[NemesisX]

Slowpokes, beware: More states are cracking down on drivers who dawdle in the left lane.

While all states require slow-moving vehicles to keep to the right, laws that went into effect in Tennessee this year, Indiana last year, Georgia in 2014 and Florida and New Jersey in 2013 are setting harsher penalties for dawdling drivers.

The new penalties, proponents say, are aimed at reducing congestion, frustration and accidents.

Tennessee is one of the latest states to impose harsher punishments, often also called “slowpoke” or “left-lane courtesy” laws. As of the beginning of this month, slow drivers there face a $50 fine for camping out in the left lane.

“It’s not the speed on the highway that kills as much the weaving in and out of traffic, which is caused by people who impede the flow of traffic,” the bill’s sponsor, State Representative Dan Howell, told The Chattanooga Times Free Press earlier this year.

Since a similar law went into effect in Indiana a year ago, the state police reported issuing 109 tickets and 1,535 warnings, according to WISH-TV, a local news station. That law allows a maximum fine of $500 for unreasonably slow drivers who block the left lane.

Each state has its own rules for when a driver must vacate the left lane. In Indiana, a driver blocking three or more others must move out of the left lane. In Georgia, any driver traveling below the speed limit and blocking at least one car must move aside. Florida’s law makes no explicit mention of speed, but it requires drivers to move to the right if they should reasonably know that a faster car is coming.

Proponents of the laws say speeding is still a major concern. The so-called slowpoke laws are not aimed at penalizing slower drivers for simply using the left lane, but rather discouraging them from staying there.

“The purpose of this law is for those rude, inconsiderate drivers who think they own the left lane,” Capt. David Bursten of the Indiana State Police told WISH-TV.

The National Motorists Association, a grass-roots group that lobbies for safer traffic laws, blames the plague of left-lane laggards on the national speed limit imposed in the 1970s.

In response to oil shortages, Congress passed a law in 1973 withholding funds from states that did not adopt a 55-mile-per-hour speed limit, which they all did within months, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. While 55 m.p.h. was already the norm in many urban areas, states had previously allowed drivers on rural roads to go as fast as 65 to 75 m.p.h.

The motorists’ association argued that this change emboldened slow drivers who began enjoying more of the road than before as they found the new limits more in line with their slow speeds. That shift eroded previously held norms that encouraged slow drivers to keep right.

The 55 m.p.h. limit “caused a total breakdown in lane courtesy,” the group wrote in a fact sheet on the issue.

Congress ultimately allowed states in 1987 to raise the limit to 65 m.p.h. and repealed the national limit altogether in 1995. Rural speed limits are now at or above 70 m.p.h. in two-thirds of states, according to the insurance institute.

Though it was repealed decades ago, the national speed limit left lasting damage, the motorists’ association argues. The unwritten rules of the road were erased, with slow drivers feeling at home in any lane.

“This process was reinforced for more than two decades,” the group says, “and it left an impression on a whole generation of new drivers.”

The group, along with other proponents of lane courtesy laws, argues that keeping slow drivers out of the left lane reduces accidents caused by faster drivers switching lanes to try to pass in the right lane.

Whether or not that is the case, accidents persist as a problem nationwide: The rate of motor vehicle crash deaths in the United States is more than twice the average of other high-income countries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Wednesday.

While the C.D.C. did not address slowpoke drivers, it did offer some simple advice for reducing accidents: Wear seatbelts, drive sober and without distractions and, of course, obey the speed limit.

Facebook post for those who want to get in on the debate: https://www.facebook.com/nytimes/pos...50849220404999

News article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/08/us...okes.html?_r=0

One of the first commenters Andrew Benton admitted to being "that guy" who hogs the left lane and deliberately slows down to exactly the speed limit if he thinks you're going too fast for road conditions. He's getting a lot of backlash at the moment.

[Blksnowflake]

Thank God!!!
or whoever..

[F30lolz]

Much needed in Miami...

[08njSTEP]

I disagree with the reasoning proposed by the motorist association. I don't think its decades of 55mph that causes this in most cases. I think bad drivers feel more comfortable with the shoulder(safe area) on drivers side. I routinely see left laners pull to the right to let a faster car pass and the it's back into left lane. Its a matter of incompetent drivers more than the old speed limit. Just my observation. Hurray to the states dishing out tickets.

[TXSTYLE]

I don't care what nobody says... THIS very thing is one of if not THE single reason for 90% of traffic congestion on ALL highways, Tollways, Freeways today!
Fuggers make me sick!

[EALm4]

MD needs to get on board with that. It's ridiculously bad here

[08njSTEP]

I used to travel from DC to north NJ and the fastest way was always far right lane. Nobody drives in the slow lane.

[tdott]

I feel that left HOV lanes makes this worst. Drivers think they can jog any lane thanks to stretches with an HOV lane. In many cases the right lanes are left wide open.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by F30lolz

Much needed in Miami...

FL has a law but it seems rarely enforced. In Miami they could ticket 90% of drivers.

[Arcades]

We need this in LA please for the love of god get those idiot Asian/Pickup drivers out of the fning damn way.

[Alpine300zhp]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

FL has a law but it seems rarely enforced. In Miami they could ticket 90% of drivers.

Agreed. People like this annoy the crap out of me.

[atinybug]

There's a law for that here in GA. Police can ticket people for going slower than speed limit in the left lane. Except the speed limit around here is 70, and people go 80-90 in the left lane and if you're going 70 there, you're going to get tailgated. But technically the police can't do anything about it since you're not speeding, nor are you going slower than speed limit.

[larryn]

In WA state, you frequently run up against a rolling blockade of 2-3 cars self-enforcing, side by side, with a huge line of cars behind them. About half the time it includes a Prius and a CRV, or more than one.

I feel they are inciters of road rage. I know that I want to kick their collective asses, that's for sure. Pious douchenozzles.

[F80_M]

I don't see this law having much effect on I-4 in FL people still drive slower than molasses :

[WreckerX5d]

New York needs to pass this law as well. Too many people (Prius'...Prieye?) holding up the left and HOV lanes.

[EL Jeffe 5]

Thank you God I think my prayer was answered here personally
in my state Iowa people just don't know how to move over.

[Haywood]

Originally Posted by Wrecker335d

New York needs to pass this law as well. Too many people (Prius'...Prieye?) holding up the left and HOV lanes.

This truly should be called the Prius bill. I can't tell you how many times annoying liberal Prius drivers are in the left hand lane and refuse to move. I want to go all Mad Max on them!

[08njSTEP]

How about legalizing bump drafting. If it happens to turn into a PIT maneuver so be it.

[kprocivic]

Lol where I'm at it i get passed by prii all the time usually going 80. Prii is plural for prius. I wonder if the surveyed drivers, how many know the left lane is not for cruising.

[natedog7700]

I hate when people do this intentionally for whatever reason. I flash my lights, then proceed to get closer and if they still don't move over, I run right past in the E lane. Sometimes you get a jerk and it needs to be done. Spiting up gravel on their car makes it 10 times more satisfying too.. 600hp and tinted License plate cover makes it impossible for them to do anything about it. Irritated just thinking about it! lol

[positiveions]

Much needed in L.A. People have no common sense.

[mccannable]

Everyone thinks their city is bad, I live in retirement capital of the world. Over 100,000 retirees in a small area. Left lane is a parking lot, right lane is usually turning into a farmers market plowing people down.