Highway Driving

[JoeyGee]

I drive for work A LOT. I like to think I am a fairly decent and courteous driver. I could go on and on about my pet peeves for driving, but I will hold off for now.

I was taught, and firmly believe through practice, that the proper way to drive on a typical 2 lane highway (2 going the same way) is to drive in the right lane at a consistent speed. The left lane is only used for PASSING.

To me these are the two keys to traffic flow. I don't care (within reason) how fast or slow others drive relative to the speed limit as long as they follow the guidelines listed above.

I have a tremedous amount of respect for truck drivers. They are professionals and really do know what they are doing, despite what others may believe.

Obviously, heavy traffic, merging, emergencies, moving to the left lane when going past emergency/stopped vehicles etc. are exceptions.

Am I crazy? I must be since very few people seem to follow these guidelines.

[cabinetman]

If everybody did what they were supposed to do, obeyed the law, and were courteous, there wouldn't be a "COPS" TV show.

.

[atgcpaul]

I was taught, and firmly believe through practice, that the proper way to drive on a typical 2 lane highway (2 going the same way) is to drive in the right lane at a consistent speed. The left lane is only used for PASSING.

I almost started my own thread on this topic after coming back from vacation
in Texas last week. I did a lot of driving with my family and I would have to
say Texans are by far my least favorite drivers because of this. Many
drivers sit in the left lane and have no regard for the people trying to pass. It's
as if they were the only ones on the road.

I have driven cross-country 3 times and have lived in heavy traffic areas like
SoCal and now the DC area. I grew up in NJ. Texas takes the cake. Most
selfish drivers as well as most aggressive. Dallas was worst. Austin not so
bad but I'm told that's the least Texas city.

[LCHIEN]

that works ok if there is not too much traffic but there are days when the 2 lanes from Austin to Houston for example are so heavily traveled that the traffic if forced to one lane would go 30 miles an hour.

When there's lots of traffic both lanes are going to fill up and generally when there's holes in right lane slower drivers (those doing about 70) will move over to let faster drivers (those doing 75 or more) move past.

[Black wallnut]

Yup , hear ya Joe! Consider the average truck driver with company imposed speed limiters trying to pass a car that can not make up their mind if they wat to go the speed limit or 5mph below.....

[cwsmith]

I do a heck of a lot of driving between Painted Post, NY and Binghamton, NY... It's 75 miles one way and I make this trip on the average of once every two weeks in the last five years. Over almost forty years, I've probably made this trip close to a thousand times; maybe more as I used to do it daily for one year's period.

While I am in complete agreement with JoeyGee, I do see that it is impractical when in the city. There we have three lanes, all going one way, and every lane is pretty much occupied. But even then, everyone seems to know that the further to the right you go, the faster you go.

But, I am pretty much convinced that drivers have gotten much worse over all these year. While I used to worry about drunk drivers, now I have to worry about "techies"... talking on the phone, watching TV or their GPS systems, even reading and writing! It's ridiculous, as when their mind is not on their driving, they are wandering back and forth across the lanes, and even into the vibration strips which border the shoulders. Almost every trip I see at least one or two drivers like this.

But then there are the others too... who apparently don't have the experience or don't have a clue as to what they are supposed to do:

The "Racer".... driver's going slower than you, but when go to pass him, he speeds up! You speed up to, in an attempt to make the pass and he continues to accelerate until you either give up and drop back, or break the speed limit to get ahead of him. Once passed, he usually drops back pretty fast, resuming his old speed.

The "Hesitator".... you see the driver ahead of you, moving up and closing the gap between him and the tractor-trailer ahead. But as he starts to pass, he let's up on the accelerator and commenses to parallel the trailer for several miles. I'm never sure what's up with these types. Have they lost there courage or are they counting the wheels?

The "Curious".... You're driving along (I drive about eight miles over the limit) and you see another driver coming up the passing lane pretty fast. No big deal, I'm within the "allowance" in this area. But you keep and eye on this guy just because. Next thing you know you don't see him in your mirrors any more. So you crank your neck around and there he is sitting in your blind spot, and he continues to sit there. I figure this guy is a cousin go the hesitator, so I usually have to drop out of cruise and let him zing past me.

