FL Leg. Passes Bill to Prevent Left (Passing) Lane “cruisers”

I’m not sure which is the more slippery slope.

The legislation,

or this thread.
 
I have said it for years: there should be a special endorsement on your DL required for driving on interstates. Things like maintaining a steady speed that’s consistent with weather and traffic conditions, signaling and merging, etc.

This would not only address the underlying issue(s) driving this discussion, it would also greatly increase efficiency (which would reduce fuel consumption and emissions), safety, and quality of life.

One could argue that drivers ed already teaches this. I’d say NC is a good example of how little people get from drivers ed as it’s required for a DL here. Versus places like FL where it is not (at least, it wasn’t—maybe it’s changed recently).

The desire to move traffic unimpeded is not attainable. It costs too much to make dedicated lanes and you can’t squeeze that exclusive space out of existing g lanes. Write all the laws you want—the majority are unenforceable. So we’ll be left with exactly what we have now: impatient, unskilled, and inefficient drivers making our highways operate far less than their ability. Those capacity tables I posted above would all increase significantly if drivers paid more attention and operated better.

Then there’d be no silly discussion about who owns the rights to which lanes, or worse, legislation that creates exclusive spaces on expensive highway lanes.
 
How does the Autobahn work? I’ve never driven on it. I mean, DOES it work?

I assume it means you better be going fast in the left lane, and if you are not, move your caboose over.
 
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fieldgrade said:
How does the Autobahn work? I’ve never driven on it. I mean, DOES it work?

I assume it means you better being going fast in the left lane, and if you are not, move your caboose over.
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Germany requires a special license/endorsement for nationals to use it. I’ve never been there, but I hear it works very well. Their drivers use/respect the left lane stuff as discussed here—the difference is the right lane(s) work like German machinery and there is no loss of capacity.
 
DuncanLempRIP said:
I will join you in temporarily ignoring the reality that a majority of people on a major highway speed to some extent.

Even in your world where nobody could possibly exceed the limit by 1mph, then how would your hypothetical situation be a problem?

If the middle lane is doing 70 already, then its occupants are going as fast as humanly/legally possible, correct? So what does it matter about the left lane being pass only?

If the left is reserved for passing, then either those extra drivers from your hypothetical 70mph left lane have room in the middle lane to also do 70, or they don't, because the middle lane would be too crowded, and the middle lane speed would drop below 70, which means they could now legally pass in the left without violating the sacred speed limit.
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Great point -thanks. I was speaking only to the legality of the law, not hypotheticals, but I concur that the middle lane would indeed slow down at some increased density of traffic, thereby opening the left lane for legal passing.
And I would offer that it should also be considered in a discussion like this (highway laws and the enforcement of them) to call out a couple of significant contributors to both traffic slowdowns and accidents, which are tailgating at high speed and failure to signal when changing lanes in congested traffic. If LEOs would increase enforcement of both, then life on the road would be safer and more enjoyable. 🚗🏎️
 
TCK said:
And I would offer that it should also be considered in a discussion like this (highway laws and the enforcement of them) to call out a couple of significant contributors to both traffic slowdowns and accidents, which are tailgating at high speed and failure to signal when changing lanes in congested traffic. If LEOs would increase enforcement of both, then life on the road would be safer and more enjoyable. 🚗🏎️
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Agree 100% on that. Sorry for the extra snark.

One way to help prevent high-speed tailgating (which is never okay to do) from occuring in the first place is to prevent the left-lane backups with strict enforcement of "keep right except to pass".

There will always be some jerks who tailgate people who have nowhere to go in dense traffic, but MOST of the tailgating I see on the highway is targeted at oblivious left-lane drivers creating a mobile roadblock, or, worse, at the unlucky person in the right lane who is adjacent to the aforementioned problem-causer.

While I would never tailgate at high speed, I do sometimes find myself cheering on the overly aggressive guy in the giant RAM who ultimately manages to instill enough fear in the left-lane camper to bully them back where they belong, restoring order to the universe.
 
I am frequently on 501 north of Durham.
It has two lanes each direction and left lane campers doing the 55 mph speed limit when most people are doing 65.
It is usually easy to pass them on the right but sometimes they sneak up on someone and pace them for miles blocking both lanes.
I think they do it on purpose…
 
fieldgrade said:
How does the Autobahn work? I’ve never driven on it. I mean, DOES it work?

I assume it means you better being going fast in the left lane, and if you are not, move your caboose over.
Click to expand...

The autobahn is awesome, and yes it works. I've driven on it more times than I can count. German drivers can at times deal harshly with anyone (usually an American) camping in the left lane. The autobahn works because German drivers as a whole all share the same view and driving etiquette. US drivers are, for the large part, ignorant, inconsiderate, entitled, and just plain don't care about anyone else.
 
railsplitter said:
US drivers are, for the large part, ignorant, inconsiderate, entitled, and just plain don't care about anyone else.
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Plus, US drivers are from all over the world, with all kind of weird driving habits, and judging from the people in line at the Food Lion, from other worlds.
 
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