Some good news: Left lane hogs are finally getting the attention
they deserve from traffic cops — and traffic laws.
In at least two states — Colorado and Florida — cops are
beginning to target drivers who squat in the far left lane and
refuse to move right to let faster-moving traffic get by. For
decades, these drivers have been allowed to create rolling
roadblocks and interrupt the smooth (and therefore safe) flow of
traffic with virtual impunity because “failure to yield” laws were
either not on the books — or not enforced. And twenty-plus years
of dumbed-down, politicized “driver’s education” and “safety”
campaigns had effectively propagandized the populace into believing
there was only one cardinal sin — “speeding.”
And so the focus of traffic “safety” enforcement was speed limit
laws — which of course were often ridiculous (the best example
being the 55-mph National Maximum Speed Limit that Congress finally
repealed in 1995). But these under-posted, artificially low speed
limits were found to be very useful in terms of generating an
unforeseen flow of easy money for state and local governments —
who soon became addicted. And it was so much easier for traffic
cops to simply shoot fish in a barrel with their radar guns —
because almost every car on the road was going faster than the
absurdly low posted limits.
Much easier than actually looking for dangerous drivers,
anyhow.
This is finally changing, though.
In Colorado, state police have written more than 500 tickets to
left lane hogs since the beginning of the year; in Florida, a bill
is on the legislative docket that would impose a $60 fine and four
DMV “demerit points” on the driving record of motorists who refuse
to allow faster moving traffic by.
Twenty years ago, this would have been an unthinkable violation
of the politically correct orthodoxy that only “speed kills” — and
therefore only enforcing speed limits (no matter how absurd or
contrived) matters.
But in fact, people who refuse to move right represent a major
traffic safety hazard — whether “they doing the speed limit” (as
they often bleat in self-righteous high dudgeon) or not.
By refusing to allow other motorists to get by, the left lane
dawdler causes traffic to back up unnaturally; drivers then angrily
jockey for position — and typically are forced into making a
passing attempt in the right lane to get around the hog — who
seems to get some sort of weird passive-aggressive satisfaction
from his obstinacy.
The situation is frustrating, distracting — and very unsafe. In
fact, the lack of reflexive lane courtesy in this country is
arguably the biggest single safety problem we have — not
“speeding.”
Consider the example of Germany — where yielding to
faster-moving traffic is part of the national culture and adhered
to religiously. As a result, it is possible for the Germans to have
unlimited speed Autobahns — where drivers in the left lane often
overtake other cars at triple digit speeds. But because German
drivers are taught to use their mirrors — and immediately move
right to allow faster-moving approaching cars to pass — they have
a lower accident and fatality rate than we do here in the United
States with our dumbed-down speed limits.
It will take time for the facts about the danger of left lane
hogging to sink into the general consciousness — the consequence
of 20-plus years of neglect and outright disinformation peddled by
know-nothing “safety” advocates.
But, at last, things are beginning to change for the better.
