SCCutler said:
On a freeway, on any divided roadway, the left lane is for faster traffic, slower trafic keep right. If you are in the left lane, and someone comes up from behind, you are the slower traffic. Safely change lanes, and let them by.
Spike, you're right of course... In an ideal world.
I often get trapped in the left lane either before or after actually passing another vehicle by people who are so damn impatient that they will cut into the right lane to pass before I can, thus preventing me from getting into the right lane. So, there I go, miles down the road, with cars flying by me on the right while I sit there in the left lane with my right-hand turn signal on.
If there are three lanes in each direction through a city, I'll be using the middle lane, too. I would use the right lane... IF people respected my turn signals (Hmm, I sense a pattern here). You don't know how many times I've been in the right lane and seen a car that will be trying to merge near me, so I'll try to move over only to have the person in the middle lane completely ignore my turn signal (That's three!), often with the left lane next to them WIDE OPEN. What sometimes ends up happening is I have one irate driver on my left blowing their horn (Yeah, I see you, now GET OUT OF THE WAY) and another driver on my right blowing their horn too, irate that I didn't move over for them!
So, the unfortunate side effect of that is that trucks (myself included) are going to run the middle lane. We've given up on the four-wheelers. When I put my turn signal on, I want to move over, and I'm NOT KIDDING. PLEASE TRY TO GET OUT OF THE WAY. (Change lanes, speed up, slow down, I don't care... Whatever works for you is fine with me.)
Oh, and that reminds me. Basic Traffic Law time. IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MERGING TRAFFIC TO PERFORM THE MERGE. It is not my job to slam on the brakes, or speed up, or even move over, though I will certainly try. (If I don't, don't be mad at me - It's generally one of your four-wheeled brethren that's causing it.) So, when you're on the ramp, look for a spot, and TAKE IT. If you're going to be in front of me, ACCELERATE. You would not believe the number of people that don't look in the mirror or out the window until the last minute. They're in front of me and going faster than I am, but then they finally open their eyes, go OH **** THERE's A TRUCK and slam on their brakes.
Signal. EVERY TIME. I saw a $50,000 SUV today that apparently didn't even come with turn signals.
Weaving back and forth between lanes with no use of signals at all. I know they worked, the driver finally found them when s/he took an exit. Very late one night, a trainee of mine changed lanes on an empty road without signaling and I chastised him. He replied, "But there's nobody there, why do I have to signal?" My reply: "You don't signal for the guy you see, you signal for the guy you DON'T see."
Someone made the observation recently that "safe" airplanes (eg Ercoupe, Cirrus, etc) have awful accident rates. People expect the plane to save them and they don't fly as well as they would in a different plane. I believe that all of the safety enhancements made to cars over the last few decades (crumple zones, collapsible steering columns, and definitely airbags) have made for a generation of very complacent, very stupid and unsafe drivers. (Our fast-paced society isn't helping any either.) It's getting worse. Highway fatality rates were consistently dropping for many years, but since 2004 they have been increasing despite the cars being "safer."
It's definitely getting worse. I'm on the accident review board at my company. We were involved in a record 42 accidents last month. Many were experienced drivers, and two are even "Honor Fleet" drivers. We had an 18-year Honor Fleet driver killed in July. I'm sure you all know about my wreck in June (caused by, get this, a CAR!) where I was about a half second from getting killed myself.
Drive safe, folks.
