Left "Passing" Lane Etiquette?

i agree with efusco. the left lane is for passing, and unless you really are going faster than *everybody* on the road (in which case you should slow down!), you should stay to the right.

 

"always reserve the left lane for faster traffic" is what i live by... why piss others off intentionally like that? passing on the right is illegal because the left lane IS the passing lane.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(samkusnetz @ May 10 2006, 06:15 PM) [snapback]253118[/snapback]</div>

Yes but...

while I agree in principle, I am confronted by this dilemma every day. As I get on the Interstate I have to immediately decide do I want to stay in the right lane which is like the lunar landscape and will destroy my new Prius in record time or do I want to get out into the left lane which is a little (somewhat) better. Well everyone who has driven this highway more than once is trying to get into the left lane. And most of them want to go 80 while I am happy at 65. I've had more than one person indicate that I was No. 1 in their heart! But I'm not going to drive in that right lane. I didn't do it with my old car and I'm certainly not going to do it with the new Prius.

I should point out that the road improves after about two miles or so. Then I move into the right lane.

 

Move to the right if someone is going fast in the left lane. But I certainly agree with paflyfisher that the roads are so $&%^$% poorly maintained now that right lanes are all but unusable on many stretches of our highways. The big commercial trucks have completely destroyed the lanes and our state and local governments have wasted our gas taxes on pay raises and more bureaucrats.

 

A conversation that includes stuff about the Autobahn. Fun!

No, we do not have the strict rules that the German Autobahn has with regard to passing lanes and cruising lanes. However efusco does what I do also. I stay right unless the road conditions are terrible on the right and then I just keep my eye on my mirrors and move right long before somebody comes up and rides my rear end.

jbarnhart's point is totally correct. Our governments are wasting every kind of tax collected and not bothering to maintain our infrastructure. That leaves us with bad or unsafe right lanes and a need to use the left lane for cruising.

The reason that the Germans can strictly enforce the left/right issue is because they actively maintain their roads and make sure that the road surface is in good condition. You wouldn't want to do 100+mph on some streaches of U.S. Interstate.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Hoonose @ May 10 2006, 02:57 PM) [snapback]253108[/snapback]</div>

It doesn't appear to be a law in the AZ vehicle code, but their driver's handbook explicitly states the following:


Stay to the right and only use the left
lane for passing. If you are traveling
on an expressway with three lanes,
treat the far right lane as a slower-
speed through lane and the far left lane
as the passing lane.


http://www.azdot.gov/mvd/documents/Custome...ide_99-0117.pdf

What you're doing just increases the danger in a situation that was not dangerous in the first place. Speed by itself is not nearly as dangerous as large differences in speed, and that's what you're creating when you think you're entitled to the left lane and force faster traffic to pass you on the right. People who think and drive like you should have their licenses revoked, IMHO.

Just as a few others have written, I sometimes break this rule on roads when there is no faster traffic, if the right lane is in poor shape. For instance, the slow lane of I-80 going up to Lake Tahoe in CA is much rougher than the left lane from trucks driving with chains in the winter. But I keep an eye on my rear-view mirror, and when I see faster traffic approaching, I move back into the right lane as soon as it is safe.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jeromep @ May 10 2006, 05:00 PM) [snapback]253175[/snapback]</div>

A few enlightened :lol: states actually do require you to drive in the right lane except to overtake in their vehicle code. Those states are:

Illinois
Kentucky
Maine
Massachusetts
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Washington

The relevant section from the Illinois vehicle code is:

"(d) Upon an Interstate highway or fully access controlled freeway, a vehicle may not be driven in the left lane, except when overtaking and passing another vehicle."

This page may be of interest: http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Hoonose @ May 10 2006, 05:57 PM) [snapback]253108[/snapback]</div>

I would have to agree with you, as long as that a$$hole is not a cop!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusenvy @ May 10 2006, 08:22 PM) [snapback]253188[/snapback]</div>

Feh! You beat me to it. At least for NJ anyways.

 

One solution would be to move to chicagoland...

Here, they'll pass you at 100 in any lane, whether that's the left, middle, right, median or grass off the road. You don't have to move over at all.

I see about a dozen wrecks a week on about 550 miles of tollway driving out here... gotta love it!

 

I never drive in the left lane for long periods of time unless I'm passing, in bumper to bumper traffic, or I'm coming up to a place where I know that traffic will be entering the highway from the right lane. It actually irritates me when someone stays in the left when the highway is sparsely populated.

The guy who is driviing insanely and then gets stuck behind someone in the left lane is usually not the type of driver who will hesitate to cut off the person in the right lane after he is through trying to intimidate the person who is staying in the left lane. I would much rather have the left lane person swallow their pride and safely switch into the right lane in front of me than to wait in the right lane and wonder when the tailgater is suddenly going to figure out that their headlights are not laser beams.

 

This first post by a non-hybrid owner is repeated on Prius Online, also a first post. As I posted there, I think we are being baited. Strange topic to post on two boards for a car you don't own...

Maybe the Nash Rambler board is interested...

 

You'd think if he were trying to bait us, he'd make it more creative or sarcastic. The OP sounds fairly sincere and rather defensive... not the tone you'd expect out of a baiter.

Anyways, I agree with everyone that the hypothetical OP is a moron. Sorry for being harsh, but this kind of behavior gives the rest of us Prius owners a bad name and contributes to "hybrid backlash".

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Hoonose @ May 11 2006, 01:04 AM) [snapback]253331[/snapback]</div>

Troll ?


http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1389030

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1386504

 

OK, I checked out the Corvette thread. I have no reason to want to register and post there. And I have no interest in a passing or pissing contest with them. The only thing I want to know is why they only reference the laws that seem to "benefit" them. What about the law that says the speed limit is 65mph? Doesn't that law apply? Just curious.