Why You Shouldn’t Drive Slowly in the Left Lane

(Note: this video is only aimed at drivers in countries where you drive on the right.) When you drive down an interstate highway, you constantly see signs that say “slower traffic keep right” or “use left lane for passing only.” There’s a reason for this. The narrator of this video apparently had never heard of the rule, which says something about his driving instructor, and also tells us that he does not read signs.  

(YouTube link)

Nevertheless, there will be people who prefer to use the left lane of a four-lane road because the pavement is better. Or they are afraid that the right lane will end. Or they are going the speed limit, and no one should go faster than that. None of those reasons are good for the flow of traffic. Feel free to send this video to someone who needs it. The next lesson: turn signals.  -via reddit 


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I like US highways, because people (mainly) are cruising and not rushing.
This way I could drive *with the flow* on the I95 around Boston at 75-80kph with a speed limit of 55 if I remember well.
who cares about going faster or slower 5mph when you can pass police cruiser with a speed 40% over the speed limit and getting no reaction?

Btw, in France if you go over 25mph the speed limit you loose your licence (administrative suspension), and if you go over 31mph, you loose your licence and they retain your car. And get points out of your 12 points licence...
I miss the States :)
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California is complicated, as it has the Basic Speed Law which can allow driving faster as long as it is reasonable and prudent, but it is not a pure "prima facie" speed limit state. There are left over laws from the National Maximum Speed Limit years that allow highways to have absolute speed limits, and there are other cases where the posted limit is deemed the limit of what is reasonable and prudent. There are provisions for changing the speed limit based on actual traffic speed, but as measured by an engineering survey and not the traffic speed on any given day.
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"Speed of Traffic" is a concept here in California. There is a section of freeway near Palm Springs that is called Blood Alley. The average speed in the left lane is 90mph with occasional increases to 100mph. No one gets a ticket. Best advice, stay right and do a graceful 80mph like the rest of CA freeways.
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There are US states where exceeding the posted speed limit is not automatic grounds for speeding, and a driver can argue that their speed was reasonable (sometimes called prima facie speed limits). In practice, it is usually impractical to argue that the speed was reasonable in court.
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This is not a one size fits all concept, though. The logic works best on uncrowded freeways with long distances between exits that are all on the same side of the road. In denser urban environments that are very crowded and which may have closely spaced exits on either side of the road, it is reasonable that slower drivers may have to position themselves on either the left or right.

Drivers of slower vehicles may be driving that way for a reason, like they have a passenger who has just been through surgery. Similarly, drivers of faster vehicles may also be driving that way for a reason, like there is an emergency where someone's life is in danger. Yes, we our knee jerk reaction will almost always be to assume that the person is a jerk, but if you assume they're doing what they're doing for good reason (which do exist!) you'll have a better experience. Things will still be annoying, but they'll feel less arbitrary or malicious and will start to seem like something where we're all cooperating to make things better.

Which is true! Driving works amazingly well, all things considered. We have a system where many, many vehicles regularly move together gracefully at very high speeds with almost no coordination between the participants. It's incredible that this works at all! Not to mention that providing concessions for slower or faster drivers now means that you, too, will have the right to drive slower or faster when you're in one of those situations yourself.

We're all in it together. Usually. (Admittedly, some people really are just jerks.)
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