Orient Express, that's a load of bollox. You assume that just because we drive on the left we are the ones responsible for your countries crappy drivers.
So does that mean we in the UK can blame you guys for taking up our right hand lane similarly. No, I don't think so. These drivers are just plain a-holes. The same a-holes as we experience here.

One thing, I can say after living in the US and many many trips there, is that I can never understand the game play you guys have on the roads. I am aware that you have the same rules as us: keep to the slower lane, only use the faster lane to overtake. But my experience in the US is that everyone seems to take up whatever lane they want., no matter what speed you do. You always see people undertaking. In the UK, we have a very important rule and its rare to see it broken (although we too have our idiots but they are rare, thankfully). You never undertake. That is, you never "ever" go to a slower lane to pass another car. This rule is sacrosanct. So much so that if you break it and there is an accident, the undertaking car is "always" in the wrong no matter what the situation. The way we deal with this is simple: we pull up behind the car using up the faster lane and flash our headlights. Normally they would move over. But there's always the odd a-hole who wont'. In that case you just have to be patient. Bite your tongue and curse, but you never undertake him. The result is that each lane has a speed, the speed the traffic is flowing in. If it's too slow, you move into the faster lane to overtake traffic. As soon as it's clear, you move over to the slower lane again. Again, you never undertake. This rule is applied throughout Europe and that's why on the Autobahn it's safe to slam your foot down and do 140mph, because you can trust that the rule of "undertaking" is sacrosanct and that generally drivers are sensible. But even here in Europe we have our idiots, but I would not expressly put blame on US drivers for it. So don't blame us in the UK for your countries bad driving habits.

Look at it this way. Your country has 4 x the population of ours so therefore you have 4 x as many a-holes

 

Scouser,
Orient was just joking, that since slow drivers were on the fast left lane it must be becuase most of them were from a left-hand drive country and must of though they were in the slow lane instead of the fast one

 

Oops! Carlos your right. After re reading Orient;s post I see it is in fact a pun. Sorry Orient.

 

Phew! I thought for a minute, I had soured anglo-american relations, glad you caught my joke....

But you are right, we do have way too many a-holes on the road, and the fact that they drive in what ever lane they please, makes it much more dangerous for all. sometimes I feel like I am playing Tetris rather than just driving down the road. I find that I have to change lanes way too often to keep going. If only folks would just stay on the right.

 

i HATE passing on the right - especially a semi and generally won't do it unless i've determined that its the ONLY way around. how many times have you seen someone go for the right lane only to be cut off.

i'll camp behind the lard *** car in the left lane for a while. maybe offer up a quick flash of the lights, but i think that the fast lane is now the right lane.

 

a friend of mine introduced me to an interesting technique to get slow drivers in the left lane to move over. you know those rumble strips they have on the sides of most US highways? well, they're generally louder for other drivers than they are in your own car. next time somebody is going slow in the left lane and won't move over, drift over to the left a little and ride the rumble strip for a while. i have a couple of theories on why this seems to get people to move over:
1. the person thinks you're a crazy driver that's going to pass them on the left in the breakdown lane so they get out of your way
2. the person is driving off in la la land and the noise of the rumble strip wakes them up and alerts them to your presence so they move over
3. it makes it clear to the other driver that you want to pass them and they don't think that you're happy to be cruising at the same slow speed as them

personally i don't like flashing my lights. in europe it's fine and people are used to it and they know what it means. in the US very few people do it, and it's illegal, plus it makes me feel like a jerk, especially since i'm driving a porsche and people probably think "why's that rich @$$hole flashing me?!?!?!?"

 

Several people on this forum have pointed out some very good points. I grew up in Europe and I remember driving with my parents that you only went into the left lanes to pass, otherwise you stuck to the right (the opposite in Britain of course), and "flashing headlights" did mean something.

In the US (and Canada) flashing your headlights usually just pisses of the driver in front of you (unless they are from Europe), and in some states and provinces is illegal (such as warning oncoming traffic of a radar trap ahead). Tail-gaiting is just stupid and dangerous.

I have found that in general when driving my porsche if I just have patience and sit back MOST drivers will pull into the right lane when safe to do so. Unfortunately many people are too blind or deaf ("blue hairs") or too pre-occupied (cell phone users) to know I am there. Sometimes I will drop down a gear so they can hear me. Flashing my lights here means absolutely nothing and pisses them off. Rarely will I pass on the right unless absolutely necessary...if I feel that the left lane hogg is a road hazard or "an accident waiting to happen". If I am driving my truck (lifted with a blower) then they usually see me and get out of the way (unless it is some kid in a "hot car" who figures he or she has got more of a vehicle than I do...WRONG!). When driving my lexus almost no-one got out of my way.

Long and short of it, left lane hoggs are a road hazard. You should only be in the left lane to pass. The cops should be enforcing these rules.

 

Believe it or not, Texas law says that you should use your horn to get people to move not your lights. I would think that would be antagonistic. Being European (Brit) by origin, I still sometimes use a courtesy flash, very very brief flicker of the lights, that often works. As pointed out above, sometimes just hanging back and not crowding people works.

C.

 

I flash my lights just as you say. Tends to work in most cases. Using the horn simply doesn't work. And I find flashing the lights a few times BEFORE you get up on them tends to work better too.

 

It may be different in other areas, but here you'd certainly end up in an early grave (either out of frustration or crashes) trying to move slow drivers out the left hand lane, as they're as likely to stomp on the brakes as they are to move over when one of these techniques is applied. I've been with many a driver (often but not always female) who express incredulous rage at being tailgated in the fast lane, their response always being "WHY DON'T THEY JUST GO AROUND?" And up here, I think that's pretty much what's expected at least if the driver in the fast lane is going the speed limit.

 

In the city left lane hogs are pretty bad, but it gets better in Texas as you get into the country. What's really interesting is that LOTS more people will shift over out of the left lane to let my 993 past than if I'm driving my truck.

 

Robert H.,

I hear ya...it is kind of weird, but I like it.

Just mod your truck with a lift kit, a blower and ram air induction on your hood and they will probably get out of your way .

 

That is one of the most hilareous things I ever heard! can you be more stupid than that?

 

I once knew a guy that went so berzerk when the left lane hogs didn't move right, that when he passed them he would chuck a handfull of pennies out the window at them.

Then one day he purposely rear ended a guy (in an old Volvo stationwagon) when they wouldn't move right and slammed on their brakes.

I think he learned his lesson after the **** storm he had to deal with, crazy bastard.

 

I am no less frustrated than any of you but allow me to flip the script....

i don't know about you guys but when i I am in the left lane I am almost always going well over the speed limit...which is illegal. So if someone will not get out of my way I kinda see it as a game to find the line through traffic that gets me around them. Its fun...like being in a little race...this too is illegal though.

Maybe we should just all stop breaking the law?! and drive the speed limit