Aaahhh I loved driving in Germany! Everyone knew the rules and followed them consistently. If you see headlights behind you, you are in the wrong lane. Period. It was great, coming back was culture shock.
I never pass on the left if I can help it at all. I’d rather drive slower than I want for a minute than pass on the left. There have been exceptions such as recently I was on I-94 and there was a huge jam of cars in the two Left lanes andthe right lane was open with at least a couple miles clear road ahead ofthe 15-20 car cluster. I passed it on the left, pulled into the right lane and continued on my way.
Fuel, that’s one of the most moronic things I’ve ever heard. Do you run around knocking people’s cigs out of their mouths too? You know, 'cause that might save a life or two. And thank god you’re such a great driver. I’ll feel better driving to work in the morning knowing that there are people like you out there on the road, deciding how fast people can go. If you are breaking the law by speeding, where do you get off by trying to stop someone else from doing the same thing?
At the risk of ranting on after one too many vodka tonics, I’ll close by saying I agree with what mhendo said.
In what states is it legal to pass on the right? I know in Texas it is perfectly legal to pass on the right, but you can be ticketed if you are going slower than the flow of traffic in the left lane.
I guess if the guy behind you is going 90 then that is the flow of traffic.
Sort of matches with my experience. I drive each summer from NJ to SC, and I find as soon as I get much south of DC that the “drive left, pass right” phenomenon is more prevalent. (I still like Virginia and the Carolinas though for other reasons.)
greenteeth, there’s a whole other thread about whether it’s legal to pass on the right, and the general consensus is no, not in most U.S. states in normal circumstances.
The best thing is to stay right if you are not passing. That said, I find myself passing on the right side if needed and driving out here at least it seems to be a free for all on the roads.
The best thing is to stay right if you are not passing. That said, I find myself passing on the right if needed but I don’t get angry unless the left lane driver is going way to slow. I find that driving in major city traffic to be somewhat of a free-for-all anyway with cars passing in all the lanes at high speeds.
In the given scenario, I would most likely slide over to the right lane and pass, without giving it a thought.
If my passenger were to bring the event to my attention, I would likely ponder how the person in the left lane is being mildly inconsiderate and leave it at that.
If the roles were reversed, I would definitely move over long before the headlights got near. I think it is common courtesy and shows consideration for other drivers on the road.
Now if the driver is blocking my passage for more than a minute or so, I would be displeased, assuming that the driver is fully aware of my presence and wishes to be rude to me.
In other lands, I feel this wouldn’t fly. In the UK, I found that folks are very respectful of the passing rules and I was very happy to find that traffic sorted itself out nicely into fast, medium, slow with no exceptions.
In Brazil, I have found that it is common practice for slower traffic to move off onto whatever poor excuse there may be for a shoulder (at speed) and let the faster car go on by. Usually it’s big trucks that do this. As you pass them, you can give a quick “toot toot” on the horn to thank them and they respond “WONK!” It’s just the way things work there. I usually drive on the shoulder to let faster folks pass when I’m there.
Oh, and since you are soliciting opinions, I don’t really care how fast everyone’s going. I still think “slower traffic keep right” should hold, out of common decency.
I just want to say this again for people who think “slower traffic keep right” no longer applies if the person in the right lane is already going the speed limit - sometimes people are having asthma attacks, or allergic reations, or have been bitten by a snake, or a woman is in labor.
Passing on the right is dangerous, because people are counting on it that cars on the right lane are slower than cars on the left lane. If something comes up ahead and I need to quickly switch to the right, I’d appreciate it, if some nutcase going at 90 mph wouldn’t crash into me.
So, therefore it is better to have people who are in a hurry (even though I don’t really see why people feel the need to drive 200 km/h (125 mph) when a good 130 km/h (80 mph) is the recommended, fuel-efficient and safe speed anyway. Oh well, that’s a different topic I guess) stick to the left lane. If I am “slow” and on the left lane, see a car in the rear view mirror, which is fast, and am able to cross over to the right lane, then I am going to do that, because a) it’s common curtesy and more importantly b) people shouldn’t be tempted to overtake me on the right as that is endangering everyone on the road.
Plus, if everyone heeds the rules and sticks to their lane, traffic flows a lot smoother.
Sounds great. The problem is I see far too many drivers who don’t move to the right lane and instead continue on drving in the left lane with you behind them. Do you just sit there hoping they move and let you pass or do you take the initiative and use the right lane that no one is driving in?
Do people who drive 80 MPH get the right to disrepect you, block your lane, block all the lanes, and then congratulate themselves for making the highways safer?
I wish I could convince you that it is dangerous for people going 90+ MPH to pass on the right. You don’t move over to “make them more comfortable,” you move over to avoid causing a deadly accident. To avoid even increasing the chance of such an accident.
