I’m getting sick and tired of people pissing and moaning over getting passed on the right, like somehow it’s a fundamental violation of moral principle instead of a minor traffic infraction.
First, what fucking difference does it make what side I pass on? Does your hair look ugly from that side? Do you make a habit of looking in your mirror only when you change lanes to the left? What’s the big fucking deal?
And, second, it’s your fault. If you put down the cell phone, turn off the in-dash DVD player, and move the hell over, I wouldn’t have to pass you on the right. You shouldn’t even be in the left lane unless you are passing someone, which I can prove you are not doing because, if you were, I would just have rear-ended that person instead of passing your slow ass.
What difference does it make? For starters, it just may be a motor vehicle code violation. I can’t speak for California, but around these parts it does happen to be governed by a pesky little thing called the law.
Sorry to prick your balloon, but driving isn’t quite as cut-and-dried as you allege. When I approach an interchange and see another vehicle trying to enter the roadway, I move to the left. Assuming that these vehicles aren’t equipped with JATO style speed enhancement, it may take them a gasp few tenths of a mile to reach cruise speed. Whomever ends up going faster allows for the left lane to be cleared.
I’m not using a cell phone, and have no in-dash DVD player (they’re illegal, too). Perhaps I’m trying to do some things to which you’re not accustomed: being courteous, or driving at the speed limit.
Should you disagree, you’re cordially invoted to kiss my ass. You want fries widdat? :wally
I find that merging technique to be annoying as shit. Why can’t you stay in your lane? Because someone is merging into it who is going slower than you? Well guess fucking what, dickhead, that’s the exact same situation you are now creating for the people in the left lane. You are merging into their lane, and are driving slower than them. You dislike being in that situation, but have no qualms about creating it for other people.
Learn to fucking merge.
I am a right lane driver who stays in his lane except to pass. This entails gasp adjusting my speed to allow for traffic entering the highway.
Been driving for 21 years now and I always assumed the legal taboo with passing on the right was synonymous with shoulder driving or doubling up in a wide single lane in order to pass. Had no idea it would also refer to minding my own business in my own lane in a mulitple lane roadway.
Inigo, apparently that is illegal in some states. In California, it’s perfectly fine. Many are not aware of this - there are two threads going right now (counting this one) by California dwellers railing about people passing on the right…
Well, Sporto-there’s on thing that you’ve conveniently overlooked, and that was that I’m driving at or slightly above the speed limit in the above scenario. So, yes-I’ll move to the left at 68MPH to allow someone to enter at 45.
You can run up my ass at 80 and test your brakes, flash your lights, and have a hissy. Grow the fuck up.
Ther word “pass” is being misused in some places in this thread. If it’s a multi-lane road and your speed is greater than someone else, you’re overtaking him, not passing him. If it’s a single lane road and your car temporarily moves to a place you wouldn’t normally go (as to the shoulder, or the oncoming lane), that’s a pass.
Not counting navigating around construction zones and accidents and whatnot, I’ve passed on the right exactly once in my driving career, going to the shoulder to get around some clown who was driving reaaaaaal slow, to the point where at six cars (including me) had piled up behind him. I chose a long straight stretch of road, performed the maneuver quickly and smoothly and wouldn’t have attempted it all at night or in less-than-perfect weather conditions.
The schmuck honked at me as I blew past. Screw 'im.
So by your ‘logic’ it is OK to inconvenience others to avoid you being inconvenienced? Fucking inconsiderate, to say the least. If you are moving to the left in a non-emergency situation, have the fucking decency to drive with the flow of traffic.
If either of these conditions are true:
-There are cars on your rear, honking their horns/flashing their lights
-The lane of traffic to your right is moving as fast/faster than you
I have no problem driving with the flow of traffic. The fuckwits who claim ownership of the left lane so they can exceed the speed limit by >10 MPH have forgotten what they were taught in grade school-we have to share.
It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others. -John Andrew Holmes
I have no problem with sharing the road. I do have a problem with people (in the left lane) arbitrarily setting a speed limit for the line of pissed off cars stuck behind them. 10mph over? Depending on the freeway in question, that’ll earn you flashed lights and honked horns around here. (Especially on Southfield Freeway).
Why not just get a lane over to the right when it is obvious the traffic behind you wants to pass you? To not do so is supremely fuckwadish. Regardless, it is common driving etiquette to do so. But that, along with the use turn signals, is no longer applicable to our roads, it seems.
Brutus: I agree that, in general, it’s a bad idea to drive in the left lane for any length of time. Furthermore, to do so when there are people behind you who would like to pass is not only a bad idea, but also makes you an asshole.
In the scenario described by danceswithcats, though, the offending driver is merely moving over for perhaps ten seconds to allow a merging vehicle to enter. If he/she immediately moves back into the right lane as soon as it becomes safe to do so, then the merging vehicle has gained safe entry onto the freeway at the cost of a ten-second loss of 5-10 mph for you.
