From: utzoo!dciem!mmt Newsgroups: net.flame Title: Left-lane road hogs Article-I.D.: dciem.190 Posted: Mon Feb 21 22:23:17 1983 Received: Tue Feb 22 08:32:28 1983After driving on the German Autobahn last Spring and again in Autumn, I realize how detestable, dangerous, and expensive people are who insist on cruising in the left lane of 4-lane highways or the middle and left lanes of 6-lane highways. What is the point of spending millions of dollars of taxpayers' money on a right-hand lane added to a 4-lane highway if no-one uses it except the people who want to go fast (illegally, but they do it anyway). When they come up behind a slow car legitimately using the right lane, they zoom into the middle, which in itself is dangerous. In Germany, the traffic can be twice as fast (Yes a factor of two), with the appearance of much greater safety. After driving the autobahn at 160 kph for a week, and being passed by cars doing anywhere up to 260 (I measured), I was dead scared when I drove Canadian highways at 110 (above the speed limit, I grant you). If you keep right except to pass, you never have to worry about someone passing you on the blind side. If you come up behind someone tooling along in the left lane do you flash your lights (rude), wait (frustrating), or pass on the right (dangerous and illegal, but the popular solution)? I don't know how much money would be saved by increases in highway capacity if people drove on the right except to pass, but I bet there would be some saved in accident payments, and there would be a great deal saved in nervous wear and tear. Martin Taylor P.S. I'm not sure that autobahn speeds could be maintained with so many North American cars on the roads, but at least drivers could drive properly in that one respect without a great deal of effort.