[Talk Host]

Originally Posted by barb1191

How can that law be enforced when one MUST drive in the far left lane to make a left turn off of Rte 441 and any of these divided, dual lane roads????? Just askin'....

My guess is that the law will have similar wording to that of other states, Ohio for example. Motorists may not drive in the left or passing lane for longer than two miles, or some such reasonable distance. They aren't going to tag you for making a legal left hand turn.

[skyguy79]

Originally Posted by redwitch

Sky, there wasn't a law requiring anyone to stay in the right lane except to move over for emergency vehicles.

Thanks redwitch. I know there is such a law in NY because years ago I got a ticket for failure to keep right.
Never convicted of it though. Judge dismissed for extenuiting circumstances. I fell asleep!

[dpingram]

I'm sorry this is something I have never been able to wrap my head around. If I am maintaining the posted legal speed limit and in the left lane why does someone need to pass me... unless of course they are exceeding the posted legal speed limit. How will the state troopers keep up with how many miles an individual has traveled in the left lane?

[Talk Host]

Originally Posted by dpingram

I'm sorry this is something I have never been able to wrap my head around. If I am maintaining the posted legal speed limit and in the left lane why does someone need to pass me... unless of course they are exceeding the posted legal speed limit. How will the state troopers keep up with how many miles an individual has traveled in the left lane?

Driving in the left lane interferes with the flow of traffic. You may be driving the speed limit, but a billion others are driving slower. Besides, it isn't up to the motoring public to provide rolling roadblocks for speeders.

A trooper will simply follow a car driving in the left lane. If the driver exceeds the legal distance, they get a ticket.

[downeaster]

Originally Posted by brostholder

My pet peeve is the 18 wheeler that pulls into the left lane to pass another 18 wheeler but won't speed up enough to make the pass and winds up going down the road side by side for miles while traffic backs up behind him. I would love to hear from some of our retired over the road drivers as to why some truckers do this.

Most are paid by the mile. Most are governed at 68MPH, +or- ,and they try to squeeze out a little more to pass another who is also governed. The trucker in the right lane isn't going to slow down as he/she wants to get the miles in too. Those that pass you at a high rate of speed are usually independents. They, the indies, can be especially dangerous. Nobody at the home office checking them on a GPS. No surprise drug tests by HO safety people. And they know where the highway patrol officers are.

BTW, on a crowded highway with bumper to bumper in both lanes at near speed limit will be difficult to enforce.

RV's are sometime as guilty as truckers for hogging the passing lane. They are not governed but get out there with the big boys then get timid and or reach an upgrade and can't complete the pass.

[dpingram]

Originally Posted by Talk Host

Driving in the left lane interferes with the flow of traffic. You may be driving the speed limit, but a billion others are driving slower. Besides, it isn't up to the motoring public to provide rolling roadblocks for speeders.

A trooper will simply follow a car driving in the left lane. If the driver exceeds the legal distance, they get a ticket.

Just think of all the people I might be preventing from getting a speeding ticket!

I would hope that my soon to be tax dollars could be better spent getting drug dealers and child molesters off the street rather than giving a ticket because someone might be holding up speeders.

[Freeda]

Impeding the flow of traffic by staying in the left lane, even if driving at the speed limit, is also a hazard because it can delay emergency response vehicles; and there are situations, such as some medical emergencies, where even an ordinary citizen has no reasonable alternative but to speed, and is legally excused, by the doctrine of necessity, from observing the speed limit as long as they are not recklessly endangering other vehicles; and they need to be able to pass in the left lane traffic that is in the right lane, even if it is moving at the speed limit. That is another reason why the left lane is a passing lane; not a lane for continued driving.

I'll confess though that there was a time in my earlier days when I didn't realize, or at least if I did I didn't always observe, these rules (i.e., that I shouldn't keep driving in the left lane; and that being in that final stretch to get home at the end of a road trip, or not wanting to be discourteous by keeping my girls'-night-out friends waiting, did not, unfortunately for me, rise to the level of urgency that, to an officer's mind, warranted speeding, despite their politely professed empathy for my misjudgment). So, those couple of times in my life I did later wish that someone driving at the speed limit had impeded me in the left lane, and from those regrets I reformed and began reserving that lane only for passing.

