Passing lane (not really, not everywhere)

[JVL1018]

I don't think they are talking about urban driving. I think this is about interstate highway driving where there are spaces between cars. Don't hang out in the left lane and block people from passing.

I don't understand this space between cars you speak of. ;-)
I'm in the suburbs and it doesn't matter, here in the northeast-interstate highways, local highways, doesn't matter crowded all day every day. LOL I drive to SC every year and from NYC through northern VA there's no passing lane utilized in any way other than get left, drive fast.
No wonder none of this was making sense to me. ;-)

 

[Shutterbug]

I wish I was a cop some days!



This is one of the first things that I learned when I started driving. It's really NOT that hard to do!


Something else that drives me insane crazy is if you are going a little faster and you are passing a car who is in the right lane, push the gas and get on around them!! I can't tell you how frustrating it is to be trying to pass in the left lane with a slow poke riding side by side the person in the right lane. It happens a lot with 18 wheelers too. Ain't nobody got time for that!

Yes happens to me often. Its like heaven forbid they turn off cruise control and hurry up and pass.

 

[Diva of Dragons]

THANK YOU for this!! I told my husband, years ago, that it's not just a passing lane!! he would not believe me! Good to know when we drive through Louisiana in Nov. though. Although, I don't recall people following it there, in the past. LOL!

 

[mrsklamc]

OP can you cite your source for this map?

 

[Kogo Shuko]

I see it as a passing lane here in Ontario. But that's just my perspective (from my driver's ed teacher).
I usually do drive faster than half the drivers on the big highways, but the other half are driving faster than me. So I only use the left lane to pass. Not because someone is necessarily trying to pass me too, but because it just makes my life easier. I don't have to constantly be looking in my rearview mirror to see if someone is barreling down the road toward me.

Safe and efficient. No reason to be in the left lane for a long time unless there's a huge string of cars going slower than me.

 

[usd2bmd]

Even though those 36 states may not call it a "passing lane" officially, isn't what they describe a de facto passing lane? If the people in the right are going slower than the people in the left, the people in the left are, in fact, passing the people on the right.

Don't be the jerk who sits in the left lane going 2 miles below the speed limit, regardless of your state.

Ding Ding Ding...and we have a winner. On another thread her in the DIS someone said something like "If you aren't going faster than the cars on the right then get out of the left lane",

Even in states where it isn't the law the left lane is STILL used for faster traffic then the other lanes. Therefore if you aren't passing people that are in the right lane and you are in the left you are still breaking the law. Please if you aren't passing other cars in other lanes get the heck out of the left lane. You DO NOT belong there! How hard is that for folks to comprehend.

Apparently harder than we all think.

Georgia is trying to get a bill passed, House Bill 459, which would make it illegal to drive in the left lane except for overtaking and passing another vehicle. It's nicknamed the "Left Lane Slowpoke Law".

I call it the "Get the Blankity Blank out of the blankity blank lane you slow blankity BLANK!!!"

What you have to understand is what the meaning of "pass" is. It is coming from directly behind a vehicle, moving to the lane next to it, moving past it, and then moving back directly in front of it. If you stay in the lane next to it, it isn't "passing" (at least in traffic terms).

Not sure where you drive, but there is very seldom room to get back in once you get out...not to mention that they are all going slower than me so why would I want to get behind them again?

If you're hanging out in the left lane, even if you're going faster than the cars in the right lane, it's not passing. You need to get back over into the right lane if there is a space.

But isn't it...

 

[sasywtch]

We don't have enough lanes as it is. If CA made the left lane passing only, we wouldn't have enough cops to pull everyone over.

It just wouldn't work here.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

I see it as a passing lane here in Ontario. But that's just my perspective (from my driver's ed teacher).
I usually do drive faster than half the drivers on the big highways, but the other half are driving faster than me. So I only use the left lane to pass. Not because someone is necessarily trying to pass me too, but because it just makes my life easier. I don't have to constantly be looking in my rearview mirror to see if someone is barreling down the road toward me.

Safe and efficient. No reason to be in the left lane for a long time unless there's a huge string of cars going slower than me.

My feelings exactly!

 

[Albort]

We don't have enough lanes as it is. If CA made the left lane passing only, we wouldn't have enough cops to pull everyone over.

It just wouldn't work here.

so true, i find it easier to pass ppl on the right lanes sometimes... cuz everyone and their mothers are over on the left... lol

 

[Potato Chip]

What I find interesting is that when a lane is closing a state like Minnesota wants people to use both lanes and then zip at a designated merge point, but a state like Pennsylvania doesn't want anyone to use the open left lane even if there is no one behind you wanting to pass.
Another annoying thing about the state laws only wanting people to pass in the left hand lane is sometimes the entrance to the exit is in left hand lane so this annoys the person who is speeding in the left lane (against the law in all states) because a car exiting has to pull over at some point in the left lane and that car isn't speeding, and the person who is not passing in the left lane (against the law in some states) for that little bit of time has to merge into the left lane to exit.
The roads I have been traveling lately have been so congested with both lanes full of people trying to get to their designation with both lanes going the similar speed.

 

[Janepod]

What I find interesting is that when a lane is closing a state like Minnesota wants people to use both lanes and then zip at a designated merge point, but a state like Pennsylvania doesn't want anyone to use the open left lane even if there is no one behind you wanting to pass.
Another annoying thing about the state laws only wanting people to pass in the left hand lane is sometimes the entrance to the exit is in left hand lane so this annoys the person who is speeding in the left lane (against the law in all states) because a car exiting has to pull over at some point in the left lane and that car isn't speeding, and the person who is not passing in the left lane (against the law in some states) for that little bit of time has to merge into the left lane to exit.
The roads I have been traveling lately have been so congested with both lanes full of people trying to get to their designation with both lanes going the similar speed.

I hate left lane exits SO MUCH for just this reason. It can be very difficult to get over in time.

 

[declansdad]

Yes happens to me often. Its like heaven forbid they turn off cruise control and hurry up and pass.

If the car in the right lane is doing 65 and I am in the left lane with my cruise set at 75, I'm not changing it because you (you in the general sense) decided you want to go faster than that.