Unless You’re Passing, Stop Getting Comfortable in the Left Lane

By Tony Markovich - August 31, 2016

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The concept of how highways ought to work is pretty basic. The slower you are going, the more right you should be, and if the people in front of you are driving slowly, pass them in the left-most lane. That’s it. But because people are people, you get drivers going five under in the left lane, cars passing in the right lane, trucks camping out next to each other, and a bunch of other people doing aggravating stuff. We as Americans really need to do better.

Not only are there laws that specifically explain that it is illegal to sit in the left lane, doing so also makes the road much more dangerous for everybody and can significantly impact traffic in a negative way. This is truly one of those laws that’s meant to help us, and when a staff member at Vox got a ticket for breaking it, he and his team made the video below about why it makes sense.

Essentially, driving slowly or even the speed limit in the left lane is dangerous for both you and surrounding cars. An entirely separate issue is the fact that people are always going to speed on the highway. No matter how many speeding tickets are given out, it’s going to happen. And that means that those speeders will come up behind the slowpokes, get frustrated, and start making erratic lane changes in order to continue their quest to shave 43 seconds off their destination time. The more lane changes, the higher the risk of accident.

If everybody would only use the left lane for passing, everything would theoretically be more efficient. There are, of course, many variables that throw this all off. Many highways are overcrowded, don’t have enough lanes, or maybe have too many semi-trucks for a car drivers’ liking. A counter argument would also tell you that constantly changing into the left lane to pass increases risk, rather than just staying in the left lane and speeding the whole time. It’s not an exact, cut-and-dry solution, but if more people followed this one law, things could be much better on the roads.