Left lane squatters

A chief engineer with my company had duties at several far flung, out of state facilities he had to drive to.
He once told me, while almost "strangling" himself with rage;..." If I can be lucky enough to get through the golden gates, I want my Heaven to be traveling highways in a Sherman tank"!
 
I'm a very laid back guy. I'm the kind of guy who can talk to just about anybody. That being said, people who drive slow in the left lane and don't move to the right when I get behind them REALLY grinds my gears. There's a reason I use a radar detector in my truck when I visit my girlfriend in NJ.
 
P&R Fan said:
One of my biggest pet peeves is people who drive in the left lane on interstates. If they are there and I want to pass I will get behind them and flash my lights, even if the right lane is open. This always mkes Missus Fan mad. In the newspaper today there is an article about a member of the Iowa Legislature introducing a bill to make that something that will get you a $100 fine.:cool:
Personally I always wanted to mount a cannon on the front of the car, but that might be a little extreme.:D
Jim
Click to expand...

I sympathize with your original position that people should use the left hand lane of a 4 lane or larger highway for higher speeds and for passing. I would much prefer to see a law passed against people that "get behind them and flash their lights, even if the right lane is open." The first is ignorance or passive aggressive behavior and not good. However your behavior is actively aggressive, and far more reprehensible, especially when you have an empty right lane and all you have to do is pass them. I hope you don't carry concealed with a temper like that.

That is one way road rage incidents get started. People who find a minorly bad situation and escalate it to the next level.
 
About 1985, I was an EMT, and a volunteer on my local ambulance. In accordance with CT state law, we were issued green emergency lights for our cars when responding to the ambulance or scene of the call.

One morning, I was paged for a bad MV accident, and responded in my personal vehicle. Shortly after leaving my house, I came upon a school bus. The bus driver would not pull over and let me pass. Every stop she made, she sat the bus in the middle of the road - no way I was going to pass her in those circumstances. I watched her watching me in her mirror - she just wouldn't let me by.

Took me about three times as long as it should have to get to the fire dept. and pick up the ambulance. The call turned out to be a fatal, and I can not say if her delaying me made a difference.

I do know she was rather shocked later that day when I showed up at the high school, yanked her off her bus, and arrested her. She said if she knew I was a trooper, and not just "some play fireman", she would have let me by....:(

Larry
 
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the issue does not bother me unless it takes the form of a rolling road block.
If they are in the left lane, making a decent pace and maintaining the flow of the lane .. forge on.
The practice tends to reduce the chaos of traffic movement and provides a clean route option to the right lane occupants when that rig on the on ramp merges in 3rd gear.
 
P&R Fan said:
One of my biggest pet peeves is people who drive in the left lane on interstates. If they are there and I want to pass I will get behind them and flash my lights, even if the right lane is open. This always mkes Missus Fan mad. In the newspaper today there is an article about a member of the Iowa Legislature introducing a bill to make that something that will get you a $100 fine.:cool:
Personally I always wanted to mount a cannon on the front of the car, but that might be a little extreme.:D
Jim
Click to expand...

The only thing worse then that for me is the 18 wheelers in the left lane. Taking up the whole left lane for miles while you are trapped behind them. Also they will get next to another one and just sit there with traffic backed up for miles while they just coast along. :mad:
 
finesse_r said:
I would much prefer to see a law passed against people that "get behind them and flash their lights, even if the right lane is open." The first is ignorance or passive aggressive behavior and not good. However your behavior is actively aggressive, and far more reprehensible, especially when you have an empty right lane and all you have to do is pass them.
Click to expand...
Your assumptions here are incorrect. Flashing your high beams at the person driving in the wrong lane is simply alerting them to your presence. It's neither ignorant nor aggressive. Further, it wouldn't be necessary if the driver blocking traffic were less selfish.

In Europe this is a common practice. Flash your lights and the car in front will move over. That's why this feature has become common in cars today. Pull the turn signal lever toward you and it is a momentary high beam switch. It's built into just about every car these days for just this purpose.