The "Truck Buddies"... One rig will swing out and start to pass the other and then when they get cab-to-cab they go through recognition, joy, or reaquintance, or something... because they just parallel each other for a couple of miles and usually slow down a bit in the process. I'm guessing one of their CB's are broke or something!

CWS

[herb fellows]

Personally, I'm not a big fan of speed limits. I think there should be a charge of reckless driving only. There are times when doing 50 is prudent and there are times when being on that same road that doing 80 is prudent.
I suppose the reason for speed limits is that it is an objective way of making a detemination, but there has to be a better way.

My rule of thumb is if I am in the left lane and somebody wants to pass, I will move to the right lane. Period.
If I'm doing 80 on a 55 mph road and the guy behind me wants to do 90, I will move over. IMHO, there is nothing worse than someone sitting in the left lane alongside someone driving in the right lane smugly declaring that they are doing the speed limit, so how dare you want to pass them.

[Pappy]

I almost started my own thread on this topic after coming back from vacation
in Texas last week. I did a lot of driving with my family and I would have to
say Texans are by far my least favorite drivers because of this. Many
drivers sit in the left lane and have no regard for the people trying to pass. It's
as if they were the only ones on the road.

I have driven cross-country 3 times and have lived in heavy traffic areas like
SoCal and now the DC area. I grew up in NJ. Texas takes the cake. Most
selfish drivers as well as most aggressive. Dallas was worst. Austin not so
bad but I'm told that's the least Texas city.

The 2 cities you mentioned, Dallas and Austin, are not typical of Texas drivers. Both these have a lot of high-tech industries which draw a lot of 'furinners', especially from the north.. Houston iws the same. I do a lot of driving / riding in Austin and San Antonio. With the exception of tourists, San Antonio is mostly locals on the roads. Generally, traffic flows better and the drivers are more courteous.

Travel the 2 lane state and US highways and it is common to see slower drivers to move over onto the paved shoulders to let faster vehicles pass. It is illegal, but I have never known anyone ticketed for extending this courtesy.

[toolguy1000]

if we all drove according to the rules published by the municipalities which grant us our licenses, there would probably next to no accidents or frustration while driving. courtesy has nothing to do with driving a car. while observing a stop sign at an intersection, with the cross traffic having NO stop sign, a driver stopped and motioned me throughs the intersection. so i politely got out of my car, walked over to him and asked what the heck he was waving at. he thought he was being nice, even though he had the right of way and had no reason whatsoever to stop. stupidity like that causes accidents.

and my personnal favorite....... highway access ramps. i'm in the right lane @ the limit (55mph) and drivers on the ramp put their left signal on and assume that i will move left to provide room for them to enter the flow of traffic. the shocked look on their faces as they run out of ramp room and start drivng on the shoulder as i maintain my position and speed always gives me a chuckle. the idea that they DO NOT have the right of way isn't even on their radar screen.

like joeygee, i stay right when i'm slower than the prevailing speed limit. if the other drivers, in SUVs and pick up trucks, travelling at speeds that don't optimize their mpg want to spend more to travel a given distance, who am i to stop them. i always stay out of the way of stupid people.

[Richard in Smithville]

Too many drivers, professional and non professional, should not be behind the wheel. I have seen truck drivers, bus drivers, and regular drivers pulling bone headed moves on the highways. And everyone likes to blame the other.

[Kristofor]

if we all drove according to the rules published by the municipalities which grant us our licenses, there would probably next to no accidents or frustration while driving..

and my personnal favorite....... highway access ramps. i'm in the right lane @ the limit (55mph) and drivers on the ramp put their left signal on and assume that i will move left to provide room for them to enter the flow of traffic. the shocked look on their faces as they run out of ramp room and start drivng on the shoulder as i maintain my position and speed always gives me a chuckle. the idea that they DO NOT have the right of way isn't even on their radar screen.

So in the same light if they can just manage to pull into your lane in front of you while going the legal minimum @ 40MPH rather than staying in the acceleration lane until you're past them, you think that's a good thing because they're entitled to do so?

I've spent an increasing amount of time traveling for work and have driven a fair amount in Houston, Los Angeles , Miami, Orlando, Chicago, Detroit, and Indy in the last few years and while there are some passive/aggressive drivers (and plenty of distracted drivers) everywhere I would say that it's a minority in all of those locations.

