4 ms·

If a person is obeying the speed limit in the left lane and a crash ensues, it is not the fault of the person obeying the speed limit. They may be guilty of obs

by talmand 12y ago

If a person is obeying the speed limit in the left lane and a crash ensues, it is not the fault of the person obeying the speed limit. They may be guilty of obstructing traffic in some way depending on the situation and the local laws dictating the proper usage of the left lane, but not the accident. Going slower? Possible, depends on how much slower.

mjevans 12y ago
The left most lane (excluding HOV lanes) is for /passing/. Unless you are passing you should NOT be in this lane. Remaining in this lane, even doing the speed limit, while someone is behind you clearly wanting to go faster (that's their problem, not your's) is failure to yield.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  > The left most lane (excluding HOV lanes) is for /passing/. Unless you are passing you should NOT be in this lane. This is not generally the case. http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html
  - na85 12y ago
    The law is not always in touch with reality. Regardless of where you drive, if there are people behind you in the left lane, you should move over to let them pass. Don't piss people off unnecessarily for no reason other than to prove a point. Move to the right.
    - dragonwriter 12y ago
      > Regardless of where you drive, if there are people behind you in the left lane, you should move over to let them pass. This is different than "the left lane...is for passing. Unless you are passing you should NOT be in this lane". Under this rule, it would be perfectly acceptable to be in the left lane if you aren't passing and also aren't obstructing faster traffic. However, this rule has traffic management problems similar to those with the left-is-reserved-for-passing-rule (which is probably why its even rarer in law than the left-is-reserved-for-passing-rule, though a couple states do have something like it). The more common legal rule -- and there are good reasons for this rule to be preferred -- is that you have to use the rightmost lane if you are moving slower than the normal speed on the road (independent of the legal limit); this is different than a reserved for passing rule and also different than a move-right-for-faster traffic rule, and is superior to either for traffic management, since with a simple move-right-for-faster-traffic rule, a very small number of drivers wishing to drive at excessive speed could oblige significantly greater congestion in the other lanes with drivers forced to yield to them (and, of course, a strict reserved-for-passing rule has a similar effect). The move-right-if-slower-than-normal rule is pretty much the best rule for traffic management.
    - JoeAltmaier 12y ago
      Here's the breakdown for the US states: http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html
      - talmand 12y ago
        Why is Michigan listed as "weird" for having a straight-forward and sensible rule?
        dragonwriter 12y ago
        If you click through to the actual law, its weird in terms of the categorization since it doesn't use any of the standard rubrics. The rule applicable to roads with more than two lanes in the same direction is neither a "left lane for passing" rule, or a "yield left lane to faster moving traffic" rule or a "must keep up with normal speed for the road except in the rightmost lane" rule. Its a "you must always drive exclusively in the rightmost lane no matter how many are available, unless there is 'substantially continuous' traffic in the lane, or you are using the left lane for turning." It might be straight-forward and sensible (that, particularly the latter, is particularly subjective), but its very distant conceptually from the rules commonly used elsewhere that form the basis for the categorization and thus is, in context, weird.
  - rjbwork 12y ago
    This was actually passed as a law in Georgia recently. They put billboards up telling slow people to get out of the left lane and gave out tickets en masse during the first week it was a law.
- fryguy 12y ago
  In every single thread about traffic I've seen, someone posts this. This is just not true at all in congested roads, and means that there is less traffic throughput since one lane can't be used. On a 5-lane (per direction) 65mph freeway road, if the right 4 lanes are going 20mph, then you are passing in the left lane. When it congests to 20mph in the leftmost lane, is everyone required to get out of it?
  - talmand 12y ago
    My thought on 5-lane road as you describe, which I drive on twice day in my commute, the left lane should not be for passing. It should be that the further the distance to your exit the more to the left you should be to avoid congesting the entry and exit ramps. People complain about bad usage of the left lane but my gripe is people being in the right lanes but are not exiting. On a daily basis it is often the source of almost half the congestion I see on the road. The rest is from the "me first!" crowd that probably advocate this left lane is only for passing in all cases nonsense.
- ahomescu1 12y ago
  This depends on the country. It is only for passing in many countries, but not so in others. In the US, it varies by state.
- talmand 12y ago
  As others have stated, the left most lane is most certainly not always the "passing" lane. Which, for some people, the "passing" lane means "drive as fast as I want get out of my way" lane.
panic 12y ago
Just because a slow-moving driver isn't legally at fault doesn't mean their behavior isn't dangerous.
- Turing_Machine 12y ago
  Yup. The cemeteries are full of people who were within their rights.
  - dredmorbius 12y ago
    And their victims.
- talmand 12y ago
  Which is what I stated.
dredmorbius 12y ago
There are places in which maximum and minimum speed limits are posted. Or at least were. It's a plot device in The Andromeda Strain.

