Unwarranted Tendency to Occupy Passing Lanes By City/State

In My Humble Opinion
41

There is a big difference between someone going 10 mph below the speed limit because all the cars in his lane are doing so, and someone going 10 mph below the speed limit with 5 car lengths in front of him and everyone else in the lane doing the speed limit. You can tell by the large number of cars forced to pass this idiot on the right.
Urban interstates, especially during rush hour, are mostly driven by people who know exactly where they are going - though some of them seem to like to move into an exit lane at the last possible second. We don’t have left exits, so that isn’t an issue. Though I hate to admit that anything in LA is better than in the Bay Area, when I’ve been in heavy traffic there everyone moves along at a good pace, there is little lane changing, and things are less stressful than here. I admit that being two inches from the car in front of me and the car behind me is two inches from me is not stressful to me.

I used to commute on a bridge across the Bay, several miles long with no entrances or exits. You could easily see how people driving slowly in the left lane caused congestion, and the clog vanished past them. I would suspect that the accident rate on these roads is a function of the number of lane changes, because each is relatively risky. When someone has to pull from the left lane to a middle lane in traffic, typically those behind in the middle lane slow down, which causes a chain reaction of slowing.
Driving below the average speed in the left is selfish and obnoxious. If someone feels they must go slowly, they are welcome to the right lane.

42

General observation: traveling long distances cross-country, I have observed drivers in rural areas behaving politely and with forethought, and drivers in urban areas behaving selfishly and nastily with each other. The kicker: I’ve seen the same drivers I’ve been beside for hours suddenly change their behavior as we move from rural to the approaches to urban congestion.

My conclusion: it’s not that rural drivers are better or nicer, it’s that (like rats in overpopulation experiments) our psychology changes with perceived crowding.

Specific nitpick:

They’re not “fazed.” Unless your talking about synchronizing waves of traffic or something, “phased” isn’t the word you’re looking for.

43

Danke. Moi, embarrassed. :frowning:

Can you follow my posts around and correct me coz I do that a lot, I think… :cool: :smiley:

44

I’m not that good about this problem - if I get thinking about something interesting, I’ll toodle along in the left lane. My mind just wanders.

I have done this a couple of times in Bavaria, and the response is amazing. People will come up from behind at high speed, follow one meter behind me, and hold the horn down until I am out of their way. Then they will rocket by, silently shouting in their glassy cocoon. It’s startling enough to help me overcome this tendency for a few days.

45

Deep thoughts.

46

Don’t faze me, bro!

47

Yeah, I know. But at least I’m not a FIP!*

*not saying you are, just saying I’m not :slight_smile:

48

Here in CA we do have one problem that drives me loco. You have a two lane country road, one lane each way, no passing. Winding and a tad slow at times. But there’s plenty of turnouts. Some dudes- esp trucks and dudes in SUVs don’t seem to know what a turn-out is for, despite many signs reminding them. The proper etiquette is to close a BIT, without tailgating too much, then flash highbeams. Again, this does not seem to deliver a clue.

49

Same thing in the mountains of Colorado. I believe the law is that if there are 5 or more cars behind you, you must pull over to let them pass.

50

Up here in Québec, on open highways without congestion, people are pretty good about driving on the right unless passing - it’s expected and correct behaviour to move back and forth between lanes if you are driving faster and want to pass someone. Of course, it’s acceptable to pass more than one car at a time, but if you hit a stretch where there’s no one in front of you for a while, you’re expected to move over. I do believe you can get ticketed if you don’t, but I don’t know anyone who has.

This behaviour changes in Ontario - they are left-lane-drivers and it annoys the hell out of me. Even one of my best friends does it, and I’m constantly teasing her about it, but she won’t change. It gets worse when there’s a third lane…all the slow idiots settle in the middle lane and people pass on both the left and right. It’s rather dangerous.

The difference is such that, often, when I come up behind someone just camping out in the left lane, they turn out to be from Ontario more often than not (or I just notice it more… I haven’t actually counted, but I’m going to use confirmation bias as fact hehe).

I don’t recall what the tendencies were out East - I don’t recall encountering enough cars to have noticed a pattern.

51

Did it ever occur to you that you could instantly eliminate them by pulling into the right lane? If it is blocked, you could even speed up and pull in in front of them.

The people most deserving of a drive by shooting are those that spend 20 minutes doing 66 beside a truck doing 65, and then when the truck no longer prevents you from passing them on the right, speed up to 80.

52

Yeah, them people… aaaarrrrgggggggg!!! Twisted minds.

53

I grew up in Texas(Dallas) and people generally follow the left lane passing rule, more of less. Moved to Chicagoland about a year ago. I drive back and forth from the West suburbs and downtown Chicago on 290 during non rush hour traffic and the driving behavior amazes me. I think the frequency of left lane exits just throws things off. The middle lane is always the slow lane with passing lanes on either side.

People also really don’t like changing lanes around here. I’ll be going 60mph in the slow lane and get tailgated…when we’re the only two cars on the road.

