Whoo! Seattle cops are enforcing lane etiquette

[Laconian]

http://www.komonews.com/news/20656789.html

SEATTLE -- Even if you're going the speed limit it might not be enough to prevent you from getting a ticket if you're holding up traffic in the fast lane.

State troopers are on a mission to make sure the left lane on area freeways is used for its intended purpose: passing.

"We're doing 58, 59 miles an hour and they are just sitting there, traffic's passing them on the right hand side," Trooper Keith Leary said while pointing out a car in the left lane of Interstate 5. "That's exactly what we don't want to see happen."

The driver, Brasta Bonifcho, said he was surprised what he was doing was illegal.

"I didn't know that, I really didn't know that," he said. "I am guilty, no question about it."

Leary reminded Bonifcho that drivers need to stay in the right lanes unless they're passing another vehicle.

Everyone pulled over during Leary's patrol said they thought it wasn't a problem as long as they were going the speed limit. But the law says otherwise.

"It is a traffic infraction to drive continuously in the left lane of a multilane roadway when it impedes the flow of other traffic," the statute reads.

The reason for the law is to help keep traffic moving and to diffuse potential road rage situations.

"It just takes one thing to set them off," Leary said of frustrated drivers stuck behind slower moving vehicles. "If we can alleviate one of those things, maybe we can avoid an assault."

The State Patrol said several recent collisions caused by slow vehicles in the passing lane have prompted increased enforcement of the law along area interstates.

Drivers in the HOV lanes are exempt from the rule, but anyone else could be facing a $124 ticket.

[Tave]

Shouldn't this be in Driving and the Law?

[dsred]

I guess this puts the arguments of all those self righteous left lane campers (you know who you are) in the trash bin eh?

[dazzleman]

I'm glad to see that, Kevin.  I think that people who block the left lane are often more dangerous than most speeders.

[Eye of the Tiger]

I hope this catches on.

[GoCougs]

Staring at about the Mt. Baker tunnel on east I-90 today some dingbat broad in an Audi TT insisted on a steadfast 61-62 (speed limit is 60), whilst the other five lanes of traffic were at about 65-70. I simply tailgated a bit and flashed my high beams to no avail. Drivers behind me went just about full-on road rage screaming up the right hand lanes to get around this idiot, putting the both of us in danger.

I virtually never see someone doing under the limit in the left lane, so I don't think this law would apply, but the consequences are similar. Further, this usually only happens in dense traffic, and many of the major freeways in Seattle don't have convenient hide-outs for LEOs to sit catch offenders, which for this offense would be hard to do from a stand-still I'd think.

[Laconian]

Even if it's hard to enforce, at least it's getting some press. I hope that word of this passes on around the watercooler.

Cougs, the ditz in the TT would get the message if you sported this on your Accord:

[Madman]

It's about time cops start enforcing lane discipline!  And failure to indicate for a lane change.  These are my two biggest pet-peeves on the highway.


Cheers,
Madman of the People

[NomisR]

I don't know how people can drive 65 mph on the freeway.  I got frustrated last night trying to go around lane campers so I decide to move over to the right and drive 65 mph and forget about it.  Well, I found that it is actually more dangerous to do 65 mph than it is to speed.  Not only do I have to waste more energy keeping an eye out for all cars passing me, I'm dozing off because it's like watching paint dry.  It's one thing when everyone else is going the same speed but when everyone else is now blaze past you on both sides, it's dangerous.

I don't know how people can lane camp at speed limit and claim it's safe.. it's definately not.  My gf that's always telling me to slow down was saying it might be safer to drive at a faster speed as well.

[Cookie Monster]

Finally! I hate those guys. Sheesh.

If I'm ever in the left lane and someone comes up behind me I'll just move into the next lane so they can pass, although generally I'm not ever in the left lane.

[dinkeldorf]

  to WA state troopers! I'm all for lane discipline.

It's about time cops start enforcing lane discipline!  And failure to indicate for a lane change.  These are my two biggest pet-peeves on the highway.

My biggest effin gripe is not indicating at round-abouts. Completely defeats the purpose. Cops could actually make way more money ticketing this than anything else. You'd get a perp car every 5 seconds in some places.

[S204STi]

Even if it's hard to enforce, at least it's getting some press. I hope that word of this passes on around the watercooler.

Cougs, the ditz in the TT would get the message if you sported this on your Accord:

Unfortunately I'm pretty sure it's illegal to have any sort of slogan emblazoned in mirror image on the front of your car; only emergency vehicles can do that.

As for the OP, there is a trend developing nationwide of this sort of thing. Colorado started cracking down on it (and I've actually seen it happen!) a few years ago.  It was in the news in Oklahoma recently as well.

What's funny to me, at least in the case of Oklahoma, is that some of the drivers who were taped were a bit pissed off that they were ticketed for it.  Like their self-righteous behavior was somehow doing some good.

[S204STi]

Finally! I hate those guys. Sheesh.

If I'm ever in the left lane and someone comes up behind me I'll just move into the next lane so they can pass, although generally I'm not ever in the left lane.

