C5Mike said:
on the subject of passing lanes...
adjust... actually, I'm still adjusting. My Seattle native coworkers tell me I can get a ticket for driving in the passing/left lane too long. I just think that's rediculous.
This is my reasoning for why one should pass on the left, and why the left lane should only be used for passing.
The right lane is where on-ramps merge, and where people want to exit. When people exit, they want to slow down. When people are merging on the freeway, people generally will be driving slower (sometimes due to the driver, other times due to having a car with low power). This naturally results in left lane traffic being faster.
Let's say you're in the second-to-the-right lane. Or let's say you're in the far right lane, and the off-ramp continues from their own independent lane that was connected to the on-ramp. You want to switch right for your exit. It would be less dangerous for yourself, and for other cars, if you did not have to worry about cars passing you as you try to switch out. I've seen (and frustratingly experienced) impatient drivers pass on the farmost right lane when someone wanted to exit, causing the exiter to miss their exit, and worse, causing accidents.
I hate it when people tailgate cars when they're not in the farthest left. Why not switch left to pass them? One reason is because people are driving slower in the left lane. Solution: for the slowpokes in the left to switch right, so that the driver in a hurry can pass on the left lane. Faster drivers should not take away the right from slow drivers to drive slow.. But at the same time, slow drivers should not take away a fast driver's right to drive fast. No one but the highway patrol has the right to judge whether or not someone should be driving fast. You never know when someone needs to rush to the hospital, etc.. The chances of someone having a genuine need to drive fast occurs rarely, but they exist. The day you find out a loved one is dying in a hospital is the day you dont need some slow jerk in front of you to be saying "i can drive the way i want to and you shouldn't be going so damn fast anyway."
When a slow driver slows traffic in the far left lane, they are preventing the faster driver from driving fast safely. If the faster driver is in a real emergency, they are forced to pass on the right. But this is unsafe, for the reason described above. Cars switching to the right will be in danger of being hit.
Example: a small car is being followed by a large SUV, driving at a slow speed in the far left lane. A faster car comes up fast behind the SUV. needing to get by but not having the opportunity to continue on the left, he will pass right.. at the same time, the small car in front of the SUV is wants to exit. The small car cannot see that there is a speeding car behind the SUV.. and does not see a car in the right lane as he switches right. Just as he switches right, the speeding car switches right, not seeing that there is a slower car switching out in front of the SUV..
The best outcome for this scenario is that the passing car reacts fast enough to slam on his brakes.. but in having to slow down so drastically, he in turn slows down all the other cars behind him, taking away their rights to drive fast.
If the slower cars can continue at their speed without impediment on the farther right lanes, why not just stay to the right?