4 Great Benefits You’re Missing Out On If You Block The Left Lane
Yielding to faster traffic is a simple concept, but it’s often forgotten. Chances are that when you’re behind the wheel, you see a bunch of people ignoring this basic driving rule, which is commonly referred to as lane courtesy.
When drivers choose to block the left lane, whether intentionally or not, they are making the roads less safe and efficient for everyone. Here are some of the benefits you and the other drivers on the road will notice if you keep the left lane open for passing:
1) You’re Less Likely To Be In An Accident
By not obstructing other drivers, traffic is able to flow more smoothly. When traffic flows smoothly, there is less tailgating, less weaving in-and-out of traffic, and therefore fewer accidents.
2) You’ll Get Better Gas Mileage
Lane courtesy promotes the smooth flow of traffic and helps drivers maintain an even pace. Vehicles use the most gas when accelerating. Less braking followed by acceleration will improve fuel economy.
3) You’ll Get To Your Destination Faster
Yielding to faster traffic reduces congestion. When traffic is flowing smoothly, highway capacity can be utilized to the fullest extent.
4) You Will Not Have To Deal With Road Rage
There’s little doubt that “left lane hogs” are a source of irritation for many drivers. The courteous act of moving to the right can eliminate driver stress and conflict.
Despite these clear benefits, some drivers still choose to deliberately block the left lane. The most common rationalization is below:
“I’m driving the speed limit and I shouldn’t have to move over for lawbreakers.”
Although it may help people feel morally superior to rationalize their behavior in this way, drivers who block the left lane are doing their fellow drivers a great disservice.
Regardless of how you feel about drivers who exceed the speed limit, it’s safer and more efficient to let the police sort out the reckless and irresponsible drivers.
There are additional reasons to always yield the left lane to faster traffic:
- Something as simple as speedometer error can result in a five-MPH or greater difference in vehicle speeds, although both read the same speed.
- The motorist seeking to pass in the left lane may be responding to a family or health emergency.
- Faster left lane vehicles may be preceding an emergency vehicle and seeking an opportunity to merge right.
The bottom line is that no valid purpose is served by blocking the left lane when other vehicles wish to pass.
The first step in improving the driving experience for everyone is to simply practice lane courtesy yourself.
Achieving a high degree of lane courtesy on America’s highways will require a commitment to education, public relations, and a more enlightened approach to traffic management.
State and Federal agencies have invested billions of dollars in public relations campaigns promoting traffic law compliance, seatbelt usage, construction zone safety, and anti-drinking and driving messages, but lane courtesy has been largely ignored.
A small investment to promote lane courtesy would pay major dividends. Add in an educational component for beginning drivers and reminders for older drivers and the benefits would be immediate.
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This response is for Douggie, from Michigan.
Hi Doug.
Can you say “self-centered”?
“If you’re not part of the solution, Then you’re part of the problem.”
Buckle-up and drive SAFELY, It’s the law. (It may even keep you from killing yourself, or someone else as well!)
I could not agree with the idea of lane disipline more, but one aspect of the idea seems to be always overlooked. Moving out of the left lane is the proper response IF you don’t want to increase your speed, and traffic is light enough. As traffic increases moving back and forth from the left lane to the right is counter productive to efficient traffic flow. Therefore, if a driver must stay in the left, then they MUST CONSTANTLY continue to pass the traffic to their immediate right! If you won’t do this, then get out of the left lane and allow the traffic to flow!
Charles writes:
{Those with a mindset like Doug should be reminded; possessing a driver’s license is a privilege and not a right!}
That is just not true. SCOTUS has denominated possession of a driver’s license an entitlement, an amalgam of pure right and pure privilege. Privilege would mean that the state could revoke a license without notice, due process or reason. Instead, once obtained, a license can only be revoked through due process. Yes, many states ignore or circumvent this protection, excusing the revocation as necessary to enforce debt laws, child support, enforcement suspicions, etc.
