Comments on: MUTCD Addendum No. 214

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:42:36 +0000

Sorry Sean, but while the speed limit applies to all lanes, the left lane is NOT the cruising lane. Keep your Slow moving butt to the right. Otherwise, YOU’RE the one interferring with the flow of traffic. Ask any officer around and they will give you a 5-10mph variance on the speed limit if traffic is flowing safely. Officers, especially air patrols target drivers who are exceeding the flow of traffic and or weaving and tailgating with excess.

Live in the real world ‘around you’ not just in your car man! Pay attention and keep right.

By: Regnad Kcin

Regnad Kcin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:41:17 +0000

“TRYING TO DRIVE 90 IN THE LEFT LANE? GO FUCK YOURSELF.”

By: Brock Yates, Jr.

Brock Yates, Jr. — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 18:13:41 +0000

I would respectfully suggest that proper lane stratification, stay right except to pass, is key to the maximum freeway capacity. No matter the laws or enforcement, people will travel at a speed that is comfortable to their perception of their skills. The writer above mentioned driving in Wyoming and most folks were chugging along at 75 mph which seems to be around the natural speed in all states and in fact the design parameter for the original Interstate System in 1955. That said, many people do run faster and slower for a variety of reasons and a multi-lane highway insures that the varying speeds can co-exist safely. This is true only if there is a set of guidelines for drivers to use to minimize the dangers of dissimilar speeds. Professional truck drivers on the whole, are the most courteous drivers on the road. They use turn signals, stay right after passing, are more aware than the average motorist, and most importantly predictable in their behavior. Someone easing down the highway staying in the left lane is not paying attention to the needs of the other drivers, predictable in their actions and ceding responsibility of their safety to the prudence of the following vehicles and faster traffic tries to overtake, sometimes forcing a pass endangering all on the highway.
For those that say, with a certain smugness that the “speed limit is the same in all lanes” let me suggest a few concepts. One, it only takes a couple of vehicles to bring a highway to a stop by driving side-by-side on a freeway. The cars not allowing faster traffic to pass will cause a compression as cars catch up ultimately resulting in a traffic jam well after the guilty parties have exited the highway. Another easy to try idea is to gauge the reactions of your fellow drivers by making eye contact with passing vehicles traveling for a while in the left lane and then moving right. Slowly in the left lane will cause ire, interesting gesticulations, and near misses. Traveling in the right lane and your exposure to danger is less and you are nearly invisible to other drivers.
I am a professional driving instructor, on racetracks and highways, and I have found in my years of wandering American highways that driving has become a right rather than the profound responsibility it really is. Most people are choosing airbags and crush-zones rather than skills to deal with panic situations. We all say we are good drivers, but fewer than 10% of the drivers in the country know how ABS lets you turn and stop at the same time and could actually do it in a panic situation, keep your eyes anywhere near the right place when driving (look to where you want to go and your hands will follow), nor what to do in the case you drop a wheel from the road surface or experience a blow-out. Low skills, inattention and egocentric driving are responsible for most crashes.
Learn how to drive safety, the first step for some is to get out of the left lane and open your eyes.

By: Deke

Deke — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:23:20 +0000

Arguments about speed are irrelevant when discussing the left lane as a passing lane. This is a common practice in Europe and it simply makes sense. How many times have we seen blockages caused by someone in the left lane who will not get out of the way. This leads to aggressive and dangerous moves by other drivers and ends up helping nobody and risking everybody. Just get the hell out of the way. Think a little bit about someone other than yourself and/or how what you do impacts others. Besides, do you really enjoyed being tail gated by some raging driver who can’t get around you? Honestly, I am old enough now where I am more patient. I am usually in the upper middle of the pack regarding speed, but as I drive I am constantly making decisions to keep me away from as many of you as possible. Staying out of the left lane is the best way to stay safe on the expressway.

By: Vin

Vin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:35:28 +0000

I think one thing that speed limit absolutists forget is…driving slow does not necessarily equal driving safe. Nor does a literal following of every single rule of the road. Good driving requires both abiding by the rules AND reacting to subjective road situations. The two are not always the same thing.

For example, let’s say there’s a highway with a 50 mph speed limit, however, most traffic is moving at about 10 mph above that. If a car going 60mph in the center lane moves left to pass a slow-moving truck, and then finds himself being tailgated by a left-lane dweller going 70, then the latter is clearly a bad driver. However, if there is a car just driving along in the left lane going 50, completely oblivious to the traffic whizzing by him in the center lane, then that person is the bad driver. Arbitrarily imposing the speed limit on other drivers on a highway is just as stupid and dangerous as speeding itself.

By: Dbratland

Dbratland — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 05:15:19 +0000

The practical reality is that the speed limit is what it is, and some people are bound to want to go faster. Wishing it were otherwise is nice, but so what?

The question is, are you going to sit there and block them? Or move over and let them be on their way? When I see slow cars blocking speeders, the speeders follow too closely, which is in itself making a dangerous situation worse. Then the speeders pass on the right, which is also more dangerous than passing on the left. And so either the speeder gets around the car camping in the passing lane, and continues speeding, so the camper has accomplished nothing. Or else the speeder can’t get around, and then the camper creates a knot of traffic where everyone bunches up, and has a harder time changing lanes. Bunched up traffic flows poorly and is dangerous. What good is that?

I don’t see how ignoring the rule to keep right except to pass is going to cause the speed limits to be raised. If anything, they’re likely to lower the speed limits if accidents increase.

So you can say you wish the speeders didn’t exist, or wish the speed limit was higher, but I observe somebody always wants to go faster than any speed limit. So why make it worse by creating more congestion? It makes no sense to me.

By: Josh R

Josh R — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:42:30 +0000

Jeff, actually it’s not always the case that the speed limit is the absolute limit. In at least a few states, including here in MN, you’re allowed to go a bit over while in the act of passing without getting in trouble. Here the law is that you’re allowed to exceed the posted speed limit by up to 10 mph while engaged in legally passing another vehicle. Obviously an office could still ticket you if you were say, passing on the right, or passing in a no-passing zone, or if he felt you were driving recklessly.

By: Jeff G

Jeff G — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:36:03 +0000

Actually keeping to the right is not even the law in every state. In six states you only have to move to the right if you are not doing the speed limit:

http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html

By: Jeff G

Jeff G — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:20:35 +0000

Dbratland,

The speed limit is the law too. And I would be willing to bet that the number of tickets given out for not moving over to the right is a tiny fraction of the number of tickets given out for speeding in any state, including Washington. If you want to get so legalistic, then I would say that drivers in the left lane should move over once they are done passing, but they can’t go above the speed limit to pass someone, so it may take a while. So if I am passing someone in the left lane, however slowly, by keeping to the speed limit, I am following the law exactly.

By: Josh R

Josh R — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:36:39 +0000

I think one big cause of left lane camping is crappy merging skills. If we didn’t have some drivers wandering onto the freeway at 45 mph, and others blasting on without looking and just expecting everyone to scatter at their approach to avoid a crash, we wouldn’t have as many cars camping in the left lane to avoid them.