fantasycurse42
Footballguy Jr.
Dude, it is as black and white a topic as we can debate... Go fast and/or pass in the left lane while driving.If someone is approaching rapidly from behind, you should make every effort to move over.
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Question about driving in the "fast lane" (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Ignoratio Elenchi
- Start date
Dude, it is as black and white a topic as we can debate... Go fast and/or pass in the left lane while driving.If someone is approaching rapidly from behind, you should make every effort to move over.
Ignoratio Elenchi
Footballguy
What's "otherwise" mean? If you're not passing someone, you shouldn't be in the left lane.
If there was room on the right for them to zig around you, why didn't you pull to the right? You had an opportunity to do so before they did.
Are there some maniacs on the road who drive recklessly? Sure. (Then again, he might be racing to the hospital to see a child clinging to life after a horrific accident or something - it's neither your responsibility nor your right to decide why people are driving the way they are, either).
All you can control is what you do behind the wheel. Yes, some people drive improperly - that doesn't give you a pass to drive improperly too, and pretend that your version of improper driving is less of a problem than everyone else's. At best, you're just taking a bad situation and making it worse.
Dinsy Ejotuz
Footballguy
However fast it takes to keep up with traffic (up to, say 70-75mp)h. Otherwise use it only to pass.
Dinsy Ejotuz
Footballguy
I don't think anyone's every under an obligation to go 75+ mph. And if you're passing traffic in the right lane you're not obligated to get over for the guys who want to go 90 either.
TheIronSheik
SUPER ELITE UPPER TIER
I support the death penalty for people who drive in the left lane without passing. And use a ####### blinker when changing lanes.
Major
Footballguy
This. Kills me everytime I drive from Houston to Austin, I encounter several of these oblivious fools. Even worse when they decide to to drive the same speed as the car next to them.
TheIronSheik
SUPER ELITE UPPER TIER
Yup. Used to both crack me up and infuriate me when I'd be on the highway in Houston and there was me and one other car on a stretch of 4 lane highway. And, of course, the other car was doing 65 mph camped out in the passing lane.
Don Quixote
Footballguy
Somewhat relatedly... I was driving on an expressway in NYC a few years ago in the right lane and was honked at/flipped off by a couple of cars that wanted me to move over to the left, so they could pass me. Do the left/right rules reverse in NYC? Or do NYCers just flip everyone in their way? (I was assuming the latter.)
TheIronSheik
SUPER ELITE UPPER TIER
I've noticed that here in PA, on the two lane highways, people are pretty awesome about getting out of the left lane for slower traffic. It all seems to work just like it's supposed to.
Then you get to a three lane highway and it all falls apart. It's like people don't know what to do once that extra lane is introduced.
Then you get to a three lane highway and it all falls apart. It's like people don't know what to do once that extra lane is introduced.
fantasycurse42
Footballguy Jr.
I usually pull out my handgun and start shooting... More of a warning shot... If they still won't move aside, at that point you need to start thinking about the kill shot
Fat Nick
Footballguy
I think it's almost exclusively driven by traffic volume.TheIronSheik said:
On my normal, traffic-heavy commute, there's basically 3 lines of cars on a 3-lane road. Nobody in the left lane moves over, even when the right lane clears, for fear of being steamrolled by everyone passing them. Last night I worked late...same road, much less traffic...I breezed home and almost everyone I came up on moved right and let me by. I think a lot of people just aren't comfortable changing lanes in traffic. I've also noticed that having a head of steam when you come up on someone encourages them to move over, whereas when you are stuck in a pack, there's less...um...motivation.
simsarge
Footballguy
Problem is, you need at least two shots. One to take out the rear window and the second to take out the driver. Usually the first creates a sudden and erratic weeble wobble of the 80 year old geezer in front of you which in turn causes a 13 car pile up with you in the middle and said bullet in the guys back seat and said weapon in yours. The shark move is this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLowqjDpkSU
Clifford
Footballguy
The only thing to do is pass them on the right without even slowing down. If you try to get them to observe any rules of the road it will just piss you off and cost you time.Ignoramus said:
ETA: There was a news story about some woman getting ticketed for driving too slow in the left lane. That cops deserves the medal of honor.
glumpy
breeze
This is the point. If everyone in the left lane is steadily passing everyone in the middle lane who are steadily passing everyone in the right lane, and all traffic is moving consistently except for that one person pushing me from behind in hopes of gaining one car length--I'm not moving. Too bad.
danielmclark
Footballguy
Listen to your logic, though! "Some people drive improperly and it doesn't give you a pass to drive improperly too"? And yet you don't want to apply that logic to the people who are driving improperly over the speed limit? Why? What makes someone doing 90 in the left lane less of a problem - from a legal or "properness" standpoint - than someone who's driving in the left lane at or below the speed limit? I recognize that both are driving improperly. You want to give a pass to one but not the other while bashing me for supposedly doing the same thing.Ignoratio Elenchi said:
This is so typical. If someone's in your way, they're driving improperly. If you're in someone else's way, it's because they're driving improperly. When I said that things aren't that black and white, I mean it's because traffic conditions vary depending on the time of day and size of the road and #######it, sometimes people need to use the left lane because of traffic conditions. When the whole road is backed up having the left lane open for passers not only isn't practical, it's physically impossible.
