Drivers Driving You Nuts

Okay, there are the usual drivers who drive you nuts...

1. The cell phone talkers - especially when they slow down to talk!
2. The Make-Up artists - don't have time to do put on make-up at home?
3. The News Gatherers - reading newspapers and magazines on the road!
4. The Where-Am-I Map Readers - just pull over to look! Please!

Of course, there are the aggressive drivers who love to dart from lane to lane just to move ahead a car length or two. But, one particular group of drivers that can really drive you nuts may be either passive-aggressive or just plain clueless. These are the drivers who get in the left-most lane (the passing lane!) and just sit there blocking traffic and causing frustration. The National Motorist Association has this to say about the matter...

The NMA strongly supports the simple but significant concept of slower traffic traveling in the right lane of multi-lane highways and vehicles in the left lane yielding that lane to faster traffic. We refer to this concept as “lane courtesy.”

While most states have some sort of “slower traffic keep right"” laws, it is ultimately a matter of driving ethics. The slower traffic keep right laws are difficult and unpopular to enforce. However, the resulting advantages of lane courtesy are self-evident and should become second nature to any driver using public highways.

Finally, police are beginning to crack down on this obnoxious behavior. This is a news item from 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.

All I've got to say is that it is about time that this problem is being taken seriously. The fact is, slow drivers are just as dangerous as fast drivers. If you are going to drive slow, stay in the right lane. Please!