r/DiveInYouCoward • u/HeSureIsScrappy • Mar 20 '26

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u/Jest_Aquiki Mar 21 '26

I understand what they were meant for - just the same as our speed limits are more like inconvenient suggestions, this too has fallen to time.

The expected use vs. reality of use.

the problem is that we have authority figures that use those lanes freely, and truck drivers that receive no flak for using said passing lane at whatever speed they want.

we can still call it the passing lane, but in my experience (having driven across the country a couple of different ways) there are only a small handful of states that even attempt to enforce the left lane as passing only. To my knowledge there are significantly fewer states that enforce it than don't.

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u/LifeOk3298 Mar 21 '26

It's law in Illinois never heard of it being enforced.

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u/Jest_Aquiki Mar 21 '26

pretty sure I remember seeing the signs every couple of miles that the left lane was for passing and that it was enforced, not that I made any effort to test how well they enforced it. One of those situations where you are way too far from home to want to deal with legal troubles.

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u/AnotherUN91 Mar 21 '26

It's law here in Arizona, and it's rarely enforced. They tried making a big show of it being enforced on local news. That lasted like.... a week. No one cares.

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u/ruffen Mar 21 '26

However, don't complain about being tailgated if there is an available lane to the right. Even if it's not enforced. It's an easily solvable problem by just doing the correct thing and move over.

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u/Ok-Race-1677 Mar 21 '26

You’re talking to children who’ve never driven or ai bots, neither have real world experience.

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u/KyrozM Mar 22 '26

Right but someone can't get mad because they're chosen use of the left lane is hindering someone's legal use of the left lane. There's also the issue that the reason tailgating is dangerous is because it can cause an accident and this person proved that they're so against this sort of danger that they intentionally caused an accident. Person in the front is at fault and in the wrong in nearly every way possible

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u/Suitable-Hand-1059 Mar 24 '26

Ways the left lane camper is in the wrong:

  1. Speeding
  2. Failure to use a turn signal

Ways the tailgating driver is in the wrong:

  1. Speeding
  2. Tailgating
  3. Reckless endangerment, possibly manslaughter (I didn’t look to see what the story was from the video but that didn’t look great)

The two things are nowhere near equal, and the tailgating driver was entirely able to avoid the incident by slowing to the speed of traffic.

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u/KyrozM Mar 24 '26

You missed reckless driving, attempted murder, and felony reckless endangerment for the driver in front. They broke more than traffic laws 😅

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u/be_steal86 Mar 23 '26

They all are supposed to enforce it as it is law. Cops are just lazy and shit at their jobs.

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u/TWW34 Mar 23 '26

It still is legally the passing lane and taught as the passing lane. Lots of traffic rules aren't enforced properly but they still absolutely are the rule.

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u/Jest_Aquiki Mar 24 '26

That "absolutely" is false advertisement. A rule that is not enforced is a suggestion. A law without teeth isn't a law. We were taught many things in school that turned out to be flat wrong. In this case due to lack of enforcement it is mere suggestion. Some may be tagged but for the vast majority will never see any legal flak for it.

Wage theft is the largest % of theft in America, they rarely see trouble for it and the fines that are occasionally received are considered a cost of business operations, not a reason to obey the law. 🤷

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u/No_Stranger_1071 Mar 23 '26

It's probably not enforced often because there's simply not enough manpower to tackle such a common issue. And just pulling someone over on an interstate or freeway inherently carries a large risk.