Driving slower often makes sense

if you are in the left-hand lane going 45mph on belair road, i would consider you to be either incompetent, rude, or both. if i, along with other drivers, choose to go 55, you should respect our wishes and get out of our way. the speed limit normally does not represent a "safe" driving speed. driving 10 or 15 over is hardly unsafe, and the majority of drivers understand this. on the contrary, those who drive slowly in the left-hand lane are usually oblivious to what is going on around them - they are the real culprits of bad driving.

Dead on the stick there Jade, I agree, can't stand the person cruising in the left lane at the speed limit next to the person in the right lane doing the same.

Usually those persons in the left lane are chatting on their cell phone or looking at anything but the road.

So, I should get over to let you speed by, ignoring the speed limit? BAH! I won't do it, and I may be saving someone else's life by doing so. If I'm doing the speed limit, I am entitled to be in either lane, as it IS determined to be the MAXIMUM safe speed, and you'd get the ticket before I would.

There's more to competent driving then speed. Lane usage is part of the decision making process. If the flow of traffic is greater then the posted speed limit in the left hand lane, good drivers will not slow it down just to prove they can. Slower traffic, keep right. It's not just a curtesy, it's safe driving.

GACopper, Once again, as it says in the drivers manual, on a multilane road, the left lane is for passing slower traffic. If your not passing a car, your not entitled to drive in the left lane.

Vulcan, the driver's manual also says obey posted speed limits....

GACopperhead, it says not to tail gate either, but I have a solution for that when I am on my bike, after taping the breaks, if they don't back off, I wave them off, if they stay on my tail, I take a marble out of my vest pocket and toss it over my shoulder, and then you get to buy a new windshield. Never tailgate a biker.

Ignore the issue of speeding being a traffic violation for a moment. Common courtesy says you should move over to the right lane after you have completed passing someone. We all have enough stress in our lives already, so why increase the stress levels of the guy behind you by not moving over?

If you do it to me, Vulcan, you'll be buying me the windshield, hopefully spending a night in jail, and going to court on a civil suit. You must have been a bully in school.
robaroo, no one person is responsible for the stress that you can't handle. Why are you all in such a hurry to rush through your lives? I have found that when people rush around me, more often than not, I pull up to a stop light right next to them, or right behind them. who has less stress....the one hurrying, or the one who still gets there within 30 seconds of them and wasn't upset? And i'm to ignore speeding in this? It's the crux of the issue! I'm impeding you right to break the law? Oh my.....what a shame!

GACopperhead, try again, call the cops, "must have been a rock from the road, the guy was riding my tail" Problem solved on my end. If you get rear ended in a car, your somewhat protected, if your bumper touches my back tire, I am gone. So Copper, if your not tailgateing, it would not happen to you. Or are you entitled to tailgate while going slow in the left lane too?

now, now, boys!

lol! true, true, vulcan, but you must admit, two wrongs don't make a right. Three lefts do, thought :)

LOL, you are Correct for sure, GA. But the times I have had to do the marble thing are rare, it has never shattered a windshield, just given it a good spider web and got the driver to understand that tailgating a bike is always a bad idea. The few times I have resorted to this tactic have been times when because of the roads or conditions I could not speed up, or even wave the person around me.

The left lane is really supposed to be used as a passing lane. If you are driving the speed limit or lower you should stay in the right lane at all times. Remaining in the left lane to deliberately keep other cars behind you is dangerous, and it is discourteous to drivers who are driving safely but trying to pass slower drivers in the right-hand lane. Driving in the left lane at the speed limit seems to me to be a kind of road rage; it's as if the left-lane driver is trying to take revenge on faster drivers or is trying to (inappropriately) teach others a lesson in safe driving, while ironically creating a hazard. Everyone should drive defensively and should be aware of what other drivers are doing but should not be so concerned about them that they forget the big picture, which is keeping the roads safe for everyone.

I carry a bag of oranges in my car to throw at drivers who dont get the hell out of my way. Pretty good with my left hand these days too.
People look in your mirror. If there are a line of cars behind you, and non in front, and you are in the left lane, move over. How is that hurting you? You are not a drivers ed instructor. And please, dont ever try driving in Southern California like that. You will likely get shot.

ArtB, good post, I agree, the left lane is for passing only and if right laners are going the speed limit, then there is no need to pass, unless you are an emergency vehicle, a police escorted vehicle, (such as a woman in labor in a private car, or a government official on official business), or you have another true emergency. The only time that I get stuck in the left lane is when I try to pass someone going under the speed limit and they wake up suddenly and speed up to match the speed limit. THAT is aggravating! Then I'm forced to either speed to pass them or drop back and get back in the right lane. I can't drop back if someone behind me has arrived on my bumper because they are going over the speed limit. There are so many people speeding that when the above happens, I'm usually forced to speed so I can safely return to the right lane without getting rear-ended by the zippy hare after my legitimate attempt to pass the sleepy turtle. Please don't block the left lane on purpose. Vulcan Rider, try to give the benefit of the doubt. Once in a while people actually do have a reason to speed in the left lane. If not the car behind you, maybe someone a couple of cars back.

KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS! If you are driving slow in the left lane, then you are a road hazard and need to move to the right. If you want to slow people down you should join the highway patrol. Other than that, you are not the law and should not try to enforce it. Leave that up to professionals. Look at it this way, would you chase down a car if you saw the one of the occupants running out of a bank with a bag full of money? I think most people would write down the tag number, get a good description, and call the police. If speeding offends slow drivers so much, they should move out of the way, get a tag number and vehicle description, and call the highway patrol. Then they would have to report themselves too for writing while driving and the using their cell phones while driving! To save time, they should just move over and drive without the unwanted lessons on speed. Most of them don't know why people are driving fast anyway. The speeder could actually have an emergency to get to.

I knew a guy once that was stopped by the police for speeding. His wife was in labor and the cop gave him a 45 mile police escort from the lowcountry of South Carolina to the hosptial in Savannah. I also knew a guy that pour a cup of lemonade in his pregnant girlfriend's lap when he got pulled over because was driving under suspension. The cop gave him an escort to the hospital where the guy ran in witht he girl, watched the cop drive away, and came back out to continue to their destination. The point is, those situations were handled by law enforcement and not by citizens on self-appointed patrol missions to slow everyone else down. Let the cops do their jobs because if you are trying to slow someone down, you never know what you might be getting yourself into or what their reasons for speeding may be. If you do see them later at a right light or stop sign you should be grateful that they're ahead of you and not behind you.

Great posts, good points KingJames! Thanks.

Thanks baroness. I just don't like it when people think it's their right to teach those who don't want to be taught. If they would use the grocery store analogy then they would be better off. There aren't any lanes there, but people generally all walk in the same direction and when someone tries to go around them, they move their cart over to the right out of courtesy. Why is it so hard to get those same people to drive like they shop?

I just have a lot of tires tied to the side of my car and i drive wherever I want, through bushes and into the sides of buildings. Out of my way, ye lopsided mendicants.

King James, what grocery store do you use? There are people oblivious to those around them and I have met a bunch of them. Not only in Augusta, but where I now live. I do like what you say about traffic. I am a good defensive driver and do as the law requires. However, when I lived off Columbia road I often moved to the left lane to be in a position to make a move to the turn lane. Some folks don't seem to understand that is a better move than a sudden swerve to the left lane. Most traffic officers do not give tickets if the flow of traffic is good and does not exceed the limits beyond 5 to 7 miles. Be considerate drivers. It is not your duty to enforce the law, only abide by it.

What's selfish is your obsession with criticizing and controlling everyone else on the road - just pull over!

If people drove like they push those carts and line up in Walmart and the local grocery stores, I'd never live to see another day. They will run you over. If you turn your back on your cart, it is gone. Don't leave it at the McD's Park-your-cart spot. Customers will take your stuff out of it and put it in the next cart with someone else's purchases and take your cart over despite your protests. My parents avoid Walmart as much as possible and do their grocery shopping on post (Fort Gordon). I LOVE the way everyone is funneled into one line at the commissary (military grocery store) and a number comes up on the electric cue for the next available register, next please, and you zip over there and the register is ready for you. That is the only fair way to do it. I can be the second person in line for 10 minutes and someone will walk up to the next register, be fifth in line there and sometimes get out before I do while my perishables are perishing. After surviving all that the clerk says nothing, doesn't even count your change back and if you try to make eye contact and say thank you to prompt a reply, she doesn't even look up and just grunts, uh huh. Sound familiar?

Like we used to say back in the day, baroness, "you ain't never lied" when it comes to what you just said about WalMart. I hate to go in there. I prefer to forsake the one-stop-shoop craziness and shop at smaller stores that don't have everything in the world that the average person doesn't need. I do limit myself though if I have to go there. I never get a cart and I try to pay for my few items either in the garden shop, electronics, or jewelry where the lines are generally shorter. When I was in the Navy some of the older comissaries had arrows painted on the floor and narrow aisles so that the flow of traffic had to go in one direction. Once could get by someone that was not moving, but you ultimately had to be polite and excuse yourself for doing so and they were polite enough to try to move over.

I'm with King James - if you want to control how fast others drive, you should have a badge and blue lights.

The one thing I don't hear anyone saying is the the argument is based on the right to break the law, speeding,which is not a protected right in this country, and is much more likely to cause a wreck and potential death than is doing the speed limit in the left lane! It's Wrong!!!! I don't speed, especially in traffic, as I value the life I have, and that of others. I said earlier that often someone will speed past me, glaring, and at the next stop light, I pull up next to them. Is this what someone else's life is worth to you all? Ten seconds faster to a stop light? uhboy.....

If you are in the right lane, and you are holding up traffic, you area an oxygen thief, and should exit the gene pool.

Mr. Copperhead, you are right about how foolish and reckless speeding is; like the stop sign analogy you used, often speeding does nothing more than help the speeder hurry up and wait. No one has defended lawbreaking here. But it can also be reckless to attempt to stop speeders by deliberately driving in the left lane in such a way as to hold up traffic behind you. Speeding may be much more likely to cause a wreck or death, but the potential for harm does exist in the left-lane scenario. I think the best strategy is to obey traffic rules, drive the speed limit, recognize the fact that there are drivers out there who will behave badly on the road (and don't let it get you angry; just let it make you more alert), and keep right except to pass.