On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 17:58:19 -0800, Garth Almgren > wrote:

>Around 1/13/2005 12:52 PM, wrote:
>> Which still creates a whole pile of lane changes.
>
>So? Who cares? Changing lanes is an integral part of driving.

As explained earlier, every overt act carries with it the possibility of going
wrong and causing an accident. I've seen some near misses as people try to
change lanes toward the center of 3 lanes, from the opposite sides. These
kinds of screw-ups are sometimes really hard to detect.

The best way to keep things from getting dangerous is to avoid doing things
that increase risk. Changing lanes increases risk. So, if someone is at the
90th percentile of speed, and encounters 2000 other cars, he's going to be
passing 1800 of them. The best thing to do then is to stay left, and allow
those 10% going faster go around on the right. That results in only 200 lane
changes (or lane change pairs) instead of 1800. Makes sense to me, and is done
without allegence to a mantra or a religeous approach. Nevermind the "ITS
ILLEGAL" bleat as anyone catching anyone at the 90th percentile of speed is
already illegal, anyway. Obey all the laws of forget about 'em.

>If you're so afraid of changing lanes, keep to the right and you'll
>rarely have to change lanes, except for those oddball left exits.

Noooo.... it doesn't work like that. Stay in the _left_ lane and never have to
change lanes (unless someone flashes or honks, which they NEVER do...)