Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 22:23:34 GMT From: Josh Landess <jlandessnopsam.com> Subject: Re: ROAD RAGE
On Wed, 27 Oct 1999 07:03:52 -0700, "Bristlecone" <luciannopsamranv.net> wrote: > >About forbidding slower drivers to hang out in the left lane, Eric Law >wrote: > >>Actually, if what I hear is correct, they had it figured out and the >supreme >>court "un-figured" it. >> >>Remember years ago all the signs saying "slower traffic keep right", = "left >>lane for passing only", etc.? Well, apparently the court decided that = this >>was a violation of our constitutional right to "freedom of travel", and >>outlawed such things. > > >Now, I'm not saying Eric's wrong here, but I'm quite skeptical. I don't >remember such a ruling, and it seems inconsistent with The Court's >inclination to permit reasonable restraints on acknowledged rights. = Let's >not start a Constitutional Law debate here about fundamental rights and >such, but could someone take a look at this? I still see signs that say >"Keep Right Except to Pass" and "Slower Traffic Keep Right." I figured = the >left lane hogs were still there just because any "anti-obstruction" law = is >so difficult to enforce. > >Bristlecone > I agree that it would be interesting to know the law, for the sake of getting the information, agreeable or not. Somehow I suspected the answer would be state-by-state though. When I was a kid, I believe that some of the states back east would take the whole passing-on-the-right thing very seriously, and would ticket you if you did, which kind of goes hand-in-hand with the whole principle of using the left for passing and faster traffic. Now it seems that no one has ever heard of these principles, here in So-Cal. I can kind of see this, in one respect, because there is a "stay-in-your-lane" principle of safety which is important, but I would love to see the cops ticket those who are in the left lane and impeding traffic. In my life I have only heard of two impeding-traffic tickets of one sort or another, and those were only for completely extreme cases. Otherwise, the cops here don't seem to give a fuck, period. Slow traffic in the last lane is a massive safety hazard, IMO. If the cops wanted to improve roadway safety, they'd watch not only speed and weaving, but also failure to yield. jl