True or False: Prius = Left Lane Hugger

Agreed on that. Who cares if the Prius is in the fast lane... as long as it's going the speed limit. An annoying car is annoying regardless of make. I bet people would still be annoyed at a Prius doing 80 in a 65 in the fast lane just because it's a Prius. I do no faster than 70-75 in the fast lane and if people ride up on my bumper, even in my BMW, they can go around. I don't believe in allowing people to be wreckless especially if its your typical top-heavy SUV. I wouldn't want a big SUV blowing a tire and hitting me because its driver chose to ignore the laws of physics and make poor decision to speed in some junky SUV (an X5M would be a different story)

 

The myth continues.....


The law doesn't say anything about how you feel towards speeders, SUVs, or whether or not you're at, above, or below the speed limit.
Of course, in SOCAL there's no such thing as a four-lane freeway, and all of the lanes are usually bollixed up.
However (comma!)
It's LITERALLY a five-word concept, and yet even on a car forum people don't quite get it.
This is where stereotypes are born.

Fortunately......some of the more civilized states are starting to crack down on left lane squatters.

 

As I said I'm all for letting faster traffic move in the fast lanes and staying out of their way on the right. If everyones going that fast, then yes I'll do the modern european thing and stay to the right (If I myself am not moving with faster traffic), but if a single isolated jerk wants to run up my bumper while i'm already doing 10 over the speed limit, I'll just pretend he's not there. If there's a cop around, he'll get the guy for speeding (if not perceived road rage), not for me blocking him. and it's happened before.

 

Sigh. The sign and the law is SO simple.

 

Darn, there goes my post of no one willing to admit to it. Oh well... As long as it's just one.

 

In Britain they're also cracking down on middle lane squatters (on motorways with three lanes in each direction):
First driver in Britain convicted of 'middle lane hogging' blames 'unfair' fine on being a 'white van man' - Mirror Online

 

60 mph in the middle lane isn't fast enough? what is the speed limit? what's with the 'white van' stuff? are they treated like prius? the problem is, if you want to go the speed limit, it's hard to do in the right lane. or the left lane if you drive on the wrong side.

 

In the UK you can use the middle and fast lanes as much as you like, as long as you're passing slower vehicles, so no problem maintaining the speed limit when the volume of traffic permits.
When I started driving in the UK in the 1970s, lane discipline was never an issue - drivers automatically pulled over into the slow lane after passing, and quickly moved out of the other lanes if someone came up from behind and wanted to get through.
Somewhere along the way American habits took over, hence the new crackdown.

 

but that makes for an awful lot of weaving in and out. sounds more dangerous than people who stay the speed limit in one lane.

 

Not if everyone knows what they're doing.

Wiki has details of traffic deaths by country:
List of countries by traffic-related death rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fatalities per 100,000 vehicles:
UK: 6.2, USA: 13.6

Fatalities per 1 billion vehicle-kilometers:
UK: 4.3, USA: 7.6

But there are too many variables to say anything other than traffic death rates are very similar in both countries.

The rate per 100,000 vehicles is 55.4 in Russia; not surprising when you look at all those dashcam videos.

 

Can't say I notice that much. What I do seem to notice is that a lot of people tend to speed up when I am passing them. At least it seems like it happens more when I'm in the Prius than when I have been in any other car I've owned.

 

me too.

 

So what you seem to be saying is:

• It's OK for you to break the law
• It's not OK for the other guy to break the law
• It's OK for you to aggravate other drivers and obstruct their view of the road based on your opinion of their driving

 

That's the thing. It'd be interesting to populate an area with self-driving cars, all programed to keep respectful following distance, abide by speed limits, slowing when warranted, not in a constant lather as to who-cut-who-off.

There could be a outbreak of sanity, lol.

 

This makes one assumption: That people will only drive the speed limit, which case I'll agree with you. But I think we can all agree that people will exceed the speed limit. Here's my issue with the lane squatters: We shouldn't look at speed as a number. We should look at speed as going faster, slower or the same speed as the person next to or behind you. If at ANY INSTANT OF TIME you are going slower than the next person, move to the right. Possibly 15 second later, you are the faster car, then you can move to the left and the other slower cars move to the right.

If you are worried about others exceeding the speed limit, you can't stop that. Leave that for the cops.

Driving the in the fast lane doing the speed limit while others are passing you makes you a hazard. I'm not saying it's right.

Mike

 

are we still talking about england?

 

Like I said earlier, It's a 5 word concept.

Unfortunately, you don't have to be all that bright to drive in America....you just have to have the right number of candles on your birthday cake.

The sad part about some of the left lane jerks in this country is that some of them actually know about the law, but they either think that it doesn't apply to them in particular, or they just like being jerks.
You know the type.....
They're the Scrappy-do drivers that have three dashcams and the highway patrol on speed dial.

 

I think they believe they are doing all of us a favor by hugging the left lane. And judging by post #63, they actually they are in the right and following the law. I don't think they are trying to be jerks. They just think they know better. Which is what makes them jerks.

My friend told me a story about an angry gentlemen in traffic school once that was fuming the whole Saturday on getting a ticket for going 65 mph in the left lane. The instructor kept telling him he got a ticket for impeding the speed of traffic but he kept insisting he had every right to go the speed limit and it would've been illegal to go faster. Highway patrol needs to pull over more of these people. I certainly didn't know it was the law. I was 18. I just thought it was being courteous.

 

Both laws apply. If you're over the limit in the left lane, they can get you for speeding. If you are holding up traffic because you are not passing someone going UNDER the limit in the right lane, you're impeding the flow of traffic.

On interstates, the minimum speed is 40 mph. If someone in the right lane is going at least 40 mph, there's nothing that can be done about it.