54

Yes, it is confusing there. People get confused as to which side is the passing lane to occupy and refuse to move so the chaos ensues.

55

No argument from me. Exactly what I do, although I generally am faster than the majority of traffic when I am on the highway. I was just trying to explain that when you can’t follow the 2 second rule, you probably can’t expect people to respect the passing lane. Also, in the city, with many of the distractions you get with the design of city interstates, the “passing lane” often doesn’t make any sense. Many people fail to realize this.

One more thought, if a person feels they have a “right” to drive 10 mph over the speed limit and everyone should get out of their way so they can exercise this “right”, why doesn’t that attitude extend to people who want to drive 10 mph under the speed limit?

I’m not advocating driving 10 mph below the speed limit on the open highway, but I wonder why the above doesn’t make any sense to anyone. Especially when driving 10 mph over is obviously is not a “right” (in fact, it’s against the law), but 10 mph under is perfectly legal (although being a hazard to traffic is not).

I have found, however, that if there is someone camping in the left lane, they are much more likely to move over to let me go by if I am 2 seconds behind them than if I ride their tail. As a result, I find my driving experience much enhanced. Just my experience. YMMV

excavating (for a mind)

56

If you are traveling “slower”, you don’t belong in the “fast” lane. It is simple as that.

57

There is a whole chapter on this aspect of dealing with human nature alone. They are not letting you go; by you falling back they are just lulled to sleep as far as trying to prevent you from getting in front of them.

58

I drive home most nights in maddening traffic on Route 3 in New Jersey. There’s one significant merge and one bottleneck due to construction in the first seven miles. I get into the left hand lane, establish a safe following distance to the next car, and then keep up with the faster left lane traffic (we’re usually about 5 MPH over the speed limit). On balance, that lane IS the passing lane, but it’s subject to some slowdowns itself.

But that’s not good enough for the idiots who come up behind me, tailgate a car length off my bumper (even though they can see that I’m moving right along at the left lane’s faster speed). So I move over when it’s safe to do so. And then the idiot zooms up ahead at about 75 MPH and does the same thing to the next guy in the left lane.

So it appears to me that problem isn’t people who want to “pass”. It’s people who want the entire left lane cleared so they can do 80 MPH all the way home.

Tailgating is just dumb. So is flashing your brights for the same reason. Move somewhere that doesn’t have traffic. Then you can drive as fast as you like in the left lane.

Whenever I get passed by one of these maniacs, I always say the same thing “hey, there goes my radar detector!”

59

Anyone who tailgates, when they can clearly see that the car or the traffic in front of them has no where to go, is an idiot, stupid, dumber ass, punk ass, donkey balls, ass monkey, and so on.

I don’t actually say that but this actually happens all the time to me coz I have a radar detector; mine keeps me entertained as it talks and let me know what types of signal is detected and my marked GPS locations etc as well as ‘even out the playing field’ with sneaky LEOs’ speed trap setups, particularly in the dark (not if they are using laser guns though… laser guns usages are rare due to limitations and the cost… You just have to have 6th sense in the dark).

Oblivious drivers step on their brake as they pass by speed traps or not at all; they need to study the chapter that covers having awareness of your surroundings, particularly ahead, and way ahead, of you, since you are traveling forward in high rates of speed.

(This is not to you, AuntPam)
BTW, speeding is not the subject of this thread; let the speeders worry about that.

60

Sometimes that’s certainly the case. With these types of examples, they usually realize they’re going a bit too slow for traffic, after the 3rd to 5th person gets fed up and passes them on the right-- then they quickly make the effort to get over. It happens (though really, if you’re not actively conscious of your surroundings, as a driver, it sort of reinforces the point of the thread).

Unfortunately, we then have cases of people like this, who know they are holding up traffic, and as a driver attempts to make the pass, they speed up and attempt to block them. Sadly, I see this way too often.

But if you ask me, a driver who is aware of their surroundings usually doesn’t need either of these to happen. I know myself and many others make an effort to take account of what’s around us, and we notice when someone is coming up faster in our rear view. Politely getting over is an extension of courtesy, and makes better use of the multiple lanes made available. The faster driver goes about their way and I continue on mine.

What’s funny, is a point someone made earlier in the thread-- if it’s a member of the local law enforcement, I can bet with 99% confidence that person will suddenly be aware of their surroundings, and get over. For some reason, people choose not to do so, when it’s any other motorist.

I think in general, it’s because that person doing 10 under is also deciding for everyone else that they will do 10 under, for however long you’re stuck behind them (on two-lane roads this is a pain).The person who chooses to go 10 over, is more likely to pass you and not be seen again. I’ll go with the latter, every time (they also make good wingmen :D).

That’s been my experience, too. However, that’s if you’re just assuming 2 scenarios. A 3rd scenario, is that the person will stay in the lane, regardless of a 2 second following rule or more, until I decide to pass. If I and/or 3 others do this, the person may decide to finally get over.