In Australia, the right hand side is the fast lane (because we drive on the opposite side). I only point this out so the rest of my post makes sense to those of you who are skimming.
On our dual-lane carriageways, we used to have signs up that said “Slow vehicles use left lane”. Only problem is, many people didn’t seem to grasp the idea that they were a ‘slow vehicle’, even if they were driving 40km under the speed limit. (I have my own theories about the reason for this. It goes something like ‘those people are fuckheads’.)
Once they changed the signs to say ‘Keep Left Unless Overtaking’, things worked a lot better.
But in some states, like CA, it* isn’t* “the passing lane”. True, they do have a rule “slower traffic keep right” and laws vs impeding traffic, etc, but you can drive all you want in the “fast lane” on most highways in CA.
If the dude in the left lane is going too slow, why not just pass him in the right lane?
This isn’t Vietnam, this is driving. There are rules.
[/Big Lebowski reference]
Because if you’re going slow in what oughta be the passing lane, odds are damn good that people aren’t going fast in the travel lanes. In places where there is order on the friggin’ highways – Germany comes to mind – people can actually get wherever the fuck they’re going without having to deal with retards who think that no matter what speed they’re going, they don’t have to have a single cocksucking ounce of courtesy for other drivers by letting them pass in an organized manner.
I disagree with the folks who think you should switch lanes at the first possible indication of an upcoming lane closure. That’s great to do if traffic is moving freely (but chances are you aren’t complaining about late merges in those cases).
When traffic is backed up and everybody piles into the good lane early, they’re making inefficient use of the roadway and doubling the length of the traffic jam. Oftentimes, that means that the person who wants to exit BEFORE the merge has to wait 10 minutes in the traffic jam because the folks in the front aren’t using both lanes properly (and some are even straddling both in some weird vigilante idiocy.)
In heavy traffic, it is so much easier and more efficient for everyone to stay in their lane until maybe 1/8 mile before the merge point. No one can “cheat”, no one gets angry, you can do a simple one-on-one merge and you don’t block any more of the roadway than is necessary.
Some states (e.g. West Virginia) have put up signs to this effect, saying “Use both lanes until merge point.”
Why I oughtta… Just so ya know, I’m talking about what the rules should be, and I lived for about 20 years in the Bay Area. Things may have changed since I left, but I still think the Bay Area has a lesser percentage of bad drivers than most other places I’ve been in the US.
Sweet Jesus! I was recently stuck behind some bitch doing the Vigilante Straddle – she swung out from the 5 mph clogged with traffic left lane when she saw my car driving the speed limit in the right lane (closed 1 mile ahead). And this was DESPITE the posted USE BOTH LANES UNTIL MERGE POINT sign. She turned around and smirked at me, too.
Look, it’s not my fault if I’m the only person on the road who understands what USE BOTH LANES UNTIL MERGE POINT means.
But aside from this incident, the USE BOTH LANES signs are wonderful things. They make things better for everyone.
But along this line, I’ve been pulled over eight times since I got my new Charger in April. Twice for passing cops on the interstate. They don’t like that too much. But I’ve still only gotten one ticket. In the past when I’ve gotten pulled over, the cop has said, “License, registration, insurance.” Now, the first thing they say is, “This thing got a Hemi?” But, just because I drive fast, doesn’t mean I drive like an asshole. I always give people plenty of room, and don’t tailgate.
You’ve been pulled over 8 times in less than a year? I don’t care that you’ve only been ticketed once, that’s a lot. This doesn’t speak highly of your driving ability and/or your compliance with the rules of the road.
After reading your vomited bile here, it isn’t hard to figure out exactly who the “assbitch” is in your world.
I agree. I’ve always thought one should merge pretty much at the very end. It keeps things much more ordered and smooth this way, rather than have a couple people merge at the mile mark, a couple at the 3/4 mark, a couple at the half mark, and a couple at the very end. So I always merge at the very end.
No. They made two lanes because one wasn’t considered sufficient to handle the expected peak traffic volume. “Drive right, pass left” is merely a consequence of that.
Okay, Santo Rugger, I get your points. I can see that it’s very frustrating to you that during the morning rush, folks aren’t leaving the left lane clear for you. The rush is a misnomer. There are too many cars on the available lanes for anybody to rush. There are way too many cars for all of them to fit in the right lane. The government has plans to add another four lanes in 2012, and by then that won’t be enough lanes. There are times when the enlightened driver must accept being a mere scale on the moving snake.
I just wish I could think of a joke about Assbitcher’s Syndrome.
No. I was actually paying attention to this last night. If I was following two cars, I was leaving at least five times more space than the second car was leaving the first; it was almost always at least two full seconds. If that’s just what I think is plenty of space but it actually isn’t, feel free to correct me.
Go fuck yourself. Seriously. I bet you think I made this story up, too? Like I said, I got a new car in April, and had quite a bit of fun driving fast. That’s one rule of the road that I consciously chose to break. I’m *not *a rude driver, and the reason I only got one ticket is because I only deserved one ticket.