If I'm behind someone else in the left lane, particularly during rush hour, I tend to stay put. I also put a car's gap between me and the guy in front of me so that people realize I'm not just dawdling, I'm also trying to get around the douchebag holding us all up.

[Tave]

As for the OP, there is a trend developing nationwide of this sort of thing. Colorado started cracking down on it (and I've actually seen it happen!) a few years ago.

I drive at a decent pace on I-25 (80-85), and I move over for faster drivers if I can, but usually traffic is so thick on that road that you can't get out of the left lane even if you want to.

It's insane. I've been stuck in gridlock plenty of times in Phoenix and Minneapolis, but never bumper-to-bumper @ 80 mph.

[S204STi]

I drive at a decent pace on I-25 (80-85), and I move over for faster drivers if I can, but usually traffic is so thick on that road that you can't get out of the left lane even if you want to.

It's insane. I've been stuck in gridlock plenty of times in Phoenix and Minneapolis, but never bumper-to-bumper @ 80 mph.

Yeah, I-25 has the fastest moving roadblocks in the nation...

[MaxPower]

I generally try to bide by the pass left travel right idea, which results in a lot of lane changes.  Then I get complaints from passengers saying "you change lanes too often!"  Which brings me too my point...we're too lazy for our own damn good.  If someone can just hang out in the left lane and not have to work to check their blind spot, signal, and switch lanes, then by golly they're not going to do that if they don't have to.

[Tave]

Sometimes I get tired of switching back and forth so I decide to simply drive faster than everyone else.

[dazzleman]

Sometimes I get tired of switching back and forth so I decide to simply drive faster than everyone else.

That's my MO also....

[VTEC_Inside]

I hope this catches on here too...

I've started to notice more people using their signal lately, but left lane campers have infuriated me at least 8 times in the last week.

[NomisR]

Sometimes I get tired of switching back and forth so I decide to simply drive faster than everyone else.

Well, even if you're driving faster, you should still change back away from the passing lane after you're done passing.  In case someone else wants to drive even faster than you.

[Tave]

Well, even if you're driving faster, you should still change back away from the passing lane after you're done passing.  In case someone else wants to drive even faster than you.

On I-25 south into Denver you're never done passing.

And if someone wants to drive faster than me, I'll see him comming in the rearview and happily move over.


I'm talking about busy roads. On open roads I stay in the right lane.

[dazzleman]

Well, even if you're driving faster, you should still change back away from the passing lane after you're done passing.  In case someone else wants to drive even faster than you.

True, but the need to do that is not as urgent if there is nobody trying to pass you.  I will sometimes stay in the left lane if it allows me to cruise past slower drivers in the middle lane, even for stretches when the middle lane is empty, so long as nobody is trying to pass me.  If somebody is trying to pass me, I move over right away.

[NomisR]

On I-25 south into Denver you're never done passing.

And if someone wants to drive faster than me, I'll see him comming in the rearview and happily move over.


I'm talking about busy roads. On open roads I stay in the right lane.

In most of California and tristate area here, most of the traffic moves along in herds.  You move past one herd and you'll have a wide space where you can move to the right until the next herd.  I've found this to be mostly true when driving in the east coast too.  Of course this doesn't apply to rush hour traffic. 

[Tave]

In most of California and tristate area here, most of the traffic moves along in herds.  You move past one herd and you'll have a wide space where you can move to the right until the next herd.  I've found this to be mostly true when driving in the east coast too.  Of course this doesn't apply to rush hour traffic. 

The road between Ft. Collins and D-Town is just insane (James Young has some fond memories of it). If traffic is like you say it is, then I have no problem moving over, but more often than not the "gaps" are few, far-between, and relatively short. It doesn't make any sense to change lanes just to switch back 5 seconds later.

[MX793]

I wish they'd start enforcing lane etiquette around here.  Out of state drivers seem to be especially bad in that regard (it's vacation season), but there are plenty of locals who keep left for no apparent reason.  Sometimes they are at least courteous enough to move right if they see a faster car coming up on them in the left lane (only to move back to the left lane again once passed), sometimes they just sit there and force faster traffic to pass them on the right.  There used to be signs along the NY thruway reminding drivers to keep right except to pass.  Not sure what happened to them, they've all been taken down.

[Eye of the Tiger]

My absolute favourite kind of left-lane hog is the kind that moves right to let you by, and then moves back to the left even though there is nobody else to pass for at least a mile! It happens suprisingly often, and it makes me crack up every time.

[MX793]

The road between Ft. Collins and D-Town is just insane (James Young has some fond memories of it). If traffic is like you say it is, then I have no problem moving over, but more often than not the "gaps" are few, far-between, and relatively short. It doesn't make any sense to change lanes just to switch back 5 seconds later.

My rule for moving back right when passing spaced out vehicles is that if there is enough distance between yourself and the next vehicle that you will overtake such that a vehicle going 5 mph faster than you could move right, pass along the right, and then move left again before getting to the slower vehicle ahead, then you should move right.  Especially if the vehicle behind is obviously faster moving than you.

[Champ]

My absolute favourite kind of left-lane hog is the kind that moves right to let you by, and then moves back to the left even though there is nobody else to pass for at least a mile! It happens suprisingly often, and it makes me crack up every time.

Ha, yep!