• agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 hours ago

      There’s no such thing as a “fast lane”. “Fast lane” implies that there’s a speed fast enough to justify staying there, which is false.

      It’s the passing lane. You use it to pass slower traffic in the middle lane before getting back into the middle lane. If you’re not passing people, you do not belong in that lane.

    • FishFace@piefed.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      3 hours ago

      Your desire to go faster than the car in front does not overrule rules of safe driving. If you think it does, or if you’re so impatient you are unable to think rationally in this situation, your attitude is not suitable for driving a two ton machine at 70-odd miles per hour.

      The sticker is wrong. Get out of the driver’s seat.

    • SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      17
      ·
      9 hours ago

      Incorrect in Wisconsin, FWIW. By law, we have the speed limit, and “slower traffic keep right.” And there’s no keeping-up-with-flow-of-traffic clause, either. So traveling at the limit in the left lane is completely legal, there’s no obligation to clear the way for lawbreakers.

      • too_high_for_this@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        6 hours ago

        So you’re the person who stays in the left lane with a mile of cars behind you?

        Do everyone else a favor and stay off the highway.

          • Zoot@reddthat.com
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            8
            ·
            4 hours ago

            Nor is it yours. Even in your own comments you admit that the left lane is the passing lane. If someone is behind you, you’re slower traffic. You’re obligated to move over, and you’re in the wrong if you do not.

            What is it with you power freaks that just have to enact control by fucking with other people? Find a better way to get a rage boner.

      • sem@piefed.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        19
        ·
        9 hours ago

        If you have slower traffic keep right, and there is no one to the right of the slower moving car, shouldn’t they keep right in that case?

          • tmyakal@infosec.pub
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            27
            ·
            8 hours ago

            It is also illegal to stay in the left lane when other people are speeding. If they are going faster than you, you are by definition slower traffic and obliged to keep to the right.

            Your job as a driver is not to police other drivers’ behaviors. It’s not even to follow the letter of the law. It’s to operate the vehicle safely. Creating obstacles for other people because you don’t think they should drive so fast is not a safe action.

            Really, we need to collectively get rid of the idea of a “fast lane.” The left lane is a passing lane. You should only be in it when you’re attempting to pass someone, and when the pass is complete, you should move over.

            • SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              15
              ·
              8 hours ago

              I’d just point out, as in my original comment, that is incorrect in Wisconsin. It is perfectly legal to drive at the speed limit in the left lane here. We don’t have any notion of a passing lane in state law.

              Out of courtesy, I stay to the right, but almost every semi is doing 65MPH when the limit is 70MPH, the adaptive-cruise people hanging behind them are even slower. So, I pass them. Interestingly, by following the speed limit, I’ll encounter maybe one or two left-lane campers in a four-hour highway trip. It would seem that the people trying to police the behavior of slower (than they’d like) drivers in fast or passing lane are the greater problem.

              • tmyakal@infosec.pub
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                12
                ·
                7 hours ago

                Just a quick bit of searching, and I found a Wisconsin sheriff who is far less definitive on this than you:

                According to state law, any vehicle traveling “at less than the normal speed of traffic” must be driven in the right-hand lane, or as close as practicable, except when overtaking and passing another vehicle.

                So Wisconsin does acknowledge that anyone going less than the normal speed of traffic should only use the left lane to pass. But, as the sheriff points out:

                “It describes normal traffic, so to say somebody going 80 is normal is going to be very difficult for me to say that. So normal being above the speed limit, you’ve got two conflicting sets of laws here.”

                And it’s okay that traffic laws conflict with each other because, again, the point is not the letter of the law, but the safe and predictable operation of the vehicle.

                • SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  4
                  ·
                  6 hours ago

                  I can’t find it now, but the local newspaper asked the State Patrol about it some years ago. They were clear: They cannot issue tickets for “obstructing traffic” for driving at the limit in any lane.

                  It appears that the conflict described by the sheriff is that he’s reluctant to call breaking the speed limit the “normal flow of traffic.”

                  • Zoot@reddthat.com
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    6
                    ·
                    5 hours ago

                    Why are you so hell bent on sitting in the left lane? It’s inconsiderate and creates a hazard for other drivers. Regardless of laws, if you want to police other people, go become a cop.