What is the left lane for?

[swamp-fox]

Yeah I highly recommend getting truck number and company name and calling in.( but if it's "owner operator" good luck he "IS" the company) Even better, use cell phone and call highway patrol and report. I have called in on other truckers myself and tell them to act like it's their mother, wife or daughter in the car they are trying to push out the way. Also cuss them out on the CB radio but a lot are just bullying their way through traffic like the women in the big SUV's. It's a lot different when I get out of my 18 wheeler and get in my little Saturn to come home. People sure are a lot nicer when I'm in the truck

swamp

M-Six, how I envy European drivers for that reason. I had to drive to downtown Los Angeles yesterday. A 23 mile trip that took me 1.5 hours (coming and going). What fun to drive in most of that in 1st and 2nd gear. I could never fathom working 'over the hill' unless I actually lived there.

I saw a Lamborghini along the way. I couldn't imagine sitting in a car like that in a perpetual state of 1st/2nd gear lol 8-P

[Theophylact]

...has a whole bunch of letters on this issue. Most seem to think that hanging's too good for left-lane loungers.

[Epidemic]

I am often tempted to tap my breaks hard enough to create contact. A nice 5 to 10 mph impact that will wake em up. Just to collect his license so he will not do it again. Oh my neck.

[aldtech]

The left lane is for Democrats. Everyone know that.

AL

[osprey4]

Originally posted by Epidemic
You suck if you ain’t kidding.

And you, sir, are as slow a learner as my father is a driver.

I should point out that if you try to use the term "fast lane" in New Jersey, you're met with blank stares.

[EndobioticChaos]

Originally posted by Socalgal
Passing, dagnabbit!

GRRRRR one of my BIGGEST rants in the whole wide WORLD are freakin MORONS who don't move over when a faster vehicle is approaching from behind.

GET THE (#*$#&*$_#*$ OUTTA MY WAY

Thank you. lol

Ohh, I like that. When travelling, nothing irritates me more than @#$%&! idiots who don't know when to move over. I get REALLY mad when the jerk stays there, even when there's little traffic and the right lane is wide open, or when he insists on crawling along there, 2mph faster than the traffic in the right lane but never drops to the right for a few seconds to give faster traffic a chance to pass.

But large trucks definitely need more slack. It's not like they can move over, quickly increase speed by 10mph to pass and then move back into the right lane.

I don't speed either like I used to. My preference is to set my cruise at 6mph over speed limit. Even so, if I'm passing and some hotshot in a Camaro comes up behind me I'll step on it so I can move out of his way.

I used to drive like a maniac, pedal to the floor whenever possible, doing about 95. Ironically, I've never gotten ticketed for doing more than 13 over. I get ticketed when I've decided to take it easy, and then a short stretch downhill I forget to watch my speed....

[Theophylact]

I get ticketed when I've decided to take it easy, and then a short stretch downhill I forget to watch my speed....

Of course; they're camped there, waiting for you and the next seventeen or so. They're at the end of the month, and they've got a quota to fill.

The last (and, in fact, only) speeding ticket I got was on a Sunday morning in DC, going down a quiet, long sloping avenue where the speed limit was 25, not the 35 of the street I just turned off. My speed was still about 35, maybe had picked up to 40 on the downgrade. He got me, and three other guys right after me.

[dmanlyr]

A rant... well maybe, but things to think about... I take those who drive illegally (unless passing, in the state of Washington) in the left lane of a multiple lane hiway/freeway as simple control freaks.

Why? Well each to his/her own, drive at whatever speed you want (within safe lower limits as well as safe upper limits) but don't force others to drive at the speed you are traveling. It seems, that a slow driver can "force" every one behind him/her to travel at the speed that he/she is going, but how many times has a fast driver physicaly made contact with the rear bumper of the car ahead and "forced" that car faster. Weird how it does not work that way. Seems selfish and unfair of those slow drivers for they have all of those right hand lanes to themselves... hmmmm seems that the slow drivers (one driving illegally and NOT following all of the traffic rules except for the ones that "they choose" really are the instigators of some of the traffic problems and not tthe "innocent" and "safe" drivers that they make themselves out to be!

We also have another problem to deal with. The Washington State Patrol takes great comfort in the saying that "speed kills" hmmm again. Speed makes it eaisier to get killed, but speed in itself does not kill. Otherwise those of us who have flown in a commercial jet airliner should all be dead since they travel in the .8 mach range (525 mph, sea level) rather than the more mundane 60/70mph (irrespective of height) that cars in Washington state are "limited to"

I challenge this. Call your local police board, call your local senator. Make sure that you let them know that you want ALL of the traffic laws enforced equally. IE people ticketed for ILLEGAL left lane use as well as "speeding" If enough people stand up and say "but wait a minute..... " we can effect change. That is the only way. Approach the individual officer on the street, in a respectful manor, and let him/her know you views. Do it all, for the saftey of us all depend upon it. Slow illegal drivers are every bit of a menace on the roads as those that speed!!

[dmanlyr]

Guess I wasn't done.. One last thing. Washington State is one of 11 states in this great Union of ours that has a split truck/car speed. Max anywhere of 60mph for trucks (heavy) Max 70mph in places for autos & light trucks.

Many studies including one by the federal NTHS have concluded that this is a dangerous practice. This causes a "speed differential" which is the single most deadly cause of deaths on the divided freeways involving vehical to vehical collisions. (even the federal goverment no longer referrs to them as "accidents"

So Washington state is mandating a unsafe practice, all in the good old spirit of the saying "speed kills". While in truth, once again, it is simply a non truth.

Example; If all of the vehicals were traveling at say 75mph, but one was traveling at 45mph, that one is the culprit, that one slow vehical is the unsafe one. Or is you will say it is snowing or rainging and traffic is flowing at a more sedate (and safe given the reduced traction conditions) 50mph and one vehical is trying to drive at 80mph. That faster vehical is now the unsafe vehical. Not from the speed rate, (in the case of vehical to vehical collisions rather that say driving off of the road at a curve) but form the "SPEED DIFFERENTIAL" So ticket both of the vehicals, both the faster car as well as the SLOWER driver. !

And all of this from a state which as seen fit to put up signs that say " Roads are slippery when wet" As if someone could actually get their drivers license without knowing that one? WOW what does that say about those who should not be driving!

Nuff said