If you’re complaining that this is an unfair exchange, who is really being the asshole?
Hmm…ought to have clarified that a bit more. By “the scenario described by danceswithcats”, I was referring to that poster’s original contribution to this thread, involving moving over to allow traffic to merge. More recent posts have shown dwc to be of the “Junior Road Mod” persuasion, a position I most definitely do not support.
To clarify, we are not talking about an end-of-the-world scenario here; Just a case of inconvenience. But why the heck should a person merge over and inconvenience people in that (presumably faster) lane, when they could just tap their own brakes and inconvenience themselves?
?? Am I understanding you right? You slow down for drivers merging onto the highway?
IME, it’s the MERGER’S job to adjust HIS speed. People already on the highway are supposed to maintain their speed. Or, if they like (as I usually do) they can move left to allow mergers easier access).
Otherwise, it would be rather hazardous to have the right lane of the highway constantly slowing down for every onramp wouldn’t it?
My personal pet peeve is people who are merging, but they approach the highway without gauging the speed of the traffic, so they have a NICE long lane but they remain perfectly beside your car instead of speeding up to get ahead, or dropping behind.
If the highway is super crowded, and slow, then I can certainly see where you’d want to “help” someone merge. But if traffic is flowing along at the normal speed limit, slowing down to let someone merge just seems dangerous.
I have to admit that I, also, move over to let people merge onto the highway. However, I only do so in certain circumstances, such as when it’s obvious that my car and the merging car will end up occupying the same space at the same time because the dimwit on the on-ramp doesn’t know what that “yield” sign in front of them means.
Plus, I only move over when it’s either clear that I won’t be impeding anyone in the left lane, or when there are more than two lanes (in which case I’ll most likely always move over, as long as I’m not cutting anyone off). I frequently have to slow down, let the person entering the highway in front of me, and then move left and blast past them ad the earliest opportunity
Why the heck should a person want someone to stay in their lane and inconvenience people in the (presumably slower) lane, when they could just let people in front of them and inconvenience themselves?
Seriously, it’s not like the faster driver is a member of some sort of elite upper class, with more rights than the hoi polloi in the slower lanes. Why wouldn’t someone in the fast lane decide that inconveniencing themselves is better than allowing idiots, who don’t use the on-ramp to speed up like they should, to make the situation more dangerous than it needs to be?
That doesn’t make sense. You are free to merge into the left lane. It is not a exclusive club. Just be sure keep up and not slow down the flow of traffic. If you want to merge over and keep a slower speed, you are screwing over all the drivers behind you.
And while you may be under a legal obligation to allow merging traffic in, you are under no moral obligation to do so in a convenient (to them) manner. Speed up, if you like, and make the gaspedalophobic bastards get behind you. That might remind the merging driver that they should be timing their merging better; The good Lord gave us horsepower for a reason. If at no other time you hammer that engine, you should be getting up to ‘fleet speed’ on the ramp, not once you are on the freeway itself.
Slowing down to let in a slow-moving driver will have the effect of slowing down the entire lane, not just me. The onus is on the person making the move: Keep up with your new lane. Feel free to join us speed demons in the left lane, but keep up.
I hate people who overtake on the wrong side. (Which is the left in the UK).
Particularly annoying are the self-justifying idiots who say they’re only doing it because you’re not going fast enough in getting out of their way. I’ve news for those guys; we would get out of your way and you can continue on your merry, speed-limit breaking, if it wasn’t for the fact that you are now sitting in our blind spot. In your haste to get past you’ve already cut across into the slow lane right where we can’t see you. Are you staying there? Are you accelerating to pass? If I change lanes now am I going to get rammed by you? If I indicate I’m changing lanes are you going to pull back or speed up? We simply don’t know because you’ve decided to hide, so it’s safest to stay put.
This is why overtaking on the wrong side is dangerous and in many places illegal. And if you’d calm yourself for two seconds, stay put where you can be seen, we would let you pass. Idiot.
There is such a thing as the posted speed limit. If I am driving in the left lane and doing the speed limit, there is absolutely NO good reason in this world for anyone to pass me on the right. Unless, of course, the idiot doing so is DWHUA and thinks the speed limit signs don’t apply to them.
My personal preference is to drive in the right lane, because the vast majority of other people on the highway are DWHUA and they do think the speed limit signs don’t apply to them. But I’ll move over and drive in the left lane if the right lane has excessive wear or there are slower cars or cars merging. The speed hogs can pucker up and kiss my fundament while I’m there.
Um, if you were checking your mirrors every 3-5 seconds like you should be, then you’d have plenty of time to see the person creeping up on you. If there was room for him to pass, then there was plenty of time and room for you to move over. WTF are you doing in the far left lane in the UK anyway? It’s exclusively for passing there. If however you mean the middle lane of a multi lane highway, then sure, fuck the other driver, they should merge to your left.
YMMV on road conditions/Traffic of course.