People driving faster than you are cooler than you are. So, it’s your duty to move over to the right lane and let the cooler person go by.
Those that block the left lane deserve every bird they get flipped. I will pass on the right, but only after flashing high beams and honking to get them to move first. I figure I may as well try to get them to wake up and/or see the error of their ways.
I believe that in many states the lanes on a freeway are considered separate streams of traffic, so passing on the right is legal.
When I lived in New Jersey, there were very few left lane road hogs. I even saw one get a ticket for driving too slowly in the left lane. In California the right lane is frequently the fast lane and the left the slow, perhaps because there are so many people convinced it is cool to be on the left. Anyhow, in NJ there were actually state police on the roads. In the Bay Area they are good at responding to accidents, but they are few and far between for normal driving.
Well, I probably shouldn’t have gotten off subject. The topic was passing on right, not pacing. People who pace at a slow speed are the devil, I agree. People who pace at 85 are not as bad, though… anyways.
As far as passing someone while another car is behind me waiting to pass me, I think it’s safer to just sit tight and let the guy who wants to go faster take initiative to do so by doing something so simple as changing lanes. I do it all the time with ease, why do other people have to make it an issue? Answer me that question. Bet you can’t. And you are right, I am a damn good driver, better than you, because I can handle driving confrontation better than you. People don’t always get over, people just like me, it’s a fact of life, so come up with a way to deal with it. If the driver ahead doesn’t immediately put on their blinker or merge over immediately, I pass on the right. Been doing it this way for years and I haven’t had ANY dangerous moments, and surely no fits of immature driving behaviour like a lof of people I have encountered.
If I’m such a moron, then what are the people who stay behind me for 5 minutes with their brights on when there is an open lane right next to me? Thought so. People seem to be clinging on to this stupid unspoken law and it’s time for everyone to wake up and realize that if they want to drive 90+, they are going to have to slow down from time to time. If they are truly in a hurry, they won’t waste time flashing brights, they will be too busy passing on the right and not giving it a second thought.
Tradition is only good until it is not longer functional. Uh, I think this traditional law is a bit non-functional. Duh. Go around.
If I am going 85 mph, I belong in the fast lane indefinately. All that matters is that we preserve the fast lane/slow lane rule. The fast lane means going reasonably fast. 90+ is not reasonably fast, so they don’t have a lane of their own now, do they? (pacing is still wrong and when you follow the fast/slow lane rule, it is the defualt to pass the right lane driver.) Simple when you think about it… no need for a pass on the right rule. Don’t you realize this original “pass on left” rule is what made the whole confrontation dangerous in the first place. Now, because of this dumb rule, there is uncertaintly as to whether the person ahead is going to get over or not. Without this rule, everything would be fine.
HAHA. This conversation is so… no words to describe!
Um, first, the law is not “unspoken.” It’s both spoken and written, and is also codified in the traffic law of most states. It’s not just some piece of superstition that people cling to for no reason.
The fact that you pass slower traffic on the right does not mean that others should adhere to the same stupid and dangerous driving techniques. Sure, the people who tailgate you with their high beams on are morons; but you are also a moron if you let them do this for a full “5 minutes” (your words, not mine) without getting out of their way. And you say you “handle driving confrontation better” than others; give me a break!
I find it interesting that you set yourself up as the sole arbiter of what is and is not acceptable driving behaviour. For example, it’s OK to break the speed limit up to a certain point (arbitrarily decided by Fuel), but if you go any faster then you’re just being irresponsible. Why don’t you just cut to the chase and say: “Whatever i do in a car is fine, but if other people do things that i don’t like (even if they’re obeying the traffic rules) then those people are morons.”
You say that “it’s time for everyone to wake up and realize that if they want to drive 90+, they are going to have to slow down from time to time.” Well, one could just as reasonably say to you that “it’s time for you to wake up and realize that if you want to stay in the left lane, you are going to have to move over for faster traffic from time to time.” The fact that you don’t move over, and apparently refuse to move over even after 5 minutes of having the person right behind you, makes you just as much of a danger to other road users as the faster drivers.
And i noticed a similarity between people who talk about what great drivers they are and people who spend talk about how great they are in bed. In most cases, neither are as competent as they would like to believe.
Ah, again the brilliant Fuel enlightens all of us dummies as to what is “reasonably fast” and what is not. These figures, pulled from his rectum to suit his own selfish driving technique, again fail to convince anyone possessing even a smidgen of reason.
And now we have the brilliant argument that all of the problems of selfish left-lane hogs are caused by–wait for it–the “pass on left” rule. So, if we had none of those pesky road rules everyone could do whatever the fuck they wanted, there would be no uncertainty, and “everything would be fine.”
Anyhow, in NJ there were actually state police on the roads. In the Bay Area they are good at responding to accidents, but they are few and far between for normal driving.