You see these signs often on multi-lane highways, and I have always assumed that they mean the same thing to me as a driver: drive in the (non-turning) lane furthest to the right unless passing someone else or preparing to turn left.
However, a few people that I have spoken to seem to think that “slower traffic keep right” only applies to people doing less than the speed limit. They also seem to think that doing the speed limit actually obligates them to keep left, but that’s probably a topic for the pit!
So is there any real difference in what the signs are commanding me to do?
Have you ever seen “keep right except to pass” where there are three lanes or more? That would seem odd to me, like BOTH the left and middle lanes are for people who are passing others, and I really don’t think they need TWO lanes!
I would expect that “keep right except to pass” means “the leftmost lane is only for passing”, and that “slower traffic keep right” means “if you’re blocking the cars behind you, move rightward.”
Different states have different rules. The majority of them are basically “slower traffic keep right” without any real definition of what “slower” means. Some are keep right except to pass and the rest are an odd hodgepodge of rules, including a handful where it is keep right if you’re doing less than the speed limit or the speed limit minus X. Here’s a list of them: State "keep right" laws
Note, that at least in my casual observation I don’t think the signs stating “keep right except to pass” versus “slower traffic keep right” necessarily correspond to what’s actually in the motor vehicle code for a given locality. Also, you’re probably more likely to win the lottery than get ticketed under any of these rules. Unfortunately.
In Texas, the signage here admonishes “slower traffic keep right” and is seen on multiple lane highways and freeways. On highways with only two lanes going in each direction, the sign “no trucks in left lane” is sometimes used.
I’m not quite sure of the criteria used in deciding which sign goes where, although I would imagine that there are bound to be some kind of formal ‘rules’, governing placement.
Unless of course, you’re in Texas.
Where State Troopers are notoriously… well, lets just say that they are very knowledgable of all of the various infractions that can be committed and also very diligent about enforcing those laws. YMMV
In Illinois, you pass and then get back over into the right lane. People drive in long single-file lines.
I only found out because a friend told me, or I would have done like we do here in Colorado and just stayed left as long as I was passing or going to be passing someone.
Oh, and to more directly address the OP, there is definitely a substantive albeit subtle difference in the two rules. In a “slower traffic keep right” jurisdiction, you can just decide “hey, I’m not slower” and cruise in the left lane all you like unless someone is holding you up. In a “keep right except to pass” state you can get a ticket for driving in the left lane if you’re not actively passing someone, even if you’re not holding up any traffic and are going faster than the flow of traffic.
I always figured that each additional lane is meant to be passing the one to its right. So on a three lane highway, the middle lane passes the right, and the left lane passes the middle. At least, that would be the ideal situation, I think. There would likely be quite a bit less zig-zagging going on if that were the case, anyway.
Thailand has, by default and with no signs posted, a “keep left(*) except to pass” rule on some of its major highways. (I vaguely recall some European countries having a similar rule.) When the rule is enforced, a driver can use the right lane only to pass a single vehicle. If you want to pass three trucks you must, at least in principle, return to the left lane after each truck. :smack:
Traffic law enforcement in rural Thailand is very lax. All manners of speeding and reckless driving go unnoticed. But, for a while, they had at least two semi-permanent traps on major highways where they stopped and fined drivers for the “in right lane” violation. These traps were never relocated so the rule was ignored on 99.9% of highway sections. (Slow trucks stay in the fast lane on some Asia Highway sections, after a few years of their weight has degraded the slow lane to be too bumpy.)
(* - Americans can reverse left and right to make sense of discussions of driving in countries like U.K. or Thailand.)
That’s the way it is in New Jersey. The expectation is that no one ever uses the left lane at all… in an ideal world where everyone is traveling at exactly the same speed. But when there is a differential, you can temporarily use the left to pass.
Of course, with Jersey being the most densely populated state by people and cars, it is rare anymore for tickets for simply being in the left lane. But the expectation is that when you are in the left and someone is overtaking you, you move right to let them pass on the left, if you don’t move right, the one wanting to pass may flash their brights at you (which is illegal, but… hey, hard to hear honking at 70 mph).
Right-passing in NJ is illegal except in dense traffic where changing lanes is almost not an option.
No doubt true, but when I lived in NJ I actually saw someone get pulled over for this, (He didn’t seem to be committing any other sins.) Did my heart good.
In California passing is allowed in any lane on freeways at least. All traffic lanes are considered independent. I think this is true in NY also, at least I think I remember that from driver’s ed.
Unfortunately Michigan is similar when there are more than two lanes. However the law says we have to obey signs, and luckily there are a few signs sprinkled throughout the state the overrule the law and force slower traffic to keep right. Those damned Ohioans don’t pay attention to the rule though. Increasingly there seem to be a bunch of Ohio drivers that acquire Michigan plates and cruise in the left lane, too.
Here, the signs used to say “slower traffic keep [right]" but that changed probably about 25 years ago to "keep [right] unless overtaking”.
I remember reading at the time that the change was made because just like the way more than 50% of motorists think they are better drivers than most, and all parents think their sons and daughters are smarter than average, people don’t like to think they are “slower”. It’s a loaded term. So people would stay in the passing lane.
Asking people to stay [right*] unless overtaking is more objective.
*Left/right inverted to make this easy to follow for people from countries that drive on the wrong side of the road
I think the optimum wording might be “Keep right except when passing” - implying that you should be in the left lane only when there’s no room in the right lane.
In CT which is fairly densely populated the three major freeways, I-84, I-95, I-91 are for the most part three lanes with four in more heavily traveled areas. The center and left lane travel pretty close to the same speed. There is usually not much traffic in the right lane (except I-95 which is crazy crowded) because that is used for entering and exiting. There is often less than a mile between exits.
Pretty typical. And there’s nothing much wrong with this if you’re content to see an expensive highway carry only about 75% of the traffic it could safely handle.
On our three lane motorways the rule is to keep left unless overtaking. Middle lane hogs are a problem and as a truck driver who is not allowed to use the third lane, I would frequently pass them on the inside. Trucks are limited to 56mph and cars can do 70mph, although as anyone who has driven here will have noticed, the upper limit is widely disregarded.
There is much debate about the legality of this. It **is **legal to pass on the inside where traffic is queuing, but it is **not **legal to ‘overtake’ on the inside. The police can now issue spot fines to those hogs, so maybe that will alleviate the problem
YMMV