How all troopers should handle left lane slow drivers

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Semantics is tricky.  I can't speak for all native Californians because the state was so diversely settled, even in the old days.  I grew up referring to the left lane as the "fast lane" and the right lane as the "slow lane".  In our area it was never called the "passing lane".  Dialects vary widely, even within the state.
 
Tom and Margi said:
Semantics is tricky.  I can't speak for all native Californians because the state was so diversely settled, even in the old days.  I grew up referring to the left lane as the "fast lane" and the right lane as the "slow lane".  In our area it was never called the "passing lane".  Dialects vary widely, even within the state.
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And then you run into areas where trucks are required to run in the left lane.  ???
 
I couldn't watch the vid but I don't see what the big deal is. I drive the speed limit, I stay to the right. When I pass, I pass to the left and move back to the right after I overtake the other vehicle. I am not a cop, it's not up to me to enforce the laws, if I see someone doing something real stupid, I will dial up the law. What's the big deal?
 
Desertfront said:
I couldn't watch the vid but I don't see what the big deal is. I drive the speed limit, I stay to the right. When I pass, I pass to the left and move back to the right after I overtake the other vehicle. I am not a cop, it's not up to me to enforce the laws, if I see someone doing something real stupid, I will dial up the law. What's the big deal?
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The big deal is the cop did a really stupid and illegal move to get the guy out of the fast lane. If the guy was breaking the law the cop should give him a ticket. Instead he pulled a really stupid juvenile move to get him to move over.
 
To the moderator: If you want to close this before anyone's feeling get hurt, please feel free to do so.

I posted to let some of us get a laugh. Didn't mean to ruffle any feathers

Jerry
 
Here its a 2 lane highway on each side so when someone does that it backs up traffic for miles.  People get frustrated and want to drive on.  I don't understand someone doing it and I'm one that is going to get away from them because sooner or later they are likely to cause an accident.

I don't understand one person thinking they can control the whole highway.  I am one that will pass on the right and get away from them as soon
as I can, it really aggravates the daylights out of me.  I try to keep open areas around me all the time.

I would love to see people here ticketed it might stop this dangerous activity.
 
I could not view the video but based on the description, I have mixed feelings about this one. I deal with left laners and other inconsiderate drivers every day on my commute to work. Just this morning I witnessed a driver merge into the roadway, move directly into the left lane (no cars in the right lane), drive 1/4 mile and then exit right. Another typical scenario is someone merging and moving into the left lane when I know that the next available left turn is over 5 miles away. Interesting what must go through these driver's heads. And there is no pattern - young, old, men, women - I've seen them all.

Any "justice" these drivers receive makes me smile but a trooper tailgating someone to prove a point does not sit well with me. If I rearend someone, it's my fault, plain and simple. Do you think the trooper would have received a ticket if the driver had to slam on the brakes for a deer darting into the road?
 
tugboat said:
Pass in the right lane and travel in the left lane :)
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If you are using 695 around Baltimore, that's exactly what you do if you want to survive. 
 
wackymac said:
Maybe I'm missing something but I didn't see him obstructing much traffic.  It seems that everyone was driving the same speed.  I agree that the cop was "tailgating", plus no siganls either right or left.
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You definitely are missing something. If that cop wasn't there you would see everyone driving differently.  That cop's presence made everyone drive under or around the speed limit, some overdo it.
The cop was wrong for tailgating but what that driver was doing lands at #1 on my pet peeve list. So many drivers are completely oblivious as to what's going on around them. They're the same people that never even attempt to look when merging or even pay a single bit of attention to their mirrors. That causes accidents, you need to be aware of what's going on around you. He/she may very well have been on the phone too.
I've heard that some people cruise the left lane to squeeze as much fuel mileage as possible out of a tank because they can do 60 and not have to slow down for merging traffic. Get out of the left lane or at least move over when someone is approaching you.
 
Here is an interesting article that may shed some light on this topic or further inflame the naysayers, your choice.

Having been taught how to manage a patrol car at high speed in traffic and having experienced personally almost every situation mentioned, I can assure you there's "more to the story" than meets most civilian eyes.

I will not disagree there will be times when officers mismanage their responsibility, but after the first incident, those officers typically don't last long. The legal liabilities to both officers and departments typically enforce a pretty strict regimen of training and supervision.

Road rage is a serious and often lethal sequence of events. You might think of this officer as having potentially diffused just such an occurrence down the road. Just something to ponder.
 
Actually, what I see in this video clip is the likelihood of a laundry bill for the errant driver. :)  As for the LEO tailgating, it's a bit different than a typical distracted driver tailgating.  The LEO is, no doubt, concentrating on the conditions and far more ready to react than some civilian just toddling along thinking about where to stop for lunch.  It's much the same as a LEO speeding without emergency lights.  There are things LEOs must do that are less than optimum safety-wise.  How else could they catch up with a speeder without forewarning the driver?
 
In California, if you do the speed limit in the fast lane, people will award you with the one finger salute, flashing lights and an occasional horn blast.  People speed, and that is a simple fact of life.  Just get out of their way.  I much prefer that the people hauling butt get the speeding ticket than me.  The people that I can't stand are the ones who think THEY are the speed cops and they ride the fast lane, driving just at or slightly below the limit.  Life is too short to not cooperate with others on the freeways. 

I think what the cop did in this case was to give the driver a non-verbal warning, which they hopefully appreciated more than they would a ticket.  Perhaps the officer was en route to a more serious situation.  People are so quick to gripe about the cops. 

Driving is so easy.  Slower traffic to the right, faster traffic to the left.  If someone wants to pass you, for goodness sake, let them.  My personal opinion is that the jackasses doing the video and yucking it up were probably a greater danger than anyone else in the video.
 
A few years back they made a law here in Colorado that you can not impede cars in the fast lane even if you are going the speed limit.  The exceptions are if you are passing the cars to the right of you or traffic is so heavy that it doesn't matter.

I tend to fine two annoying types in the fast lane, the I'm not moving and the speed limit is fast enough and the I hate you driver. The first feels it is their duty to control the speed of the drivers behind them. The second will tailgate who ever is infront of them at any spped, flashing their light and honking the horn. They wont go around and once that car is out of their way, it's on to the next car that they can hate on.

It gets funny when you see both traveling together on a near empty hiway at 55 mph. One refusing to get over and the other willing to do what ever it takes to get them to move over. They will go mile after mile like that.
 
That could not have been here in Florida because they did not have their left blinker on from yesterday. Driving slower than the flow is the largest cause of accidents. Even driving the limit in the fast lane is stupid because you open yourself up to being hit. That lane is for overtaking.
 
Almost all the left lane tailgating I see in MA is buy state troopers.  The tail gating they do makes the driver in the left lane slow way down under the speed limit until they can pull over.  The police seldom use the 3 second rule.
 
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