Usual Suspect > wrote:
>Jean-David Beyer wrote:
>
>>
>> Does he want me to get ticked and fined for doing that? Here in New
>> Jersey, one is legally required to keep in the right hand lane except when
>> passing other vehicles.
>
>I've never heard of anyone getting ticketed for it. Even if you do get

Some years ago I visited California, and drove from Sacramento
to San Francisco on a holiday weekend. It was interesting...
though I'd been warned by locals before the trip. There were
Highway Patrol vehicles all over the place, and obviously they
were using an airplane to time vehicles for speeding, with the
patrol cars then going after them.

What was fun to watch though was the way traffic would clear for
a patrol car, and this was what I'd been warned about. If the
patrol car would have to change lanes to pass, instead of
passing they would pull the obstructing vehicle over and ticket
them for not moving to the right lane. Almost everyone was
aware of this, and hence the sight of a Highway Patrol car in
the rearview mirror meant everyone dodged to clear the way.

Personally, I thought it was one of the more gross displays of
institutional stupidity I've ever seen.

>ticketed, the charge is easily thrown out in court. And even if,
>hypothetically, it doesn't, it does not affect your insurance premiums.
>Would you rather run a small risk of that or have your brains spilled all
>over the right lane by a merging truck? The right lane is for merging and
>exiting vehicles, it's not for normal driving, unless you are suicidal.

Regardless of the stupidity involved, virtually everything you
say about it is untrue. I'll grant that hugging the right side
is dangerous (actually, _changing lanes_ is dangerous, but since
more of that is necessary as one nears the right lane, the right
lane is indeed dangerous as a result).

However, on any highway built to Interstate standards, which is to
say if there is *no left side egress*, it is a valid (albeit not
necessarily smart) law to require traffic to favor the right lane
when not passing. It almost makes sense with two lanes, but gets
to be less and less sane with more than two lanes of traffic.

The big problem I've seen is rural states trying to pass the
same laws for roads that are not built to Interstate standards.
(Alaska's highways are an example, and they've tried the "Slower
Traffic Keep Right" even on roads with left side egress *that*
*lacks* *a* *left* *turn* *lane* no less! Abject stupidity!

Of coursed, the best answer is to live 300 miles from the
nearest pave road... :-)

--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)