Colorado is actually ticketing people who hog the left lane. More of this, please.

Illinois is supposed to do the same thing, too, but they only enforced it for about 3 weeks, and even then, there are restrictions on where it's enforced...

I agree that it needs to be done, Autobahn-style, but there are a LOT of differences in the driving laws and habits between the US and Europe that can't be changed in a short amount of time.

A lot of the Freeways would benefit from some re-design to ensure that the slow lane doesn't get changed and that traffic only joins on the one side and not both sides.

Driving around the 101 in the Bay Area and the 5 in Seattle is awful. It's practically impossible to sit in one lane, without hogging the outside ones.

Don't know about recent times, but when I was learning to drive in Pennsylvania in the late '60s they actually taught this and tested for it. Also, I was riding with my Aunt one time when she got stopped and ticketed for this in PA.

Now that I don't live there anymore, I get really steamed at the large number of left-lane drivers who either don't know that it causes accidents and holds up traffic, or just don't care.

Obviouslyoneofmyhotbuttons,
Dan DeLong

Whoever invented left exits on freeways needs to be included in the paving material for the next new highway.

More so the ones who came up with the brilliant idea for left-lane onramps.

Then you'd love having to use the 520 bridge to get to/from downtown Seattle via Mercer Ave. Both ways you get a left lane on-ramp onto I-5 from which you have to shift over three lanes to the right to get to your exit. it's even more difficult with the morons whotake your changes personal, jerks who should know by now what's going on and that you will be out of their way as soon as possible. Gotta love those 1960s highway designs.

The 520/5 interchange if you need to get to Seattle Centre is pretty much one of the worst I've dealt with. I've used it to scare the hell out of co-workers by pretending that I have a best time to beat for clearing all 6 lanes.

It's actually easier in peak times as the traffic is slower moving, when everybody is doing 50+ it's much more challenging.

The UK made this relateively simple in the 70s by making "under taking" i.e. over taking on the "left" (substitute right for USians) a traffic offence.

While people still do it, I'd like to see Freeway driving actually tested/taught in standard driving courses as a lot of people get it badly and dangerously wrong in the UK too.

Left lane hogging is one of my pet peeves as well.

Unfortunately, I live in the DC area. Around here left lane hogging is actually supported by the law. What? Yes. The infamous DC Beltway has a 55 mph limit. It's legal to sit in the left lane and do 55 -- while other traffic weaves in and out at speeds up to 80 (perhaps more). There are some limited access roads with speed limits of 45. Those limits are also really obeyed. Sure.

There's another wrinkle in local driving I've been seeing for a few years. Some people are using the right and left hand turn lanes at stop lights as passing lanes. No, this isn't to get around a temporary problem. It's routine behavior by hyperaggressive drivers. It's getting a bit scary.

Uh, I'm not sure I see a problem with the law as described in the article. If the speed limit is 65, prevailing flow is around 68, and I'm doing 72 in the left lane and it's open, why can't I stay in it? South Carolina passed a law last year mandating "Keep right except to pass." This is only of value when applied to people who drive slow in the left lane, unless there's somethign I'm missing.

What you're missing is that the purpose of the left lane is for passing, regardless of your speed. Even if you're going faster than the speed limit, if someone wants to get around you, they should be able to do it without having to pass you on the right. If people think that they're the exception to the rule, then the left lane gets clogged up. "Slower traffic keep right" doesn't work, because many people don't think of themselves as slower traffic, even when they are.

I would personally like to see a lot of the German driving rules implemented over here. I spent 9 years in the Rhineland (military dependent and Active Duty) and the nice thing about the autobahn is *knowing* what everybody around will do when an accident happens. In the US its a free for all.

That said, US highways are simply not built to handle autobahn speeds. If I took the BMW 318i that I drove in Germany (at 200 kph) and did the same here (at the equivalent 124 mph)...it's doubtful that I'd stay on the road when I met the first turn. Granted, I did that at 4AM when the Autobahn was empty...but the curves are BANKED for crying out loud. ;-)

US Highways might not be built for those speeds, but some US Interstates are. ;)

Most of the imformation and opinions that I have about the Autobahn and US Interstates are from the Modern Marvels episode about the Autobahn that gets run once in a while on the History Channel.

Suffice it to say that you pay a significant amount for the privilege to drive in Germany, and the Autobahn was built by people that understood high-speed driving. 2-3 times thicker asphalt/concrete than any US Interstate, with banked turns and gradual grades changes.

The US interstate system was built before much of anything was known about "Highway hypnosis", and it shows. Just take a ride down I-74 in western Illinois some time. You don't have to turn the wheel for 10-20 miles at a time...

I'm all for ticketing left-lane dawdlers as long as they also ticket or arrest the maniacs in the left lane. You're more likely to be killed by a maniac than a dawdler.

billg,

Where do you live? DC area highways are becoming anarchic because of aggressively stupid laws that are enforced (when they are enforced) more as money making schemes for local government than as any sort of safety measure.

Consider one example. I drive a '99 Chevrolet Camaro with a six. While not a race car, it is faster than most things on the road today. It also handles and brakes better than the trucks that are so in vogue now. So am I the fastest car on 295 (a limited access road) in DC? Not by a long shot. The speed limit is 45. Radar cameras are set to ticket around 55 or so. So I tend to stay around 50 or less. $100 tickets just aren't worth collecting. But other people? I've estimated speeds on 295 at 70 and higher. I've even seen very bad accidents caused by people weaving in and out of traffic.

DC -- and other parts of the country -- need honest laws fairly enforced, not ridiculous ones that just cause more problems.

In most places, DC excluded it looks like, most law and government officials and citizens are more concerned with traffic flowing smoothly, not how fast it is going. I blame the cruise control for a lot of the problem. People get on the road, hit the speed limit, and hit cruise. They then proceed to ignore everyone else. These people are easy to spot for they pass semis one mile an hour faster than the truck is going. then, or course, they stay in the passing lane because that truck one mile a head in the right lane is going 2 miles and hour slower than they are.

Common sense and courtesy would solve everything.

This week, Florida passed a similar law restricting use of the left lane for passing only on highways. Given the proclivities of elder drivers to pick a "safe for them" speed, this can only help smooth traffic flow.

Actually I have a different take on this. I drive 30 miles each way to office, and never exceed speed limit. there is so much chaos in the rightmost lane (and sometimes right two lanes) that to maintain a constant 55 (that is my legal right) sometimes I must get to the second or third (counting from right) lanes.

I refuse to drive at 54 or 56. 55 exactly. Want to go as fast as possible but dont want to break the law just because you want to.