Lastly, if you're going to say it's not up to me to determine why someone is coming up behind me at 90, fine. But it works both ways. If I'm not supposed to care, don't expect me to bust my ### getting out of the way - no matter what lane I'm in. Because I guarantee, if I'm in a middle lane and other people are in the left, and some d-bag comes flying up behind me, I'm not inclined to move unless it's safe and practical to do so. After all, I'm not supposed to care why he's driving like that, right?
pollardsvision
Footballguy
I'm normally adamant about only using the left lane for passing, but I think there's a stretch of the Lynchburg Expressway where staying in the left lane by default is the safest course of action.
It's the dumbest highway design I've ever seen. It's a 4-lane divided highway with no acceleration lanes for about 7 or 8 straight exits. It's also curvy and hilly. Cars have to just turn right out into 70+ MPH traffic with limited visibility.
If you don't cruise the left lane, it's very difficult to let cars on safely . They'll get fed up and pull out any, causing sudden lane changes or slow downs.
No perfect option with the poor design, but I elect to cruise in the left lane and just make sure I'm driving very fast. Get over for the occasional bat out of hell.
It's the dumbest highway design I've ever seen. It's a 4-lane divided highway with no acceleration lanes for about 7 or 8 straight exits. It's also curvy and hilly. Cars have to just turn right out into 70+ MPH traffic with limited visibility.
If you don't cruise the left lane, it's very difficult to let cars on safely . They'll get fed up and pull out any, causing sudden lane changes or slow downs.
No perfect option with the poor design, but I elect to cruise in the left lane and just make sure I'm driving very fast. Get over for the occasional bat out of hell.
Ignoratio Elenchi
Footballguy
Not sure where you got all of that from what I wrote. They guy driving recklessly and the guy driving in the left lane are both doing it wrong. I'm not giving a pass to the guy that's speeding and I'm not saying he's less of a problem. Reckless drivers are driving improperly. People like yourself who seem to think they're entitled to drive in the left lane when they want to are also driving improperly. Both are serious problems.
Who said that, other than you?
I already said we're not talking about backed up, stop and go traffic.
Listen to yourself. You're getting all ragey and making no sense. I'm sure it's difficult to deal with the sudden realization that you've been driving wrong all your life and everyone hates you, but that's not my fault. Follow the rules of the road - it's safer for everyone involved and it won't make you look like an #######.
Ignoratio Elenchi
Footballguy
Staying to the left to make room for traffic entering the highway is perfectly acceptable.
danielmclark
Footballguy
And yet perfectly illegal unless passing, right? Or are you making exceptions? Because in your other response to me - in which you seem to ignore half of what I've actually written in this thread - you seem pretty adamant that the left is only for passing.
17seconds
root of all aliai
I treat the left lane as the fast lane instead of the passing lane, as do most people in CA. If you are in there, you'd better be going 10mph over the limit and if someone wants to go faster than you want to go, you GTFO of the way. I'd say only half of people actually get out of the way. The other half think "I'm going 80mph, it's fast enough". That's a problem.
Using it only for passing isn't realistic because there's so much traffic we need all the lanes. You occupy it as long as you can.
Using it only for passing isn't realistic because there's so much traffic we need all the lanes. You occupy it as long as you can.
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danielmclark
Footballguy
This.
And it's not just CA, it's pretty much anywhere that has more than a decent sized population. It's absolutely impractical for everyone involved to use it solely for passing. It's "the fast lane".
Buckfast 1
Footballguy
johnadams
Footballguy
Exactly. It's more like the second left lane is the GTFO lane. It would be impractical and unsafe to use the left lane as a passing exclusive lane given that you're pretty much passing someone all the time. And if not, you will be soon. The amount of lane changes at high speeds (even at 65 mph) you would need to execute to use the left lane exclusively for passing would be ridiculous.
Being said, if there's a big stretch of open real estate on my right, I still move over even if no one is behind me so I don't have to worry about the very small percentage of the population that drives faster than I do.
Also, for the road rage stuff, I actually sold my car and have gone via public transportation for my communte. Not because of money (costs me slightly more) or time (adds time) or a sense for the environment (not that guy). But because I drive 880N home to get to SF and I was coming home so agitated that it took half an hour to calm down. By the time I hit the third bus going 45 in the fast lane on my way home, I started to lose it and then dealing with the mayhem that is city streets just enraged me even more (SF is notorious for hating commuters and doing everything it can to make drivers lives more miserable, all the while calling "traffic calming"). So now, I take the ferry to downtown while drinking a beer and brave the mass transit.
