high, so I slow everybody down whenever I can.”
I was utterly flabbergasted.
I was once third in line to make a left turn and the lights were cycling without giving us a green. The two cars ahead of me both went on red with an OHP officer sitting on the other side of the intersection. The light finally went green and I made my turn to see the flashing lights behind less than a hundred yards from the intersection. I was in a very foul mood and after rolling down my window as the officer approached I loudly asked “What the Fuck did I do?” He then informed me that I had a headlight out.
The problem with the question “Do you know how fast you were going?” is that there is an assumption within the question. In other words, “Do you know how fast you were going?”. And then there is a sub-assumption; that is, “Did you know how fast you were going?”
So by answering “Yes, I always go the speed limit.” you are knocking out the assumption and sub-assumption. You are killing two birds with one stone, as it were.
Who cares what an actor thinks about the traffic laws?
Don’t you just want to throttle 'em? :mad:
“Funny enough, I was just talking to my friend about that. Our speedometer has melted and as a result it’s very hard to see with any degree of accuracy exactly how fast we were going.”
…
This is ridiculous. This is basically the government admitting that the speed limit is BS…but still having the ability to ticket you for going 56 in a 55 zone. I typically surpass the highway speed limit by at least 10 mph, and I also get annoyed at slow drivers in the left lane. But there’s no way that it’s fair to ticket them. They are the ones following the stated rules. Punishing them leaves the door open for all sorts of inconsistent policing, causing drivers to essentially guess as to what will be enforced on a given road.
And while we’re on the subject of unfair policing, what’s up with all these FOP and PBA cards? What just because your uncle is a cop, you don’t have to pay the fines that the rest of us? Maybe when there’s more Indian state troopers, I’ll feel differently.
Ok, I’m done.
If someone is driving the speed limit in the fast lane then they have to move over if someone faster comes along behind them. Otherwise, the slower person is not following the stated rules; they are impeding traffic. They may be cited for that even if they obey the speed limit. Failure to move over and yield to a faster car (relative speed) has nothing to do with the speed limit.
Obviously, the faster driver is violating the speed law and is eligible for a speeding ticket.
If the speed limit driver is to obey the law, then they move over to permit faster drivers to pass.
Here is the law in Washington:
Seems pretty straightforward to me.