LANE DRIVING RULES

Oregon, Arkansas pursue
left-lane use limits

By Keith Goble, Land Line state legislative editor

State lawmakers in multiple states are considering bills to keep most drivers out of the fast lane.

An Oregon bill would make the left lane off limits for everything except passing.

Truckers already are prohibited from using the far left lane but Sen. Ginny Burdick, D-Portland, thinks that limits should be in place for all vehicles that may impede traffic.

“We need to give the Oregon State Police more enforcement authority to make sure that traffic flows smoothly and safely,” Burdick testified to the Senate Business and Transportation Committee . . . .

Full story: Landlinemag

Peter’s Piece

Sometimes tinkering with driving rules that are as old as motoring itself will only make the problem worse, and sometimes it is better to throw out everything that has gone before and make a completely new start.

Peter's truck in 40 American states

Current lane driving rules have not changed since it was discovered that the world is not flat.

These rules are suitable only for roads that have no more than a single lane in each direction. In most countries the rule is keep right and overtake on the left of traffic moving in the same direction. When the first multi-lane road opened a new set of rules should have been enacted.

There is an increasing trend among drivers on multi-lane roads to drive in the far-left lane. They feel safe there because it is less crowded and there is less interference from traffic joining or leaving at interchanges. The far-left lane is becoming a cruising lane and other lanes are becoming maneuvering lanes for joining, leaving and overtaking.

Anyone who thinks about that for a moment will realize that those drivers are doing what aircraft and ships have always done; cruising at high altitude, or far out from the coast, while the maneuvering is done close to the ground or the coast. It’s safer that way.

It is just as safe to overtake on one side as the other and if we substitute ‘fast lane’ for ‘cruising lane’ and ‘slow lane’ for ‘maneuvering lane’ the traffic will flow more freely and more safely with less lane changing near on and off ramps.

This is already happening by default and if legislators try to outlaw the trend they will be going against the flow and legislating for more chaos. It just requires some bold, new thinking.

 Smashwords.com