[Walt.]

Originally Posted by dpingram

Just think of all the people I might be preventing from getting a speeding ticket!

I would hope that my soon to be tax dollars could be better spent getting drug dealers and child molesters off the street rather than giving a ticket because someone might be holding up speeders.

I used to hear the "ticket or drug dealer" comparison all the time when I worked in Traffic Violations years ago; always by parking violators.

It made about as much sense as "You people only gave me a ticket because I have a Lamborghini (or Ferrari)." They somehow always managed to tell me how much it cost... and what important person they knew.

The concept that they should just follow the rules never came into play.

[hedoman]

Just Great.... In New Jersey there is no such thing as a right lane.Look out!

[l2ridehd]

Originally Posted by dpingram

I'm sorry this is something I have never been able to wrap my head around. If I am maintaining the posted legal speed limit and in the left lane why does someone need to pass me... unless of course they are exceeding the posted legal speed limit. How will the state troopers keep up with how many miles an individual has traveled in the left lane?

And I have never been able to comprehend why someone would get in the left lane and stay there even driving the speed limit. It is nothing more then a power trip for them. I think these people are rude and very self centered. There are many highways in this country where if you drive the speed limit you will get run off the road. People who pull this stunt are a hazard to other drivers and are just as guilty as the people who speed. Hooray for Florida for recognizing this issue and taking action.

I set my cruise control at about 5 mph over the speed limit, stay in the right lane unless passing, and will consistently come up behind drivers in the left lane at or below the speed limit. Unless I hit the brake and hold up, or pass them on the right if other cars allow, which is another dangerous practice, they are holding up traffic flow. How many times do you see a car in the left lane that refuses to move over and several cars will be forced to pass them on the right?

Now we need a law to solve gap control at red lights. People stop at a red light, then do there nail clipping or read there e-mail or some other dumb activity so that when the light changes they allow the car in front of them to get 10 car lengths ahead before they react. If everyone maintained gap control and allowed the maximum number of cars through the light, we would save billions of gallons of fuel every year.

[jblum315]

I don't believe there was one. I have never seen a sign in Fla. as in other states that says right lane for passing only.

[Talk Host]

There is a phenomenon called "traffic shock wave." Let's say you have two cars side by side, each traveling at exactly the same speed (in this example 55 MPH). The two cars behind them cannot travel exactly the same speed, they must move at a speed slightly slower. So then, the next cars in line then must each slow even slower. Once you get to the 50th car, they are dramatically slower. 200th car....stopped.

Ever been in a long stand still on an interstate and after creeping for an hour, the traffic clears and there has been no accident to see? That is likely traffic shock wave. Somebody got into the left lane and drove exactly the same speed as the person in the right lane and bollixed up traffic for miles behind.

Hooray for the new law.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suugn-p5C1M[/ame]

JLK

[jblum315]

Sorry. My bad. I meant left lane for passing only. Or keep right or whatever. No signs.

[NJblue]

It's good to see the law, but I'm with Red ... the laws that exist in other states have had zero effect in eliminating or even minimizing this problem. I see no difference in left lane hoggers in Florida than I did in NJ or NY. The only time I saw something like this work was in the UK (of course there it was the right lane that was reserved for passing).

[memason]

Illinois passed a similar law a few years ago.... Something like the 2 mile rule, without passing. In Illinois, State Troopers are the worst offenders of the law. You will NEVER see an Illinois State Trooper in the right lane...ever!

Just moved back from Germany, where it's illegal to pass on the right. Left lane cruisers are minimized, but not totally eliminated... but, most folks in the left lanes are traveling in excess of 90mph.

I made it 2 months, in the US, before I got my first speeding ticket... I sure do miss the autobahn....