In many cases the legally required minimum standard of conduct works in conditions where there is a hard-limit and you need to know who has the right of way (heavy traffic, full lanes, etc.) but it's probably not the ideal to shoot for at other times.

On the original topic I'll give a big +1 to the "slower traffic keep right / the passing lane is for passing" directive.

[cwsmith]

On the "ramp" comment, I think I would have to disagree to some extent. When I'm on the highway and I'm approaching a known entry ramp I'll stay put in the right lane only when the traffic is heavily congested to the point that I can't get into the passing lane; or, if there are no vehicles trying to enter into the right lane from the ramp.

When I drive, I have absolutely no distractions, no radio, no phones; and, I know pretty much where all of the traffic is in relation to my vehicle. If there is no one in the passing lane and I see a car on the entry ramp I do move over to the left. While safety far out ways courtesy, there are certain rules of the road that tell me to be accomodating so that such driver's aren't forced to stop on the ramp.

Personally, entry ramps are a real peeve of mine and even the State or whatever government agency is responsible for marking the lines on the road, often don't understand.

When you are entering a highway from a ramp, there's usually a "Yield" sign. We used to exclaim: "the sign says YIELD, NOT SURRENDER". In my area, we have one 4-lane cross another with an exit/entry ranp. It should be a very simple process to turn off the one highway to the right and enter the crossing highway via the "Yield" sign, as there's an entry lane that is almost a 100 yards long, paralleling the two west-bound lanes. But the highway dept has yellow cross-marked all but the first 15 feet of that, thus forcing everyone on the entry ramp to stop, and crank their neck back 150-degrees. That ramp is notorious as almost every day there's at least one "rear-ender" because everyone is looking back to see if there's a gap in the oncoming traffic; and when they do, they don't see the car in front of them run out of space and have to stop. Even without an accident, almost every car is having to stop and thus traffic backs up onto the other highway, sometime for more than a mile during the prime traffic hours. It's a real mess!

The whole thing should really be quite simple, if they'd take out those yellow lines and allow that lane to be used to merge. That way you'd simply continue down the merge lane, and use your left rearview mirror, instead of having to stop and turn your head.

The highway dept has done the same with the traffic circle which is nearby. Instead of allowing traffic to enter and merge, (two lanes on the circle), they've yellow-lined the inside lane. So whereas the traffic used to flow pretty well, now everybody is forced to stop, because most of the traffic stays in the outside lane, blocking any chance for incoming traffic to merge. Many more accidents in that area since they painted the lines!

CWS

[Cochese]

Come drive 55 on our interstates and I'll try to make time to visit you in the hospital.

[leehljp]

My experience on US interstates in the south - Atlanta - Memphis - Texas and other parts in the south is that the truck drivers do keep to the right fairly consistently and the roads show it. Howe3ver, the right truck lane has so many more cracks, fillings and holes that the left lane that it wears me out to drive 5 miles on the right side. To drive 450 miles from Memphis to Dallas in the right lane would tear up a small car. I try to stay there but if I drive more than 5 miles or so, LOML starts making noise about the rough ride, and we have a smooth riding van.

I don't blame the trucks, but rather the upkeep on the highways. To me, Arkansas overall has the worst I-40 and I-30 and has been since back when Clinton was governor. I have gotten to the point that I can know spots and huge pot holes that have been in the same place on the interstates going back 5 years since my youngest moved to near Dallas. And all on the right lane.

Joey, I agree on what OUGHT to be, but economics and safety considerations (of car repair and outright safety issues that would tear up well built cars) push cars to stay in the left lane in some cases.

I specifically remember seeing some people who like you prefer to stay in the right lane but after a mile or two of very rough patches would move over to the left lane and continue for a few miles before trying to move back to the right lane, only to move back into the left again.

[billwmeyer]

I agree with you Hank. I44 between Joplin and Springfield Mo. was like that. It was thump thump thump the entire way. In the left lane it was smooth as glass. I can't imagine what it would have been like in an 18 wheeler. It has been overlaid now and is fine, at least for awhile.

It is a shame that common sense and courtesy seems to have been banished on the highways. I try to help cars make it on the road from on ramps, by slowing down, speeding up or changing lanes. I think it is safer for them and for me.

Bill