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The Left Lane Is For Passing

Witnessed this morning in Nashua, NH.

In a section of the DW Highway that's four lanes wide there was a Kia rolling along all the way over in the fourth lane actively passing absolutely no one.  At exit 8 a Cadillac enters the highway and crossed over three lanes at well below the speed of traffic to come beside the Kia.  A car which was coming up behind all this mess rolling along with traffic had to slam on its brakes in order to slow down before reaching these two cars.  The driver of the car behind this mess then went over to the second lane in order to pass these two slow cars which were blocking lanes three and four.  The Cadillac eventually pulled over to the fourth lane behind the Kia.

Exit three on the DW Highway is a left exit.  Neither the Kia or the Cadillac took that exit.  The Kia eventually took a  three lane change and crossed over to take exit 1, and the Cadillac just rolled into Mass, staying in the far left lane the whole way while regularly being passed on the right.

     Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
         - Hanlon's Razor

I can think of a few reasons for this kind of behaviour; serious entitlement issues, just completely selfish jerks or more likely, just completely unaware of what they are doing or why it's not the right way to drive; in other words, incompetent.  I will never understand people who crawl along under the speed of traffic (or under the speed limit itself) in the left most lane, the lane which is supposed to be reserved for passing only.  It actually creates a dangerous situation sitting there like that and causing people to pass on the right.

I honestly wish the cops would ticket people for crawling along in the left lane.  Unfortunately, I doubt they can stick someone with reckless endangerment just for riding too slowly in the left lane, and I don't think there's a law against people being dumb, selfish or inconsiderate.

This is another excellent example of why a driver's license really needs to be treated as a privilege and not a right.  Some people really shouldn't be allowed to have a car.