I’m sure this has been done many a time, but here we go again…
I’m a slow driver. I’m content as a slow driver. I like driving this way. However, I’m not a moron, and I know that my going the speed limit on the freeway is alot slower than most people like to drive. So, to be polite, on a three lane freeway, I only go in the center lane.
So why, when the left lane is empty, and the right lane is empty, do people come flying up to me, ride my tail for a few miles, and then zoom past with glares and hand gestures. Honks on occasions. What the heck!? I’m in the center lane for a reason! Geeshus people.
I often do the same as the OP, although fortunately I don’t seem to have the same problems with other drivers. As far as the right lane, it often goes slower than the speed limit due to cars exiting and entering the highway, and these days, with people seeming no longer to know how to – or be willing to allow others to – merge, you avoid awkward and potentially dangerous difficulties with merging traffic.
You really should be in the right lane, not the center, if you are going significantly slower than most of the traffic.
The hand gestures, for the most part, are a friendly acknowledgement of respect for your strength of character and unwillingness to be intimidated by the aggressiveness of others.
On the other hand, a number of drivers are convinced that you have been planning to end up just in front of them all along, and that even though you are a complete stranger to them you are are for some reason deliberately and maliciously impeding their progress.
Evidently, you don’t have the common courtesy to simply disappear when another driver happens to be in the same lane just behind you. You really need to practice this technique.
The noted neurologist-turned-author Dr. Oliver Sacks wrote a fascinating study of the interactions and social hierarchy among drivers on multi-lane freeways. See The Man Who Wore his Ass for a Hat, Touchstone Books, 1987, ISBN ISBN 0-684-85366-6
No, the right lane is for getting on and off the road. Without having a cite on hand, I have heard many times it’s the most dangerous lane of the freeway. And driving around here everyday, I believe it. The phrase, “check to see if lane is empty before moving into it” has obviously never graced the ears of the majority of drivers I see.
And I really don’t drive that significantly slower. The speed limit is 65, I drive 68 to 70. If I went below the speed limit, I could honestly understand it, but I don’t.
And if you insist on driving fast, What’s wrong with the left lane?
The problem with the left lane is that it is currently occupied by someone going a bit faster than you but not as fast as the person who wants to overtake.
All kidding aside, I sympathize with you, but IMO there is no particular answer to your questions except “some, perhaps many, people are short-tempered idiots”. Hell I drive a 15-mile stretch of I-45 north of Houston every day; it’s five lanes at some points, most drivers go at least 75 although the limit is 65, and people are still jockeying for position as if it’s the last lap at Daytona.
I drive fast, and I’m more than happy to use the left lane. Keep in mind, though, that one well-meaning but slow driver like you in the middle + 1 dipshit in a van who tries to pass then runs out of gears = 1 goddamn annoying Polish roadblock.
Since overtaking on the right is illegal (look it up, nobody ever believes me) I can’t go there so all I can do it sit on the bumper of the van for awhile. When I realize he’s too busy adjusting his asshat to move, I sit behind the guy in the middle for awhile, and usually he/she moves over.
I always thought that passing on the right meant you couldn’t pass someone via the shoulder on the right, not the right lane.
I think it’s more illegal to tailgate than it is to pass in the right lane of a 3+ lane highway. Aggressive driving.
I’ve neer, nor have I known anyone who got pulled over for passing on the right. But I have known people who got busted for tailgating. shrug
And to the OP, yes, some people are asshats. Once, when I was driving from Houston-area (Texas Ren Fair, wherever that is) to Austin on the back, two lane road, I was going with the flow of traffic - 100mph in a 70. Then this jackass in a huge truck (huge as in needed a step to get down or you’d break a hip) proceeds to tailgate me for about half an hour (I DID speed up to 105), with no one in the other lane. Being, oh, 17, I stayed where I was and mentally told him to Fuck Off in big, red letters. Eventually he passes me. Then I catch up to him at a Taco Bell (he was getting out of his truck as I pulled in - BIG time saved by blowing past me!), and it was the mid-30’s dad with his wife and kid in the truck. I was amazed that someone with their entire family in his truck would not only go 100, but TAILGATE someone. Imagine if a deer ran out in front of me? Hell, I was going a dangerous speed, but I was the only person in my car - he had (presumably) a decent amount of his family. Eek!
I drive more slowly now. Then again, Kalamazoo drivers are much nicer than Austin drivers.
The right lane is not for ‘getting on and off’ in a 3 lane any more than it’s for getting on and off in a 2 lane or 1 lane. It is a perfectly valid and usable travel lane, and you should use it if you are going slower than the rest of traffic. If you are going faster than the traffic in the right lane, of course you should go to the center.
Stay right, except to pass is the rule in many, many states. It is an easy rule to follow and lets traffic flow with a minimum of hassle. It’s not “stay middle, except to pass or enter/exit”
That said, however, i agree with Cheesesteak–the right lane is perfectly fine for travelling. If you see a blockage up ahead caused by merging traffic, move lanes to pass, and then go back to the right-hand lane.