by talmand 12y ago

mjevans 12y ago

The left most lane (excluding HOV lanes) is for /passing/. Unless you are passing you should NOT be in this lane. Remaining in this lane, even doing the speed limit, while someone is behind you clearly wanting to go faster (that's their problem, not your's) is failure to yield.

dragonwriter 12y ago
> The left most lane (excluding HOV lanes) is for /passing/. Unless you are passing you should NOT be in this lane. This is not generally the case. http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html
- na85 12y ago
  The law is not always in touch with reality. Regardless of where you drive, if there are people behind you in the left lane, you should move over to let them pass. Don't piss people off unnecessarily for no reason other than to prove a point. Move to the right.
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    > Regardless of where you drive, if there are people behind you in the left lane, you should move over to let them pass. This is different than "the left lane...is for passing. Unless you are passing you should NOT be in this lane". Under this rule, it would be perfectly acceptable to be in the left lane if you aren't passing and also aren't obstructing faster traffic. However, this rule has traffic management problems similar to those with the left-is-reserved-for-passing-rule (which is probably why its even rarer in law than the left-is-reserved-for-passing-rule, though a couple states do have something like it). The more common legal rule -- and there are good reasons for this rule to be preferred -- is that you have to use the rightmost lane if you are moving slower than the normal speed on the road (independent of the legal limit); this is different than a reserved for passing rule and also different than a move-right-for-faster traffic rule, and is superior to either for traffic management, since with a simple move-right-for-faster-traffic rule, a very small number of drivers wishing to drive at excessive speed could oblige significantly greater congestion in the other lanes with drivers forced to yield to them (and, of course, a strict reserved-for-passing rule has a similar effect). The move-right-if-slower-than-normal rule is pretty much the best rule for traffic management.
  - JoeAltmaier 12y ago
    Here's the breakdown for the US states: http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html
    - talmand 12y ago
      Why is Michigan listed as "weird" for having a straight-forward and sensible rule?
      - dragonwriter 12y ago
        If you click through to the actual law, its weird in terms of the categorization since it doesn't use any of the standard rubrics. The rule applicable to roads with more than two lanes in the same direction is neither a "left lane for passing" rule, or a "yield left lane to faster moving traffic" rule or a "must keep up with normal speed for the road except in the rightmost lane" rule. Its a "you must always drive exclusively in the rightmost lane no matter how many are available, unless there is 'substantially continuous' traffic in the lane, or you are using the left lane for turning." It might be straight-forward and sensible (that, particularly the latter, is particularly subjective), but its very distant conceptually from the rules commonly used elsewhere that form the basis for the categorization and thus is, in context, weird.
- rjbwork 12y ago
  This was actually passed as a law in Georgia recently. They put billboards up telling slow people to get out of the left lane and gave out tickets en masse during the first week it was a law.
fryguy 12y ago
In every single thread about traffic I've seen, someone posts this. This is just not true at all in congested roads, and means that there is less traffic throughput since one lane can't be used. On a 5-lane (per direction) 65mph freeway road, if the right 4 lanes are going 20mph, then you are passing in the left lane. When it congests to 20mph in the leftmost lane, is everyone required to get out of it?
- talmand 12y ago
  My thought on 5-lane road as you describe, which I drive on twice day in my commute, the left lane should not be for passing. It should be that the further the distance to your exit the more to the left you should be to avoid congesting the entry and exit ramps. People complain about bad usage of the left lane but my gripe is people being in the right lanes but are not exiting. On a daily basis it is often the source of almost half the congestion I see on the road. The rest is from the "me first!" crowd that probably advocate this left lane is only for passing in all cases nonsense.
ahomescu1 12y ago
This depends on the country. It is only for passing in many countries, but not so in others. In the US, it varies by state.
talmand 12y ago
As others have stated, the left most lane is most certainly not always the "passing" lane. Which, for some people, the "passing" lane means "drive as fast as I want get out of my way" lane.

panic 12y ago

Just because a slow-moving driver isn't legally at fault doesn't mean their behavior isn't dangerous.

Turing_Machine 12y ago
Yup. The cemeteries are full of people who were within their rights.
- dredmorbius 12y ago
  And their victims.
talmand 12y ago
Which is what I stated.

dredmorbius 12y ago

There are places in which maximum and minimum speed limits are posted. Or at least were. It's a plot device in The Andromeda Strain.