Further, with mobility an essential paradigm of modern life, required for work, for health, and other social intercourse, and in the absence of effective (much less efficient) public transportation, we have little choice but to drive from where we are to where we need to be and to haul the necessary accoutrements of life. Does not the state bear a burden of assuring that as many of its citizens as possible have access to a full life as possible rather than putting up artificial barriers?
{In 2006 (the latest statistics available), there were four traffic deaths per hour, maybe Doug and others with his degree of mindset might take a minute before next getting behind the wheel, to ask themselves if they are in-part a cause?}
So what? Fatalities per hour is a meaningless statistic since it ignores the level of activity against which fatalities are measured. A much more meaningful and useful measure is fatalities per 100,000,000 vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Compare an hour in California to an hour in Vermont. Fatalities per hour is essentially meaningless since the VMT in CA is probably several thousand times the VMT in Vermont. Overall, we are enjoying the lowest fatality rates in our history.
Those with a mindset like Doug should be reminded; possessing a driver’s license is a privilege and not a right! As populations expand and roadways are increasingly congested, motorists like Doug, with self control issues will be first to be culled from the heard.
There are pockets throughout the nation with elevated levels of abhorrent, immature and disrespectful drivers. In the eastern states, Massachusetts and Southeastern Pennsylvania rank highest, the latter attributable to Philadelphia’s a densely populated urban area coupled with a minimum driving age of sixteen.
In 2006 (the latest statistics available), there were four traffic deaths per hour, maybe Doug and others with his degree of mindset might take a minute before next getting behind the wheel, to ask themselves if they are in-part a cause?
I can’t wait until Doug comes across some road rager with a gun.
They wrote a book about you Doug;
“How to Deal With A Holes”
No wonder I hate driving in California! Thanks Doug.
2 posts I wrote about road rage (don’t worry, no ads on the site so it isnt blogspam…)
http://glucker.blogspot.com/2007/03/love-is-all-you-need-you-son-of-bitch.html
&
http://glucker.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-happened-to-drivers-ed-in.html
COMMONE COURTESY. I wished. Way too many people think “i dont have to move, let them go around” And they dont know why people have road rage. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Its not any other drivers job to control the speed of others. When i see some one coming up behind me, I move. Why cant we all just get along
I have a feature on my car that really helps. It is the rear veiw mirrors system. If I see some one gaining on me I get out of thier way. As someone else mentioned, It might be someone with a need for speed.
>>Superb, so do I and i have found that I can travel as quickly in the middle lanes as the left. I get out of the way of others, but when it’s clear I move left again because I am usually 2-7 mph faster than the middle lane traffic. It’s really no big deal, unless you are as insecure as Doug.
I used to be like him, but I grew out of it after being pulled over for NOT moving over a lane quickly enough(there were 2 Semi-trucks in the middle and Right lanes). Anyway, there is a law in Georgia that “SLOWER TRAFFIC MUST KEEP RIGHT” and if Doug wishes to feel superior he is only choosing one for of law breaking over another.
Also that kind of Driving, Doug, is considered to be provocative/aggressive and it is a reckless driving ticket that you will get, not a simple speeding ticket like me :P
No moral high ground for you Dougie-san
Most NE states have “no traveling in the left
laws”. Simple “keep right except to pass” signs might reduce some road rage.
I have a feature on my car that really helps. It is the rear veiw mirrors system. If I see some one gaining on me I get out of thier way. As someone else mentioned, It might be someone with a need for speed.
RWL in SW IL
It’s funny I’ve started driving in the right line quite a lot more than I used to. Why, many reasons. First, I can go just about as fast or slow as I want, with in reason. Second, I get to set my following distance, because there is no good reason to ride someone’s rear when there are two sometimes three lanes to my left. Last, humor the police have a great habit of setting up there “traps” in the left lane. So I always laugh when I’m doing the same speed as the person getting pulled over! Doug, you have been bashed enough so all I’m going to say is please be apart of the solution. R/
I agree with the left lane idea. The problem is all the assclowns that feel if you are traveling in the left lane and not right on the bumper of the car in front of you, then you must be blocking the lane. I travel in the left lane and keep a safe distance from the car in front of me keeping pace with the flow. When someone decides that’s not good enough and goes around on the right only to cut in front of me is where I have a problem.
