One thing I remember vividly from driver’s ed class – taught to about a hundred sixteen year olds staring blankly into space by a man in his seventies or so.
“So if you’re driving down the highway going the speedlimit, 65, and everyone else is driving 75, should you drive the speedlimit?”
Chorus of “yeeeeeees.”
“NO!”
The sudden shout from the ordinarily laconic man straightened every spine in the room as though we’d been sprayed with cold water.
“You go 75. And this is why. If you’re going ten miles per hour slower than everyone else on the road, YOU ARE A SAFETY HAZARD. So yes. Even though you’ll be speeding, if you’re on a street where everyone around you is going 75, you should be going 75 too. It’s a LOT safer than going 65.”
Never once have I been pulled over for speeding while going 75 mph in a 65 mph zone if I have been surrounded by same.
Seconded. The “social experiment” would have been more valid if they had followed the all important rule to keep right except when passing. Bunch of asses.
I had to deal with this just this morning on the way to work. It’s a four-lane in-city interstate, with just about everyone going around 65 (the official speed limit). I have no problem with anyone in the right 3 lanes doing 65, but the asshat in the far left lane, going 65 mph, with 10 cars lined up behind him and no one in front of him for a quarter mile, made me want to tear my hair out. Well, not really, but it did make me wonder what might be going through his head. No one could get around him on the right because traffic was too heavy, and all going the same speed. Was he completely oblivious to what was going on around him, or did he just not care? When an opening finally presented itself to our right, it was like a Nascar race when the pace car pulls off … zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom.
And I’m not really saying he should have moved over so we could all speed, but traffic works because everyone is following the same rules. And one of those rules is not blocking the passing lane, regardless of whether or not people “should” be going over the speed limit.
Every once in awhile here in NJ I actually see something even stranger:
I’ll be driving along a mostly empty highway, perhaps late at night, move left to pass someone in the middle lane only to come across someone hanging out there with no one around. I don’t like passing on the right, as its dangerous if the person suddenly moves over, so I flash my lights, they slowly awaken, signal, move over the right. I pass, and then move over to the right like I should. Then - in my rear view mirror, I see that car signal and move back into the left lane! For no reason. They could have probably driven in the other lane for hours as there was such little traffic, but they conciously decided to move back and hang out in the left!!!
My father’s theory is that these people are really just very lazy. If they just park it in the left lane, they can drive for hours without having to switch lanes, avoid cars entering from ramps, etc. As long as they ignore the line of cars behind them, its stress free, easy driving.
Maybe the right lane is bumpier, due to having taken more of a beating from large trucks, and the other driver is simply opting for the smoother drive? I’ve certainly driven on roads where there’s a noticeable difference between the two lanes.
It’s not just rude, it’s dangerous. My theory, qualified by over a million miles on the road, is that folks like this aren’t rude, lazy, stupid, blind, etc. They’re just oblivious. Nothing exists outside of the world of their car.
An example of this, I drive a bit on two lane highways. I get stuck behind someone going 5-10 MPH under the speed limit. A line of cars soon builds up. Then you approach a small town where the speed limit drops to 45. Everyone else slows down, except the leader of the pack. They keep truckin along at the same speed. I realized, they don’t know the speed limit, they don’t know how fast they’re going, they don’t know the cars and trucks are stacking up behind them, they may not even know where they are. Oblivious.
Of course, cell phones just increase the opportunity for obliviousness.
I’ve seen that situation too, but not on the road I’m talking about (I-95). The interstates down here are very well taken care of, there’s no difference from one lane to the next. And I’m talking about people being in the left-most of four lanes, not just avoiding the right lane. They’re all the way over.
Personally, when there’s not much traffic, I avoid the left-most lane, because it DOES stress me out to have people building up behind me. I guess that’s my little ol’ social conscience getting in the way.
It’ll depend on your location. Here’s a list of keep right laws some of them include references to the speed limit, some only mention the ‘normal speed of traffic’. As in, if you’re going below ‘normal’ then you should stay to the right, unless you’re passing someone.
I’m sure there are other impedment laws than these stay right regulations, which may or may not have a speed limit requirement of their own.
I remember being taught this as well. Anyone who frequents the 210 out here will tell you that doing 75-80mph is the only safe way to drive in open traffic. And I have, on several occasions over the years, had a CHP officer pass me without giving me a second look while I was doing 75 (the speed limit is 65).
Yeah, I’ve occasionally seen that in DC-area traffic…but sometimes there’s no sizable break in the right-lane traffic.