I think we need to clarify what is “passing” and “overtaking”. Passing is when you leave the normal lane(s) of traffic on the right side of the road and move into the lane(s) oncoming traffic would be in. For example, if you’re on a two lane highway with a single traffic lane in each direction travelling eastbound, you leave the eastbound lane and enter the westbound lane, pass the car in front of you, then return to the eastbound lane. Passing involves leaving the normal direction of traffic and entering a lane that is going the opposite direction. Overtaking is “passing” a car in front of you, but remaining in the lane(s) that are going in the same direction. AFAIK, “passing” on the right is indeed illegal, as most of the time it would involve you traveling in the emergency lane or going off the road in some way. Overtaking on the right is not illegal, at least here in Wisconsin, as my police officer father of 26 years attests.
If you are going the speed limit or less in the middle lane, you really should move over to the right lane. It will involve you having to deal with people exiting and merging, but that’s the price you pay for driving slower than everyone else. No cites, maybe someone else can provide one, but I believe it’s more dangerous to have traffic travelling different speeds, such as someone doing the speed limit of 65 while others are traveling 80-90, than if everyone sped and traveled 85mph.
I don’t see any problem with cruising in the middle lane under most circumstances. Three lanes implies heavy traffic, which implies frequent exits and plenty of on/off traffic. The left lane is empty, so just go around. As long as the driver stays aware enough so that he moves if a rolling roadblock does materialize, it’s not a big deal. And often if he does move into the right lane, and has to slow, he may NEVER get back to the middle.
Staying aware is key, though. One of my alltime favorite irritations was following three cars down I-25 in Denver, one in each lane and ALL THREE going 50! There was literally no one in front of them for half a mile, and people were backed up behind for half a mile. How oblivious do you have to be to not notice what you’re doing to traffic?
A state-by-state breakdown of “keep right” laws is noted on this website. Only five states (Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Jersey) positively mandate that you can only use the left lane when passing ; two (Pennsylvania and Washington) are kind of iffy on the subject. The vast majority of states only suggest that drivers “keep right if they are going slower than the normal speed of traffic (regardless of the speed limit)”.
Intent, I hear ya. But I have to disagree. Especially with my little shitbox that I refuse to trade in because she’s so good to me (and no car payments), I don’t “push it” as far as speed goes. I too do just over the limit, most of the time. (Unless I’m passing someone who’s going SLOWER than me for some reason).
You’re concerned about driving in the right hand lane, because of your perceived “danger”. Let me tell you, it’s more dangerous for you to be in the middle lane than in the right hand lane. Here’s why:
Though you’re driving the limit, or just over it, I’m sure you’ll agree that MOST people are driving faster than you. When some guy driving in the middle lane, going a shitload faster than you, realizes how ‘slow’ you’re driving, he’ll move over into the left hand lane to pass you. But that leaves the driver behind him, presumably rolling at about the same speed as the passer guy, with less time to perceive how ‘slow’ you’re driving. And so on, and so forth. Eventually, you’re gonna get rammed in the ass.
People in the right hand lane, that you say is for getting on and off the road (I disagree, but OK), are aware of the changing circumstances in their routes, and are extra precautious at those times. In the right hand lane, you’re dealing with drivers who are paying extra attention (more attention than if they were cruising) to the road and the vehicles around them.
If you haven’t been rammed in the ass by the guy behind you, count your lucky stars. Don’t assume your luck won’t end, though. Furthermore, you might be oblivious to the accidents (or near accidents) that you’ve caused, because you’re long gone. Remember that guy behind you? The one after the passer guy who has less time to perceive your lower speed and less time to react to it? Well what if he hits the brakes? And what if the guy behind him hits the brakes? And what if the guy behind that guy determines that he doens’t have time to hit the brakes, so he changes lanes? All accidents waiting to happen.
As for tailgating, it’s rude as hell. But you know why he’s doing it? He’s thinking the exact same thing as the title of your thread:
My take is that drivers just suck and think speeding (or just accellerating hard) is going to cause their car to blow up or have evil elves come by and murder their children.
It’s pathetic. A few times I’ve actually driven the limit (with cruise on at EXACTLY the limit on the right lane) I’ve seen people SLOW ME DOWN in ZERO traffic (taping brakes, slowing down on hills etc). I’ve seen mergers doing maybe 101.1 km/h, try to overtake me in the merging lane (with big signs showing the lane is ending) and REFUSE to get in front! Holy shit people, your cars can easily do 110 km/h and yet people rather go slow (and cut in front of much faster traffic) than smoothly merge AT the speed of traffic.
Slow-ER traffic stays right. We in Ontario even have SIGNS stating this and yet no one cares.
Driving licenses should be super-hard to get instread of practically given away these days.
The right lane is perfectly safe if you’re driving slower than the rest of the traffic.
Keep in mind that in most populated areas, trucks are not allowed in the far left lane and thus, the center lane become their passing lane. If you pay close attention, you’ll see that trucks will stay in the far right, unless passing. And they signal eachother closely.
By making the center lane the slowest, you’re just making the highway as a whole more dangerous because the faster traffic will need to flow left and right (around you).
Maybe it’s ambiguous in the US, but in Europe driving in the centre lane when the right (or left, in Britain) lane is empty is not only forbidden, but really irritating to 99% of other drivers. It is usually done by people who wear hats when driving their Mini Metros or Reliant Robins (Americans, just think of the worst car you’ve ever seen, then imagine it was designed by the British and/or doesn’t have the correct number of wheels).
Seeing as this is the first time I’ve ever had the opportunity to speak to one of these people (short of actually running them off the road and grabbing them by the collar), I have only this to say to the OP: “GET BACK IN YOUR FUCKING LANE YOU NUMPTY TWAT.”
