‘Slow-poke’ bill aims to stop left lane lingerers

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Aaron Gould Sheinin - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution


Those who lollygag in the left lane of highways and interstates could be ticketed under legislation approved in the state House on Wednesday.

House Bill 459, by Rep. Bill Hitchens, R-Rincon, was approved 162-9.

The bill makes it a misdemeanor for any driver on a divided highway who does not move to the right when a car going faster approaches from behind.

“Everybody knows this is the slow-poke bill,” Hitchens said.

Hitchens said he knows enforcement will be difficult — an officer will have to witness it happening.

“My reason for doing this is more for an educational opportunity for people who don’t understand you’re not supposed to ride 55, 60 mph in that left lane when you’ve got 15, 16, 17 people lined up behind you.”

That kind of situation has been known to be “the spark that ignites road rage,” Hitchens said, adding that it’s really just good manners.

[Pony]

I sure wish they would educate and enforce the "slower traffic keep right" law here.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I sure wish they would educate and enforce the "slower traffic keep right" law here.

Same here....and many of the interstates here even have signs stating that either "Slower Traffic Keep Right" or "Left Lane For Passing Only" yet every single fucking day I get behind someone in the left lane holding up traffic. Makes me glad I don't carry a weapon in my truck :|

[PorkChopSandwiches]

This is my #1 pet peeve when driving.

[Muddy]

Tractor trailers arent allowed in the left lane on Va. highways..

[FBD]

and here in CT, the opposite - an announcement from the state police that they're really going to start cracking down on tailgators...

...even though around here, NOBODY will get out of your way if you arent 6 inches off their bumper. If you arent, it must not be important enough that you need to get past them, even if they're going 55.

fuckwads avoid the right lane like the plague, because "that's for slow people"

even the fucking TRUCKS avoid the right lane. 3 times this past week, trucks in the fucking left lane.

but yeah, the problem is those damned tailgators...

[Hal-9000]

I'd like to kill tailgators (tailcrocodiles?)

like it helps to ride someone's bumper 3 inches away....you don't get there any faster than the two cars ahead of you ffs :lol:

[Muddy]

I'd like to kill tailgators

Shit! :lol:

[FBD]

I'd like to kill tailgators (tailcrocodiles?)

like it helps to ride someone's bumper 3 inches away....you don't get there any faster than the two cars ahead of you ffs :lol:

:hand: when that is the ONLY way someone will get out of your way...

...when the fugging trucks never use the right lane, and it becomes a lane for only the very fastest and the very slowest...

sometimes its easier to get a little closer, share the love, and tell that son of a bitch in front of you to get the fuck out of the way.

sorry - but rush hour traffic has different rules than normal traffic. its why I hate driving in to work, because I get behind the wheel of a race car when its rush hour.

[Hal-9000]

oh Lord where do I start? :lol: ^^


sounds like the problem comes from within FBD...deeeeeep within



share the love :rofl:

[Pony]

I'd like to kill tailgators (tailcrocodiles?)

like it helps to ride someone's bumper 3 inches away....you don't get there any faster than the two cars ahead of you ffs :lol:

If there are two or more cars ahead I won't tailgate. If there is a single car riding right next to someone in the right lane for miles and no other traffic in front but near gridlock behind I tend to get a bit pushy.

[Pony]

...when the fugging trucks never use the right lane,



Most trucks here only use the left lane for passing. And usually they only do that when some idiot in a car is going 55 in a 60 if front of them. I see it all the time, cars will race up to get in front of the truck and then once there they start to slow down, I'm sorry but if a big assed truck is riding my back bumper you can be damn sure I'm gonna speed up or move over.

[Godfather]

I fucking hate tailgaters too Hal. I'm not much for speeding so I always spend the majority of my commute in the passing lane on the right. Not sure why people think it's 'fast' and 'slow' lane, that's the biggest issue. Everyone around here thinks "oh I'm a fast driver, I must belong in the left lane" but we all have different concepts of what fast is so it congests both lanes. There would be zero issue if people just fucking passed on the left and maintained on the right. I almost want a bumper-stick reminding people not to drive in the left lane unless passing but don't want to be 'that guy.' Still, when you see two people driving side-by-side preventing any passing, we call it an 'Asian roadblock' :lol: Not very PC but seriously fuck those people.



Even at that, some people tailgate in the right lane. Just the other day I came over a hill and saw a bus in the distance picking up people at the stop. Defensive Driving 101 told me that it must have been there a while so I prepared to slow. Sure enough as I get near it flips on the signal and pulls out (at the same time - I know you have to yield to the bus but sometimes bus drivers are suicidal). So I slow down quickly. The cocksucker riding my ass of course wasn't paying attention and almost rear-ended me. Somehow it became my fault and he proceeded to aggressively hug my bunker, honk, and flip me off for at least 3-blocks. After he passed me it took all of my willpower not to follow him to his destination and take the issue up further.

