To wade into this, I often cruise in the left lane. One of the reasons for this is that, particularly in this province, no one seems to give a flying #### about destroying other peoples' paint by firing asphalt bullets at them, so if the left lane is open, I'll drive behind no one instead of someone, thank you very much.
The caveat here is that this is only really true when the right lane has cars and the left lane is wide open. If someone's coming up behind me I'm getting over to the right immediately, unless doing so would end up trapping me behind a car that's moving slower than me, in which case I'll wait to pass him before I get over. Once you're stuck behind that guy, getting back in the left lane to pass him can be a chore because suddenly you're moving slower than the left lane traffic, and I'm not subjecting myself to that inconvenience for the sake of a guy who wants to tailgate me. If there are a couple of cars in a row, yes, that might take 30 seconds, even though on highways I'm usually going about as fast as possible without being in "blatantly speeding" territory.
The second situation is where both lanes are relatively full, and the left lane is moving even just somewhat faster than the right lane, I'm sticking with the left lane... even though it should really just be empty except for the people who are going to speed right by the guys in the right lane. Tragedy of the commons, sure, but if this is the world we're living in, I'm not going to sit in the slower lane on principle.
That being said, here is the one thing I absolutely wish we had here:
If you're in the left lane, and someone's behind you in the left lane, and they turn on their left turn signal, it means, politely, "I would like to accelerate past you please". At that point, you've now been told what the plan is, and you should attempt as soon as safely possible to let that person by. When you do, they should give you a friendly wave - signifying that this isn't a race, it's just about everyone going the speed they want to go.
If that system were established we'd all have better communication. I love that little signal, and it's totally commonplace in Europe based on my experience driving there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JiriHrdina
They should. If you are going 30 over the posted limit it is reasonable to think that everyone knows that is not within acceptable bounds
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I disagree with this. This is one problem with the "40 over" law in b.c. - there are roads there that are flat and straight, two lane, speed limit 100, and I can do a comfortable 180km/h on even in a crossover, much less a car actually built for going quickly. Why would that ever be necessary? Because driving on the weekends, you may need to pass several vehicles (usually slow moving campers and RVs) as quickly as you can to get out of the oncoming traffic lane a safe distance before the visibility horizon. That's an extreme example (even if I could comfortably hit 180 I probably wouldn't), but let's just use your limit; 30 over the posted limited there is 130kph. That may not be enough to safely pass those vehicles. What might be unsafely fast in some circumstances is actually safer in others than going slower.
Anecdotally, here's another issue you used to always see on the Sea to Sky out north of Vancouver before it got expanded for the Olympics. That road is a ton of fun to drive and is absolutely beautiful. For the most part, aside from a few stretches, the limit was 90 kph. A lot of it is two lanes and you can never pass in the oncoming lane (too many twists), so once you catch up to someone taking their time, you're basically stuck, which is fine. Slow down and enjoy the view for a bit. So a line of cars develops and all of them want to pass the RV or whoever's at the front doing 20+kph below the limit.
When you get to the occasional part of the road where it's straight for a bit, it expands so that there's a passing lane, which is where all the people who want to pass that RV guy move into the left lane and give'r. Because of the nature of the terrain, those passing lanes are usually pretty short, so you have a limited time to get past the slower traffic before the road merges into one lane again. Meanwhile - and this is completely inevitable - the people in the right lane speed up the moment there is any chance of them being passed. It's a psychological thing - if traffic was moving at 80kph when it was a single lane, once it splits to two, the right lane is going 90kph.
Problem: one of the first guys behind the RV (let's call him First Guy) who only cares about himself, decides he's going to pass at the speed needed for him personally to get past the RV at the front of the line. This ignores the other people who have accumulated behind who would also like to pass the RV. So First Guy goes ~100 and gets past the people going 90kph in the right lane. Instead of all the cars getting past the slow guy at the front, only two or three manage it. The rest are stuck merging back in behind RV guy again, and resuming the inevitable 80kph once it turns back into a single lane. They must then wait for another 10 km or so for another short stretch of passing lane and hope the process doesn't repeat.
If First Guy had just hammered it up to 130, everyone would've got by, and once the merge happens, the people who were fine going slower are still behind RV guy, while the others can resume normal speeds of 100-110 or whatever.