For a long time, I have been wanting to make this point: When I was taught the driving laws of the state where I came from, I was told that if you choose to drive at a slower pace, to always keep to the right in the right lane. I was also taught if you want to drive at a faster pace, to always keep to the left in the left lane! I was taught that it was the same law in every state in this beautiful country of ours, and as far as I know, that driving law still holds.
So if that is the case, I would like to bring this to the attention of all the drivers in Asheville (let alone the whole USA) to realize how much road rage is caused by this very matter of not driving in the correct lane [appropriate to] your choice of driving speed. And it is a choice; driving slower or faster depends on you!
If you want to help prevent road rage as well as accidents, please … move over to the slower lane and help prevent [the] frustration of drivers who choose the fast lane. This will benefit everyone on our streets here in Asheville and wherever we travel on this great country’s highways. And of course, it [should] go without saying: Try to stay within the speed limit!
Please! Pass this article on to every person you know, as a reminder of an ever-growing, urgent need to follow this traffic law by simply being kind enough to move your vehicle to the right of the center line!
— Carol Ann Jacobs
Asheville
The part that is often overlooked that balances this out is the speed limit: it’s not a suggestion, nor is it a minimum. No one seems to remember this. Don’t believe me? Drive down I-40 between mile marker 47 and 42 where there’s a 50 mph speed limit. If you actually go the speed limit you’re risking your life.
The left lane is for passing, not just driving as fast as you want (as the letter writer seems to think.)
Although the slow drivers in the right lane certainly don’t help matters, it’s important to note that they in and of themselves don’t cause the accidents and road rage–It’s the people passing on the right and/or tailgating the slow drivers that cause the problems.
In European countries people who use the passing lane for anything other than passing get tickets.
As an over the road owner-operator, I have experienced the frustration of both drivers going too slow & those hogging the passing lanes. It is very agitating. It is the law nation wide that slower traffic must be in the right lane, unless passing. Why more tickets are not written for passing lane violations is just not right.
Chuck, I don’t know if you’ve ever driven in California and some other western states or not, but that’s not the law there, at least not for cars. You are supposed to drive in the lane with the “smoothest flow of traffic.” You may pass on either side as long as it’s safe.
See: http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/hdbk/pgs22thru25.htm
That was the most difficult thing for me to get used to when I came back to NC after driving in CA for many years. I was constantly going down the road in the left lane. Someone would come up behind me like they wanted to pass. The right lane would be clear so I didn’t understand why they didn’t just go around on the right. Then I realized the law was different here.
The thing is, if the traffic ever gets as heavy here as in southern CA (and now it’s not even close), forcing people to only drive in the far right unless passing will severely hold up the flow of traffic.