Joe Summer
Footballguy
They are both driving improperly, but the person driving 65 in the left lane is also interfering with the flow of traffic and creating a hazardous situation.
Joe Summer
Footballguy
By law (in most states), the far left lane is for passing only. Period.
You want to move into the left lane to make things easier for someone to merge, great. But you better move right back into the right lane as soon as they're done merging. If you can't grasp that concept then you are a crappy driver and a terrible human being and you shouldn't be behind the wheel.
Billy Bats
Footballguy
Absolutely, nothing worse than amateur traffic cops and I'll never figure out what people don't understand about "KEEP RIGHT, PASS LEFT".Ignoratio Elenchi said:
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danielmclark
Footballguy
Patently untrue as long as everyone else is also driving the legal speed limit. You, like so many others, are merely rationalizing one type of illegal behavior while putting down another. The car that creates the dangerous situation is the one that zig zags through traffic in excess of the legal speed limit simply because he doesn't feel like driving the speed limit. The guy in the left lane doing the speed limit might be annoying, might be driving improperly, but at least he's driving in a straight line and not weaving through traffic. That is what causes accidents.
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Major
Footballguy
Apple Jack
Footballguy
Right. And if that guy was given a clear path, everybody else would be safer. Thanks for making the road more dangerous for the rest of us.
Joe Summer
Footballguy
A driver clogging the passing lane at 65 MPH is creating a significantly larger hazard than a non-zig-zagging driver trying to pass at 66 MPH.
You know why NASCAR frequently uses the phrase "three wide"? Because it creates a more dangerous driving environment than single-file. This is not debatable.
danielmclark
Footballguy
In the really real world, that guy is breaking the law and getting pissed off at someone else who's breaking another law. So spare me the "one is way more dangerous than the other" because if the speeder would slow down the guy in the left lane wouldn't have to move over. As usual, this comes down to selfishness and egotism - of course you want to speed all over town, of course you have places to be, of course when you break the law it's completely justified. If the other guy is in your way, it's his fault. If you're zig-zagging around at 90 mph, that's somehow also someone else's fault. Not yours. Not the guy with the foot on your gas pedal.
Logic, FTW.
danielmclark
Footballguy
That you think our nations highways are NASCAR tracks speaks volumes about how damn wrong you are about this.
pollardsvision
Footballguy
Moving left for merging traffic is generally a form of passing.
Usually, the entering car is ahead, but moving slower.
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Billy Bats
Footballguy
Who has the bigger ego, they guy breaking the speed limit or the guy trying to stop him? Keep right, pass left Miss Daisy.
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Ignoratio Elenchi
Footballguy
danielmclark
Footballguy
A little bit of 2 and 3. But I'm also arguing this from a point of logic and real world application, which most of the people in this conversation can't seem to grasp. It boils down to: if you're arguing that people driving the left lane are terrible drivers because they're breaking a law while arguing that you're an awesome driver despite breaking speed laws, you're a hypocrite. And more than a little bit of an ####### in this regard.
Apple Jack
Footballguy
Fishing trip.
danielmclark
Footballguy
It's not about ego or trying to stop people from speeding. On a busy highway, it's not feasible to keep the left lane clear, and even if it was, it would not improve traffic conditions for anyone. But yes, people who are trying to justify their own illegal behavior while getting pissed off at other people for their other illegal behavior? This is kinda fun.
Ignoratio Elenchi
Footballguy
So now that you're starting to realize how silly your "arguments" have been here, now you're fishing. *wink wink*
Who's arguing that?
Do you not realize that you're the one who keeps trying to make his own poor driving habits seem more reasonable by continually comparing them to others' poor driving habits? No one else is arguing that speeding is "awesome." You're accusing others of "selfishness" and "ego" yet you're the only one displaying those traits by arguing that it's ok for you to drive whatever speed you want in the passing lane.
"Logic." Yikes.
pollardsvision
Footballguy
That's no excuse. I don't care what you're towing. Keep that damn boat over to the right if your sissy little truck can't keep up.
FUBAR
Footballguy
Pretty much this. If I've just passed someone, I'll probably get back into the right lane. But, if I know I'll just be getting back over in a minute and there's nobody behind me, I'm staying in the left lane. Occasionally there will be a sports car that comes way too close to me, gets over before I do, cutting off the guy to the right, and speeds around me. It's a rare satisfaction when I see that guy pulled over a mile later.danielmclark said:
In Virginia, I make it a priority to stay in the right lane as much as possible because there are always multiple cops out and I don't want to be the fastest guy on the road.
Apple Jack
Footballguy
This is a nice little parable.
