Slow drivers ticketed for being in left lane

[jundp 191]

SEATTLE -- Even if you're going the speed limit it might not be enough to prevent you from getting a ticket if you're holding up traffic in the fast lane.

State troopers are on a mission to make sure the left lane on area freeways is used for its intended purpose: passing.

"We're doing 58, 59 miles an hour and they are just sitting there, traffic's passing them on the right hand side," Trooper Keith Leary said while pointing out a car in the left lane of Interstate 5. "That's exactly what we don't want to see happen."

The driver, Brasta Bonifcho, said he was surprised what he was doing was illegal.

"I didn't know that, I really didn't know that," he said. "I am guilty, no question about it."

Leary reminded Bonifcho that drivers need to stay in the right lanes unless they're passing another vehicle.

Everyone pulled over during Leary's patrol said they thought it wasn't a problem as long as they were going the speed limit. But the law says otherwise.

"It is a traffic infraction to drive continuously in the left lane of a multilane roadway when it impedes the flow of other traffic," the statute reads.

The reason for the law is to help keep traffic moving and to diffuse potential road rage situations.

"It just takes one thing to set them off," Leary said of frustrated drivers stuck behind slower moving vehicles. "If we can alleviate one of those things, maybe we can avoid an assault."

The State Patrol said several recent collisions caused by slow vehicles in the passing lane have prompted increased enforcement of the law along area interstates.

Drivers in the HOV lanes are exempt from the rule, but anyone else could be facing a $124 ticket.

http://www.komonews.com/news/20656789.html

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Good. Want to drive slow? Stay right. Problem solved.

[jundp 191]

I agree. I usually drive slower these days (to conserve gas) but there's nothing worse than some a$$hat in the left lane driving 10-20 mph slower than everyone else...

[MrsCat 6]

I agree. I usually drive slower these days (to conserve gas) but there's nothing worse than some a$$hat in the left lane driving 10-20 mph slower than everyone else...

Agreed.

[Scott & Lai 12]

[KimandRuss 0]

SUCH a pet peeve of mine... MOVE OVER!!!!!!!

[Scott & Lai 12]

I imagine many of them are self-righteous prigs thinking, "The speed limit is 65, I'm going 65, so should you. You want to go faster? Tough."

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

problem is most of the slow drivers in the left lane are foreginers.

[Dan J 277]

That doesn't bother me as much as those people who don't know how to merge into another lane on a freeway. If you have to slam on the brakes to move into another lane, your doing it all wrong.

[jundp 191]

Ah, merging. I learned to drive in Austin, Texas. They don't believe in actual merging there

[Scott & Lai 12]

That doesn't bother me as much as those people who don't know how to merge into another lane on a freeway. If you have to slam on the brakes to move into another lane, your doing it all wrong.

Generally, yes, but sometimes people will do that because the people in the next lane refuse to leave room for a car to merge. So the person who wants to merge has to slow down to merge behind the pack. If people cared to follow the 2-second limit, that wouldn't be necessary. Actually slamming on the brakes, though, is definitely a no no.

Also, if your actions cause someone else to have to hit the brakes, you've done something wrong.

[Dan J 277]

Also, if your actions cause someone else to have to hit the brakes, you've done something wrong.

That's essentially what causes slowdowns in rush hour traffic. All you need is one person to hit their brakes, and it compounds throughout the flow of traffic. Its gets worse, as people are merging out of the slower lane into the faster ones. Which may not always go smoothly.

[eric&gen 0]

Doesn't matter if you drive in the left lane or right no matter how fast you are going you still get tailgated loool.

[Krikit 1,164]

problem is most of the slow drivers in the left lane are foreginers Americans.

fixored

[KarenCee 3]

'Bout time! There's nothing more frustrating that this...except maybe when there are two people in both lanes driving side by side driving slower...and NO ONE can get around. AUGH!!!