Doug,
You said “Most accidents I see on congested bay area highways are because people are following too closely to each other.” BECAUSE YOU ARE BLOCKING THE LEFT LANE AND CONGESTING THE TRAFFIC! Hello??? Anybody in there? The bottom line is that no VALID purpose is served by blocking the left lane. And, what is really sad is that you are going to subject your children to ridicule! (I’m sure no one else listens to you) Oh, and one more thing why don’t you take a road trip through Washington, llinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine and then swim across the ocean, rent a car in Germany where you would surely lose your license and save us all your highway existence.
i recently had a family emergency and trying to rush my child to the doctor. i could have saved many precious moments and perhaps several days off the hospital stay if people would respect this principle.
I usually allow faster cars to pass me in left lane, but what bugs me is that the faster car coming up full speed for which you move over, then slows down and stays in your blind spot! This seems to be most prevalent if you need to pass shortly your self. What gives?
Doug, It sounds like your the one exhibiting the angry road rage. What you’re doing is confrontational! Also, you can use the left lane in the manor you speak of and STILL move over to let traffic by and STILL move back if you like! You don’t have to confront other drivers, unless that is what your purpose is?
Doug, I’m sure that you’ve seen more than a normal share of extended fingers. They are not reaching out to you because you are a great humanitarian.
You quote 3 _very_ poor “to always yield the left lane to faster traffic”. I usually drive 5-10 MPH over the speed limit (and no, don’t worry my speedometer is not miscalibrated… Its a brand new vehicle). I often end up in the left lane. Why is that? Because I’m safer. Most accidents I see on congested bay area highways are because people are following too closely to each other. I pick the left lane, because I stand the best chance of having significant distance between me and the guy in front of me. Then of course the irate drivers behind me, go around, so I usually have a chunk of the highway all to myself. Do I care if you’re running late to work? No. Do I care if you didn’t plan your day with enough time to get where you’re going? No. Do I care if you have anger issues management issues? Not one bit. Has this method prevented me from being in an accident? yes it has. Do I teach my kids and everyone who will listen to do the same thing? I sure as hell do. Good luck angry road ragers.
Bill says: “The weak enforcement [of Slower Traffic Keep Right rules] helps to keep gross speeders under control.”
No it doesn’t. The “gross speeders” as you call them weave around traffic creating an even more dangerous situation.
Here in Wisconsin there is a weakly enforced “Slower Traffic Keep Right” rule on other than urban freeways. The weak enforcement helps to keep gross speeders under control. In urban areas, there are left lane freeway exits, making any left lane rule absurd.
In Illinois it’s a law to keep to the right except to pass on Interstate Highways ONLY.
And the State Police MAKE MORE MONEY( I repeat…MONEY) writing seat belt /speeding tickets than “hogging the left lane”.
In Illinois it’s a law to keep to the right except to pass; however, I was watching the news one night in Chicagoland and a police officer was on the news stating this is a law but they don’t enforce it. Do you believe lt?!!!!
In Germany, drivers traveling in the Left lane (or on Autobahnen with three lanes in one direction, the Left AND Middle lanes) are subject to a fine and 2 points on their driving licenses. Passing on the right is also not allowed.
In Mexico, on the Autopistas, it is also illegal to drive in the Left lane except to pass.
Fantastic! A simple, common sense approach, written logically so all can understand. Perhaps your rhetoric-free statment will even get through to some of the most incomprehensibly stubborn left lane hogs that clog up our highways!
amen! Colorado enforces lane courtesy, every time I go there on a visit (from Las Vegas) I am amazed at how much more pleasant driving is. It’s like people might actually like each other!
Colorado is great. Combined with a very liberal (in the classic sense of the word) concealed carry law, it's one of the most diverse and polite states I've ever been in.