[mysterydip]

Literally almost happened to me on a trip last week. Driving on I95 and two people were headed to change to the same lane, one slow from the left and one flying up on the right (across three lanes). They see each other and react at the same time, the one on the left going back to their lane but the one on the right, with their angle and excess speed, overcorrects and starts to fishtail. Their car is then pointing directly at mine and barely misses t-boning me, instead hitting the barrier head-on to my left. Always practice defensive driving and have a dashcam.

[jcgrillo]

The "flying by on the right" thing feels like a recent (within the last ~decade?) phenomenon. Am I imagining it?

[lsllc]

There's a total lack of "lane discipline" (as Clarkson would say) in the US. In fact I'd argue that it's not a lack of discipline, but just a lack of understanding of how you should drive on a highway.

People tend to migrate to the "fast" lanes (the left), so you naturally end up with people either passing on the right or tailgating them. Of course, you should always be in the right lanes except for passing.

I do wonder if let's say there's someone in lane 3 of 4 going slower than the limit and you can pass them safely on the right in lane 1 that it's probably safer to just do that (assuming you're not flying along!) than moving over 3 lanes to the left, passing then moving 3 over back to the right.

[danaris]

> Of course, you should always be in the right lanes except for passing.

First, I should note that I 100% agree.

However, as the highways have become more crowded, it has become less practical to actually adhere to this.

If I'm going 70MPH (the prevailing speed on the NYS highways where the legal speed limit is 65MPH tends to be somewhere between 70 and 78MPH), and there are a half-dozen cars going 60MPH in the right lane, with just barely enough room between them to safely get in (ie, there's sufficient stopping room between the rear car and me, and between me and the front car), then technically I could pass the first car, pull back into the right lane, pull almost immediately back into the left lane to pass the next car, and repeat several more times. But that's not merely tedious, it's dangerous.

It's even worse when instead of a half-dozen regular cars going 60MPH, it's three tractor-trailers. Particularly since "safe distance" for them is much longer due to visibility issues.

...And, of course, sometimes when I'm doing this, some yahoo going 80MPH will zip up behind me, pass me on the right (completely ignoring the aforementioned safe distances) and then zip back into the left lane to careen onwards.

[techdmn]

The way I like to think about is this: If I see a maniac looming in my rearview mirror, where do I want that driver to be? Surely not bottled up behind me, where they can cause all kinds of trouble. I want them out in front of me, where I can keep an eye on them and where I control the distance between us. Furthermore, I would like to put this nutjob in front of me as quickly and as cleanly as possible. Fortunately they are often happy to zip by on my left if I give them the slightest encouragement: Room to do so.

[sokoloff]

Exactly. Cars who want to go faster than me: I want them ahead of me.

For the same reason, I want cars who wish to go more slowly than I do to be behind me.

[jstarfish]

> Of course, you should always be in the right lanes except for passing.

I used to adhere to this but it does not work in practice.

Right lanes have the highest churn-- people getting off, people getting on. If you're not planning to do either, you have no business being on that side of the road.

This idea about left lanes only being for passing only ever works when you're overtaking a tractor doing 15mph on a country road. The concept does not scale to freeway speeds or traffic. You're not legally passing anyone already doing 70.

[jcgrillo]

I couldn't disagree more strongly :). I always adhere by "keep right except to pass" and it works fine. I also move into the left lane preemptively while approaching an on ramp to give any traffic entering the highway room to merge. I'll be honest, I usually set my cruise control about 10% over the speed limit, because I find I can minimize the number of times I have to change speed this way. Decelerating only to accelerate again wastes fuel so I do whatever I can to maintain a constant speed, but I also want to get there ASAP. So 10% over seems to be the sweet spot--sometimes I'm overtaking, sometimes I'm being overtaken, but I rarely have to disengage cruise.

EDIT: I also drive with two hands on the wheel, don't listen to the radio, and don't play with my phone.

[lsllc]

Agreed, TBH on a quiet 4 line highway I'm in lane 2 to allow the ramp traffic easy on-off. I'll move left to pass if needed, but if there's someone going slower in the far lanes, I'll usually pass on the right to avoid moving over 3 lanes.

[techdmn]

Unpopular opinion: People fly by on the right because someone else is camping in the left lane. The disclaimer is that with too much congestion the whole thing breaks down, and some people are determined to drive like idiots regardless, but it's worth examing why the right lane is open when the left lane isn't.

[jcgrillo]

I've noticed that moving right to allow such people to pass on the left (say, in a 3 lane highway) often results in them riding right up behind me, slamming the brakes, and then being blocked out of the left lane. If they were actually driving attentively they would instead merge left and overtake. I suspect what's actually happening is they're playing with their phones, and here in the US drivers sit on the left hand side of the car. So the worst blind spot is when you're merging right. If you're attention-compromised (e.g. because you're constantly checking myspace or tinder or whatever on your phone) then you'll want to spend all your time in the right lane. It's safest that way because nobody can sneak into the blind spot.

[LorenPechtel]

Note the "across three lanes"--this isn't a case of camping in the left lane as there must be at least 4 lanes for this to happen.

Rather, it's idiots weaving through traffic. They treat the flowing traffic as basically static obstacles and things can go very wrong if they cease to be static.

I've also seen it because the guy who flew by me on the right was impatient with the amount of clearance I left before moving back to the right lane--cut right as soon as there was a gap wide enough to move through.

[giantg2]

I've seen it longer than that. Although the frequency might be increasing as the other trend I've noticed is that overall driver quality appears to have decreased. It could just be in my area or I could be wrong, but that's what I've noticed.