Do Left Lane Louie's know they're holding up the entire freeway???
Every single day I’m amazed at the number of people who hang out in the left lane, causing gridlock on the roadways.
It happens all day, every day, on every artery, without fail, drivers in the left lane doing the speed limit, or barely over it. Today, somebody was in the left lane going under the posted limit, on a three lane highway. It created an entire jam up, not just in the left lane, or “THE FAST LANE”, which I’m not even sure how it got this nickname, but it needs to stop, so that it can become what it actually IS…THE PASSING LANE, but the entire freeway. Drivers blocked in left, right, and centre, because a fellow driver is possibly thinking to themself: I am going fast. Newsflash, your fast is not my fast, you don’t get to decide what my fast is. This is why it isn’t called the fast lane anywhere, fast is too subjective, since we all have a different opinion of what that is.
In the drivers handbook, at least here, the left lane is meant for PASSING. Not DRIVING. P.A.S.S.I.N.G.
As I maneuver myself around, in my attempt to pass, I can’t help but wonder, do Left Lane Louie’s know that it’s not a lane they’re meant to drive in? That when they read the book (assuming they did) and wrote the test (assuming they passed it) it says in black and white. Passing only. It’s supposed to remain clear. Yet it doesn’t. Like at all. The right lane, or as it’s fondly called; “THE SLOW LANE” thank you to whomever called it that, nobody wants to be seen as “slow.” So it’s not as if there is any positive reinforcement happening to get drivers to drive over there. The right lane, is the new left lane. Most often there is nobody driving in it, and it moves the best, in my personal experience. While driving across the country, back and forth to LA, I’ve noticed that the i-40 moves fantastically, as does the i-80. Everybody is driving in the right lane unless they are passing. No jam ups, just a nice easy flow of traffic. Then I get to thinking, who are all these people driving from State to State to State to state, without holding up the traffic? Are they alien drivers? Are they drivers who don’t drive on other freeways? Who are they? Where did they come from, and how come they know how driving should be done? They are an excellent breed of drivers who don’t seem to travel in urban areas, they are different, they aren’t made to feel less than by driving in the “slow lane” they quite enjoy being in that lane, and they’re not holding everybody up, unlike their Left Lane Louie urban counterparts. I mean do they even check their mirrors? Can they not see the trail of frustrated drivers they’re creating by rolling in the left lane, not passing anybody, but also making it nearly impossible for anybody else to pass, or even get anywhere.
Also, am I alone here in knowing that this causes traffic, traffic equals a whack of cars idling, which is also against the bylaws here, because we all know that idling cars causes air pollution. So Left Lane Louie’s let the people go…
It’s nutty. I don’t get it. It’s absolutely cool if you like traveling at, or under the speed limit. Have at it. Do your thing. You like your insurance to stay the price it is, or whatever your motivation is, I respect it. So please do me a favour, and give me the same respect that I’m giving you. I’m simply asking you, not to block me in while you live out your speed limit abiding life.
Keep right unless passing. Left lane for passing only. Look it up, it is a thing.
I thank you for staying right!
xo Shantelle
p.s Carpool Lane Crashers. just because you have more than two people in your vehicle doesn’t give you the license to go UNDER THE SPEED LIMIT in the carpool lane. That is not your personal, do whatever the hell you want to do, lane. This doesn’t even make me “go hmmm” this falls under the I CAN’T EVEN category of what??? Why??? Who does this, and more importantly, why do you do it? If you want to go under the speed limit, there is a lane for you, it’s called the RIGHT LANE, the slow lane, and it’s more than fine if you want to roll over there in that lane, EVEN if you have more than two people in your vehicle. Because, people, if you’re driving in the carpool lane, which is supposed to be a reward to drivers who have multiple people in their vehicles, allowing them to get to their destination quicker than those who do not have more than themself in their cars. If you’re going under the speed limit in front of all those people behind you, then you’re fucking with their reward. You’ve really messed with them, because, I’m not sure if you know this, but you’ve essentially trapped every single car behind you in, since carpool lanes usually have double solid lines, and in some cases actually medians, making them difficult to get out of. So please, before you hop into that carpool lane, just because you can, please think about whether or not you really need to…
