It ain't the "Fast Lane"
The far left lane, if not a designated car pool lane, is not the "fast lane". It is the PASSING LANE! If you are not actively passing slower traffic, and if there is a vehicle behind you, MOVE OVER!
Speed limit is not relevant. If you are doing 90 in a 55 zone, and the guy behind you wants to do 91, MOVE OVER!
This is hot on my mind because I just drove my Toyota Echo from Sequim WA to Wilmington OH, 2840 miles in 46.5 hours total elapsed time. Out west in the 75mph states (once you clear Seattle, which is not really part of the West but is a poor cousin of urban California), traffic moves fast and efficiently, and people tend to yield the left lane to overtaking traffic, regardless of speed limit and regardless of what speed traffic is moving at. Things change when you hit Sioux Falls SD.
East of Sioux Falls, traffic slows and there is more of it. This would not be a problem if drivers showed the same awareness and courtesy that Montana drivers do.
Until recently, Montana had no numeric speed limit. Safe and prudent, or something like that. In those days, even if you were doing 120 or so, you couldn't cruise the passing lane with complacency. Somebody doing 140 would run up your tail if you didn't pay attention. But Montana drivers learned how to manage traffic in those days, and they haven't forgotten.
I averaged 55.55 mph on this trip, miles into total time. That includes sleep stops. I drove no more than 5 mph over posted speeds, until I reached Iowa, which still has Interstates with 55 posted in many areas. I held it down to 70 most of the time in Iowa, though when traffic was sparse, my Echo seemed to drift up to 80 on its own. (No cruise control.)
On this cross-country trip, as I've observed on others, traffic moved fast and efficiently when drivers used the left lane as a PASSING LANE and not as Speed Limit lane or a Fast Lane.
If traffic enforcement folks routinely hanged drivers who cruise the fast lane alongside a truck when a dozen cars are on their bumpers, or who "pass" slower traffic on cruise control doing 0.1 mph faster than the passed traffic, we could save billions of dollars on highway expansion. Two lanes each direction are usually enough if all the drivers are paying attention and using the left lane to pass quickly and then move to the right. Six lanes each direction will never be enough if people don't use them properly.
Speed limit is not relevant. If you are doing 90 in a 55 zone, and the guy behind you wants to do 91, MOVE OVER!
This is hot on my mind because I just drove my Toyota Echo from Sequim WA to Wilmington OH, 2840 miles in 46.5 hours total elapsed time. Out west in the 75mph states (once you clear Seattle, which is not really part of the West but is a poor cousin of urban California), traffic moves fast and efficiently, and people tend to yield the left lane to overtaking traffic, regardless of speed limit and regardless of what speed traffic is moving at. Things change when you hit Sioux Falls SD.
East of Sioux Falls, traffic slows and there is more of it. This would not be a problem if drivers showed the same awareness and courtesy that Montana drivers do.
Until recently, Montana had no numeric speed limit. Safe and prudent, or something like that. In those days, even if you were doing 120 or so, you couldn't cruise the passing lane with complacency. Somebody doing 140 would run up your tail if you didn't pay attention. But Montana drivers learned how to manage traffic in those days, and they haven't forgotten.
I averaged 55.55 mph on this trip, miles into total time. That includes sleep stops. I drove no more than 5 mph over posted speeds, until I reached Iowa, which still has Interstates with 55 posted in many areas. I held it down to 70 most of the time in Iowa, though when traffic was sparse, my Echo seemed to drift up to 80 on its own. (No cruise control.)
On this cross-country trip, as I've observed on others, traffic moved fast and efficiently when drivers used the left lane as a PASSING LANE and not as Speed Limit lane or a Fast Lane.
If traffic enforcement folks routinely hanged drivers who cruise the fast lane alongside a truck when a dozen cars are on their bumpers, or who "pass" slower traffic on cruise control doing 0.1 mph faster than the passed traffic, we could save billions of dollars on highway expansion. Two lanes each direction are usually enough if all the drivers are paying attention and using the left lane to pass quickly and then move to the right. Six lanes each direction will never be enough if people don't use them properly.
posted by Eric Rush | 3:00 PM
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