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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
Regardless of laws? Ah, so speeding is against the law, whodathunk? Funny that it’s the lawbreaker’s self-appointed duty to enforce the passing lane, which, again, isn’t a thing where I live.
No, not if they’re travelling at about the speed limit. It would be illegal to overtake.
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.
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.
Just a quick bit of searching, and I found a Wisconsin sheriff who is far less definitive on this than you:
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:
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.
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.”
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.
Regardless of laws? Ah, so speeding is against the law, whodathunk? Funny that it’s the lawbreaker’s self-appointed duty to enforce the passing lane, which, again, isn’t a thing where I live.