Is that the far left lane on four lane freeways? Or just on two lane highways?
Peace,
mangeorge
The only way for this practice to become more commonplace is to strictly enforce it with the same tenacity as speeding. Most drivers don’t even seem to KNOW about staying right and passing left. And those who do see it as more of an a suggestion than a rule. Left lanes should have imposed minimum speed laws. Slowing down to observe an accident scene or other roadway distractions should be punishable as the greatest offense a man can commit.
I’m a big fan of keep right rules. But remember that traffic laws are not federal. I tried to find the appropriate Michigan (where I live) law, and it appears that it’s not required to keep to the right. How stupid!
Additionally, especially in the metro Detroit area, we have freeways with interchanges/entrances/exits on the left side of the freeway! I repeat: How stupid!
I’m afraid to use my flash-to-pass lights, because people flip me off, or slam on their brakes, or generally just get really friggin’ hostile – the ones that don’t aren’t aware of it 'cos they’re talking on their non-hands-free cellphones (the damn cable’s $20 – get one for crying out loud) at 55mph.
For the previous paragraph I must freely admit that, yeah, I do pass on the right. What’s weird is I’m the nicest guy in the world, but these people make me afraid of causing a road-rage incident 'cos if I could shoot out their tires, I would (okay, I say I’d like to shoot the person, but I don’t really; I just want to cause them economic harm until they’re smart enough to drive again).
In New York, we have what are known as passive aggressive scumbags, who think that just because they are driving 55 MPH they can stay in the left lane and screw anybody who could be behind them.
Hey live and let live. Drive as slow as you want. Just get the fuck out of my way.LOL 
If they wanted to promote the “drive right pass left” idea here in the US they could start on the route I drive in to and from work. Many of my fellow drivers seem unaware of the concept.
They are also largely unfamiliar with the purpose of their turn signals.
That gets to Otto’s observation - there are signs up in many states, but, it is not enforced. I could just see some athletes, actors and other famous/respected people in a campaign saying “drive right and pass left to save lives - if someone wants to speed, let 'em - get over; let the law deal with speeders - you just let faster drivers pass you and keep it simple”.
I am open to the possibility that there is research out there refuting the premise. However, part of the basis of this post is some sort of conspiracy thing - I wonder if the research might completely support the Drive Right, Pass Left premise and for some reason I am not aware of there has been a squelching of this approach - who might make money from keeping this less commonplace in the U.S.?? I am NOT a conspiracy person at all - but this seems to make so much sense and could save more lives than lots of other campaigns I see on TV and in print…
Why no campaign in U.S. for slow drivers to stay to the right?
Because it’s really not that important? Spent the money on road repairs, IMO.
By far, most people get out of my way as soon as it makes sense to do so. I don’t expect someone to drop in behind some slow-moving kid so I can get by. I’ll wait till he passes, then moves over. It’s not that much trouble to reset cruise control.
Maybe I missed something, but I can’t find any facts that suggest specifically that driving in the left lane causes a significant number of traffic deaths.
Irritating, yes. Deadly? I don’t know.
Now get the hell outta my way, asshole. 
I am all for road repairs - no argument. In my experience driving - mostly in California and New York - a significant number of drivers (can’t cite percentages) drive slowly in the fast lane and a significant number of drivers pass on the right to get around them - both behaviors scare me and strike me as causes of accidents. The whole point to this thread was to see: a) does anyone have access to data supporting my hypothesis? We have Mario Andretti stating that Italy’s relatively similary fatality rate, even with higher speeds, is due to a Drive Right, Pass Left culture - are there studies supporting Mr. Grand Prix? And if so, why isn’t the U.S. campaigning more vigorously in support of the behavior?
mangeorge - to your perception, it does not appear to be a significant contributing factor to traffic fatalities - may be so; in which case, this thread is done. To me, it seems like it might be.
I was waiting for that.
Let me ask, is there a speed limit in Europe? That could be the defining factor here.
It’s unenforceable.
I know this will probably go against the grain of the original intent of the OP but, as fish said, the fact is, if you’re in the fast lane doing the speed limit, you CAN’T pass. That’s it. The speed limit has been reached.
If, you’re in the middle lane of a three lane highway an doing the speed limit, you CAN’T pass on the left. Why? You’d be speeding of course and that’s just another infraction like, passing on the right.
Frankly, I don’t acknowledge passing on the right as being wrong. What the difference between left and right? Maybe back when, when there weren’t mirrors on the right but, with left AND right mirrors, the right becomes as apparent as the left. So, no problem.
Just to piss people off sometimes I get in the fast lane and do the speed limit. And there’s not one damn thing anyone can do about it. What’s a cop going to say? You were in the fast lane and it’s only for passing. If I’m in the fast lane doing the limit I can’t be passing anyone because THEY’D be speeding and I’m sure that garnishing more money for the town.
