I think this needs to be drilled into young drivers heads so the highways of the future have less morons on them.

In fact, I think it needs to go a step further - ALWAYS stay to the right. Only move to the other lane to pass or turn left.

The problem is, at least in more populated areas, there are so many exits that traveling in right-most lane can be dangerous with all of the merging traffic. Large trucks in particular will just cut off cars forcing you to slam on the breaks at least once every mile or two.

The the police should... police that.

Staying out of the passing lane when not passing someone is actually the law in many states. You must keep right if able.

All 50 US states have some type of keep-right law. Whether it's an absolute "keep right unless actively passing" or a looser "keep right when slower than other traffic" varies, but all of them have some kind of enforceable keep-right rule.

All US traffic laws come from the Uniform Vehicle Code. Keep right rules are meant for absolutely slow traffic and not for driving the speed limit. The UVC has keep right exceptions for divided highways with multiple lanes going in one direction.

Passing left laws were intended for two way streets with one lane in each direction when the only way to pass is by driving on the lane going the opposite direction.

> Keep right rules are meant for absolutely slow traffic and not for driving the speed limit.

Do you have a citation for that? Many state laws use the speed of traffic as a reference to define slower as opposed to using the posted speed limit as the reference. If they meant to say only slower than the speed limit, then the text of the law would be explicit on that point.

It's the law here in Colorado. I don't think it's working. People drive in the left lane (when the middle lanes are wide open) all the time.

I've been road-raged doing the speed limit in the right-hand lane. You shouldn't be bothering people doing that, but people aren't rational.

It's really better and safer to drive at a speed similar to the speed of the rest of traffic. If the speed limit is 55 mph and the pace speed lies between 65 to 75 mph, then the minimum speed you should be driving is 65 mph.

Having less speed variance leads to smoother flow and traffic that's more spread out. That increases safety overall.

The pace of traffic is 55 mph when police cars are around.

So I can ruin my gas mileage slowing and stopping every time someone in front of me turns onto a side street or pulls out in front of me?

No thanks!

Generally its the middle lane I use, but sometimes it's even the left if some landscaping truck or cement mixed is in front of me dropping who knows what into the road.

In the city, you are correct. The far right in a 3 lane is often just for turning and merging, making the middle the travel lane. The point is not to travel in the passing lane.

I don't think that passing makes any sense on this kind of road. It's just bad for your wallet in both gas and maintenance on your vehicle and also it's bad for the environment.

The chief component in getting to one's destination is the traffic and the second one is number of lights you get stopped out. Since all the lights are timed to 40mph it doesn't make sense to go faster unless they re-engineer the road.

Generally any car that passes me will be stuck at the light ahead and if there is light traffic I will pass them because I have a rolling start and if there is heavy traffic it's all the same.

Staying to the right in this situation only makes sense if you're unable to accelerate at a reasonable speed or unable to go the speed limit at all.

There is no passing lane. Passing left laws were meant for passing on the opposite side of the street. Traveling the speed limit in the left lane is the original intention. See the Uniform Vehicle Code, the standard that state traffic laws are derived from.