/rant

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I fucking hate tailgaters too Hal. I'm not much for speeding so I always spend the majority of my commute in the passing lane on the right.

:facepalm:

Here's how you avoid tailgaters:

A) Get the hell out of the way when you are impeding traffic flow

Problem solved.

[Hal-9000]

if I'm doing my typical 10 -20 kms over the speed limit and some guy is riding my ass...I slow down 25 kms just to see how red his face gets...or until he gets into a different lane so he can speed up, then meet me at the next light anyways :lol:

my rush hour commute is already full of bumper to bumper, door to door traffic...I don't need to see buddy's nose hairs behind me when none of us are moving anyways...it solves nothing

[FBD]

are you leaving the 100 yard dash in front of your car, leaving plenty of room for a half doze people from slower lanes to come on over?

[Hal-9000]

No way man.....if one thing infuriates me it's stop and go traffic and the guy in front of me thinks his hood is 30 feet long :x

I usually get around them, then in front of them to make a point :lol:


and I'm a left lane driver all through the city (OCD problem, lots of therapy, no avail) so I usually close that gap on the car in front of me, without making bumper love to him

[Hal-9000]

another thing that pisses me off is the guy ahead of you that has swivel-head....he's got to look at every car that passes him, every landmark, every bird that's flying beside him....he looks at everything but the road in front of him :lol:

not sure why, wanna get out and slap those people...

[FBD]

:lol: I just had to razz ya hal! that's one of my biggest annoyances with driving on the highway....mofo HAS to be in the left lane, but too unsure of his driving to not leave at least the 40 yard dash in front of his car, ya know, just in case traffic all of a sudden halts to 0 miles an hour while ee aint lookin...

too many idjits on the road here to drive strictly in the left lane. that's why half the time, the right lane is the fast lane/passing lane. Because nobody else wants that "slow" stigma of having their car be see in the far right hand lane where the slow people are...

[Hal-9000]

and in stop and go rush traffic when the driver is so busy talking to his front seat companion, that he constantly slow starts and doesn't keep up with the traffic when it does move :x


seeing through people's windshields kinda sets a scene for road rage I think :lol: :oops:

[Hal-9000]

:lol: I just had to razz ya hal! that's one of my biggest annoyances with driving on the highway....mofo HAS to be in the left lane, but too unsure of his driving to not leave at least the 40 yard dash in front of his car, ya know, just in case traffic all of a sudden halts to 0 miles an hour while ee aint lookin...

too many idjits on the road here to drive strictly in the left lane. that's why half the time, the right lane is the fast lane/passing lane. Because nobody else wants that "slow" stigma of having their car be see in the far right hand lane where the slow people are...

Oh I hear ya man...my driving is constant rush hour, from one end of the city to another. We don't have a ring road or actual 'freeways', we have road systems built for 400000 people, in a city with over a million people.

What really gets me is the guy you're talking about, who lets in every dude and his dog for miles and miles and miles...slow drivers on fast roads are one thing, and I get that...but idiotic drivers on regular streets going 40 km under the speed limit are fucksticks....I have a saying I usually yell out my window when passing - IF YOU CAN'T DRIVE, DON'T!!!! :x :x

[FBD]

I'd rather see, I hate not being able to see what's going on in front of me, and relying on the fool in front of me to be paying attention...would be a recipe for an accident!

[Hal-9000]

that's why I hate SUV's with tinted windows, cube vans, large trucks.....you can't ride their asses with any sort of authority :lol:


ffs you guys converted me again :lol:

[Pony]

and in stop and go rush traffic when the driver is so busy talking to his front seat companion, that he constantly slow starts and doesn't keep up with the traffic when it does move :x


seeing through people's windshields kinda sets a scene for road rage I think :lol: :oops:

I deal with that almost daily, there's a 4 mile long 50MPH 2 lane each direction stretch in front of the airport that has 1 traffic light at around the 1 mile point. Cars take off from a dead stop and more times than not it takes them 2 miles to get up to 45. And of course the guy in the other lane rides right side by side.... *sigh*

[Godfather]

:facepalm:

Here's how you avoid tailgaters:

A) Get the hell out of the way when you are impeding traffic flow

Problem solved.

If we're talking a one lane road I agree with you.

But I'm not going to pull onto the shoulder because someone tailgates me when I'm already going 5-10km over in the right lane. I owe nothing to a tailgater behind me who has a passing lane on the left, and I'm certainly not getting a ticket on their account.

I think a lot of the drivers here do it out of habit. Sometimes if I'm worried about how close they're driving I'll change lanes, but they still don't pass... It's a lack of defensive driving I guess. Same issue as people who constantly drive in blindspots.