And, you’re not going to run me off the road. You may want to, but, you’re not. You and I both know it.
Ok - Give it to me!
Well, WordMan, I drive a lot in the S.F. Bay area, on all the 80’s and sometimes on I5 thru the Central Valley, and I don’t see it as a real problem. Sometimes, sure. Especially if there’s a lot of traffic. I work with a guy who gets in the left lane and drives @ 10 - 15 mph over the limit and decides that that’s fast enough for anybody else. He won’t move over. He’s one of those who drives a big vehicle (a Navigator), and thinks it gives some kind of authority.
But he’s the exception in my experience.
I too would like to see some data on this question.
How in the world would their be data on traffic accidents caused by people driving in the left(passing) lane?
While it might be technically possible to compile such data, I seriously doubt that it ever has been.
Just not enough need to know.
Here in the fine state of Mass., the roads barely have laws. When I first started driving extensively, I was coming from D.C. where, on the Beltway, people literally shoot at one another from car to car, so maybe my standards were so low by then I didn’t notice so much.
But MA drivers are idiots. Really, there’s nothing like this place that I have ever seen. I get passed on the right all the time. It’s not just annoying, it’s dangerours. Here, on 128, I-90, I-93, any highway, really, it seems the center lane is the slow lane. This is where the bluehairs who cannot hear, see, or react, drive with dogged determination, straight ahead, at 48 MPH and oblivious to all other traffic. Using these people like gates on a slalom course are the chowderheads, who weave about through congested traffic at speeds no less than 85 MPH. There’s nothing like having to cross three lanes of this to get to an off ramp, only, at the last second, to have a homicidal uberchowderhead cut you off on the right, moving at approx. twice your velocity, then dart back to the left after clearing your front bumper by about six inches.
These people are fucking insane. And it just gets worse every year. Our state police force is a fucking joke. I used to shit myself sometimes because I’d be doing 80 and a Statie would pull up behind me just as I glance in my rearview mirror. Then I’d wait. And wait. Well, you gonna pull me over or what? No, the asshole is tailgaiting me! I’m doing 80 on the MA Pike, and I’m being tailgaited by a State Trooper. Then, when an opening comes, he passes me on the right! It’s unbelievable. I don’t even pay attention to these guys anymore. If I drove 95 and treated the highway like a bumpercar race, maybe I’d worry about the pigs, but not anymore.
Hey, I’d love for them to pass a right lane law. For all I know, we allready have one. Now all we need is some enforcement that works off of something other than a quota.
But that seems to be what everybody’s talking about here. It’s the premise upon which this thread is based. There must be something to it, to drive Texas (and some other states} to pass laws and erect signs.
Even the pre-eminent traffic safety expert, Mario Andretti, got invoked.
The problem is educating most of the people on which is there left and right hands.
New Jersey’s signs for the most part are “Keep Right Except to Pass.” In Maryland it is “Slower Traffic Keep Right.”
When I drive from MD to NJ very little problems. On the way back when there are some pokeys in the left lane, nine times out of ten they have MD, DC or VA (northern VA probably).
Now it seems to me that their thinking is - I have a $50k european (Japanese) (American) sports car with X amount of something or other under the hood, cool hub caps, and maybe a little wing thingy on the back - then by God - you are never going slow or slower then anybody else.
BTW - the first time I got pulled over was in NJ and it was for driving in the left lane - NJ had (has?) a law that you must keep to the right - except ot pass (active voice - not passive). I had slowed down and pulled over to the center lane before a notorious speed trap (I-80 Parsippany - accent middle sylable) and got back in the laft lane after I observed that no officer was sitting there - he wasn’t of course because he was behind me. He said “It looked like you had slowed down a bit back there and I wasn’t going to pull you over but…”
I got a warning.
Omnipresent said:
In Texas, the cop can give you a ticket, regardless of whether you’re going the speed limit.
Slower Vehicle Failed to Keep Right is covered in section 545.051 of the Texas Transportation Code. C’mon down.
I’m sure that can be faught. How can I be a “slower” vehicle if no vehicles should be traveling faster that I according to the law?
Thanks but no thanks for the invite. Lived in Texas for a year. Not my cup of tea. Drove my uhaul out of there - wait for it -
doing the speed limit in the “fast” lane. 
Aren’t heavier vehicle, like UHauls, supposed to keep right on interstates?
If you’re doing the limit in the left lane on a crowded highway, especially with a UHaul, that behavior strikes me as incredibly rude.
I remember several years ago a story on CNN about an older man who drove fifty-five miles an hour in the left lane. He did it so he wouldn’t have to slow down and speed up to pass cars driving slower. He had researched it and said there was no law against it and that since he was driving the maximum speed limit(at the time) he could do this. I CAN’T STAND PEOPLE WHO DO THIS!
The way I see it those speed limits are more guidelines than actual rules…