My choices then become:
drive 10 or more under the limit with the slow folks in the right lane, pinned there indefinitely because overtaking drivers on the left side never let me merge back out into their lane;
advance to LUDICROUS SPEED! to avoid impeding the left lane fighter-pilot(s)… I’m not kidding, I’ve seen them doing 90 in a 55 zone with people piling up in the right lane…gives me the willies; if someone darts left, you’re burying two or more families. The problem with going to LUDICROUS SPEED! to avoid impeding the left lane is the occasional fighter pilot whose entire goal is to go faster than you – no matter how fast you’re going. These cheeseheads will ride your bumper faster and faster without a thought for the conseqence – they don’t want to go 75, 90, 110, or any fixed speed; they just don’t want someone in front of them. I’ve ridden as a passenger with some of these people, and I can confirm that they express actual verbal annoyance at seeing someone in front of them, even if that person is going faster than they were comfortable doing, and will speed up to overtake.
Impede the flow of left-lane traffic until said fighter pilots terrorize someone in the right lane and pass me on the right…
THEN, because I let them back into the left lane instead of freezing them out, they can proceed and I am not permanently jammed in with the turnip farmers. To paraphrase Winston Churchill’s assessment of democracy and apply it to driving, it’s the very worst way of dealing with the problem except for all the others.
Interesting excerpt from RCW (Washington) related to:
Going too slow
Exceeding speed limit to pass
“(1) No person shall drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law: PROVIDED, That a person following a vehicle driving at less than the legal maximum speed and desiring to pass such vehicle may exceed the speed limit, subject to the provisions of RCW 46.61.120 on highways having only one lane of traffic in each direction, at only such a speed and for only such a distance as is necessary to complete the pass with a reasonable margin of safety.”
I’ve encountered people like this before. I’ve ridden with a few. IMO it’s an irrational compulsion that has little or nothing to do with caring about the amount of time it takes them to reach their destination. These people should have to take testosterone suppressants.
Recently my wife and I were traveling on a 3 lane highway with a speed limit of 65. She was driving and sat in the middle lane doing about 67. Cars were passing us on the left AND right and after about 20 miles of this I asked her why she wasn’t in the right lane (it was clear, or at least we wouldn’t be coming up on anything imminently). Her response was, “I’m going faster than the speed limit so everyone else is speeding. It is their problem.” I tried to (gently) explain that the left lanes are for passing and she should be in the right lane. Didn’t fly. I’m still amazed at people who think that just because they are going the speed limit they can do whatever they want on the road.
Sailboat - Your best bet is to be in the right lane even if it is going 10 mph slower than the speed limit, unless you are going long distances (hundreds of miles). In all likelihood, it would be less than a 10 minute difference, and probably less than 5. Example: Trip of 60 miles, speed limit is 65. Travel at 70 mph and it will take you 51 minutes. Travel at 60 mph and it will take you 1 hour. Difference is only 9 minutes. For a trip of 30 miles, the difference will be only 4.5 minutes.
Rarely works though, the slow overtaker is allready oblivious to everything except himself and the vehicle he is overtaking or they wouldn’t be behaving as such a selfish fuckup to begin with.
I’m glad someone brought up a legal advise to overtake at a sufficiently fast rate, even if that takes you over the speed limit for the duration of the overtake.
I wish police would charge such poor standard drivers as often as they charge speeders for their bad driving.
Not sure that’s true, if you look up RCW 46.61.120 here that seems to be instructions about overtaking in single lane roads. So it is unclear if the line just means “as long as you also obey rule RCW 46.61.120 on single carrageway roads” or that the rule “only apples to single carrageway roads”
Someone who speks leaglese would have to interpret that for us to be certain.
If it weren’t for the NJ location, I’d have figured you got stuck behind my grandmother. My sweet old grandmother who would never dream of intentionally ticking anyone off yet insists on never driving in the right hand lane, despite the fact that (well, as an aging grandmother is prone to do) she usually drives under the posted limit. :rolleyes:
Her reason: she doesn’t like dealing with merging traffic. I don’t know what kind of hell merging traffic was when she learned to drive, but she is adamant about not dealing with it. Yes, I have tried explaining to her that any danger from merging traffic is probably less than the danger of driving slowly in the left lane. I’ve tried explaining to her that the chances of merging traffic on a long stretch of highway is minimal since there are few on ramps and she can easily see them coming and move over if that is her choice. It goes no where. She’s driven like that for decades. She’s not changing.
Oh My GOD! Thats GREAT! Going about I-285, The Georgia Autobahn at 55… The look of all those cars going over the hill between Memorial Dr. And Church St/Ponce de Leon. That was freaking hillarious!