Further, in most states it's illegal to pass on the right. This is why most people try to pass on the left.
 
Fishinfool said:
About 1985, I was an EMT, and a volunteer on my local ambulance. In accordance with CT state law, we were issued green emergency lights for our cars when responding to the ambulance or scene of the call.

One morning, I was paged for a bad MV accident, and responded in my personal vehicle. Shortly after leaving my house, I came upon a school bus. The bus driver would not pull over and let me pass. Every stop she made, she sat the bus in the middle of the road - no way I was going to pass her in those circumstances. I watched her watching me in her mirror - she just wouldn't let me by.

Took me about three times as long as it should have to get to the fire dept. and pick up the ambulance. The call turned out to be a fatal, and I can not say if her delaying me made a difference.

I do know she was rather shocked later that day when I showed up at the high school, yanked her off her bus, and arrested her. She said if she knew I was a trooper, and not just "some play fireman", she would have let me by....:(

Larry
Click to expand...

She sounds like one of the idiots who drive bus's here in CC--for the RTA.... They KNOW better but decide to play stupid.
 
Must be getting annoying everywhere as there was legislation introduced here in Alaska this week covering left lane usage. We have a law on the books that covers RV traffic if you back up 5 cars you have to pull over till they pass. Per a Top Gear Episode on the Autobahn Europe has left lane problems but mostly with the eastern European truck drivers.
 
snubbyfan said:
Yeah, it really drives me nuts when I'm on my morning commute and the cats are blocking the left side of the hallway and won't let me pass.
Click to expand...

Yeah but--at least they dont take up the middle of the bed like Shasta does on mine. I get up in the middle of the night to drink a few sips of water--come back and she is curled up in the center of my bed. I cant move her because she either has claws stuck in the bed--or will shread my hands as I attempt to move her over a few inches. :eek::(
 
In Texas some state highways have signs stating the left lane is for passing only, but it seems some people can't read. It sure is annoying when the posted speed limit is 70 or75 and the left lane squatter is doing 55 or 60.
 
a half-track would be a great get 'em out of the way car. If I'm really frustrated driving behind some bozo in the left lane I use a windshield bug as a sight and blast away ! I get them every time.
 
most truck drivers are extremely considerate & safe drivers....... they have to be with as many miles to drive every day with a rig that takes considerably longer to stop than does the average passenger vehicle. What is extremely dangerous is to see a car or pick up suddenly cut in front of an 18 wheeler when there is an emergency stop ahead......

Some passenger vehicle drivers are of the opinion they should have been NASCAR drivers & if they only drive like that every day, the owners of one of the racing teams will certainly hear of their prowess & hire them...... for millions of dollars .

I'm of the opinion that when we are driving 70 mph in heavy vehicles that we need to be very courteous to each other & let some one pass & to always let some one pull back in ahead of you after they've safely passed.......Unless the guy is doing his NASCAR imitation acting ignorant, then I probably won't let him in........
 
Dip chips dozing in the left lane don't bother me - I just pass them in the right lane. Passing on the right might be illegal in some states, I don't know, but that's what I do.
 
My commute is 50 miles one way. I see all kinds of stupidity every day. I'm actually staggered that I don't see more collisions (they are almost all avoidable so they're not accidents).
 
I can't stand it when someone gets up to a semi and then, won't pass it, but will just sit in the left lane, oblivious to the mile long back up.

More often than not, it seems like its usually one of our new friends from far away places, who's driving experience was previously limited to dromedary type transport.....
 
I see far more passive-aggressive (and aggressive-aggressive) activity from the left lane squatters than those who would DARE to alert others to their presence by briefly flashing the high beams.

The sense of entitlement extends itself to dangerous behavior, such as the "brake check" and "jerk swerve."

It almost makes one want to buy a beater truck with a railroad tie front bumper.

Almost.
 
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