I drive about 12 hours every week, or in distance, 480 miles, more than half of them on major highways. I cannot tell you how many times I drive up to a self-righteous moron who is driving exactly at the speed limit in the left lane on a three-lane highway with no one in the two rightmost lanes. I say self-righteous because they believe that because they are doing the speed limit, they have the right to hog the left lane. In my state, New Jersey, they do not.

The Uniform Vehicle Code (caution large file - 15.6 MB PDF Here), which is used by all 50 states in one degree or another as a model in drafting their vehicle codes, states: "Upon all roadways any vehicle proceeding at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall be driven in the right-hand lane then available for traffic ..." Please note the phrase "normal speed of traffic," not the "legal speed of traffic." A driver going 60 in a 55 mph zone where everybody else is going 65 must move right. New Jersey follows this rule - it is illegal to fail to yield to traffic that seeks to overtake in the left lane.

Not all states follow common sense. The idiots who drafted traffic laws in Alaska (and a number of other states, see MIT report) allow vehicles driving at the speed limit to hog the left lane. What this does is force overtaking vehicles to pass in the right lane, not as safe as passing in the left lane.

Some left-lane hogs will speed up if someone is trying to pass them from the right, and even speeding up to another slow-moving car in the right lane then slowing to match his speed so as to block the overtaking vehicle from actually passing.

How to Signal You Want to Pass

The protocol for notifying a vehicle in the left lane that you want to pass is to turn on your left-turn signal as if there were another lane to the left. If that doesn't work (left-lane hogs rarely check their rear-view mirrors, oblivious to the world around them), then flash your lights or beep your horn. Some people consider this rude; however there is no other safe mechanism (do not tailgate!) so politeness does not enter into this. If I could use telepathy I would: "Hey you moron, I want to pass, move over."

A while back I had to flash my lights to a vehicle in front of me to move over because the driver did not notice my turn signal. After he moved over to the right I passed his car only to have him swing back into the left lane behind me and flash his lights at me incessantly. He was going about 60 initially when I passed him, yet he had no problem speeding up to 79 mph to keep up with me just so he could flash his lights at me in revenge. I suppose it made him feel really, really good inside.

Many drivers are decent folk who may not have noticed they were hogging the passing lane and when notified, simply move over with no feeling of malice in their heart. There are others not so decent; so the question is, "Why are they so stupidly, maliciously, mean?" I explain in my article Malvy - the 8th Deadly Sin:

Malvy is also responsible for much of road rage we see today. Joe is driving in the left lane. A car behind him honks letting him know he is in the passing lane. Joe does not need to be in that lane, is not in a hurry but not only stays there, he may even slow down a bit or hit his break lights out of malvy. And if he should notice someone trying to pass him in the right, Joe will speed up, not because he needs to be anywhere in a hurry but simply to own that lane of traffic and deny it to someone else even at the peril of self-destruction.

Stubbornly, purposely, driving in the passing lane while cars are overtaking you in the right lane, is a mental illness. Get treatment.