PLUS ONE to all this. Be careful, Atebit, you'll be grouped in with me. I drive in the "truck" lane in CA (they do 60-65 more than 55) and speed up to pass. If I have a semi crowding me, I speed up unless there's plenty of room for him to pass me on the left lane. But I don't need to go 75-85, I leave home early and get to my destination on time or early, and get 300 miles per charge.
I have passed slow traffic (Napa Valley Tourists) at 110 mph in a 55 zone, but have never been pulled over because, a) I'm lucky, and b) it's a few seconds' incident and I am right back down to the speed limit (or a couple over) immediately.
I am a big proponent of leaving space in front of me for regen and safety.
In my experience, it seems they are never doing much more than 55, and speed up minimally to pass... Which isn't how passing is supposed to work. Then as soon as one is done, the next one goes. I think I've even seen two alternate turns passing each other.
It seems like overall we are on the same page. You drive how you want, but you don't impede others.
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Yeah, but those signs don't mean that the left lane is reserved for people driving 20 MPH above the posted limit, either. Unless the speed is posted to be different in that lane for some reason, the speed limit is still the speed limit.
Now I'm all for driving at the speed limit and not below during good conditions, but I never understand where the " it's the left lane / speed limits do not apply" mentality comes from. I also don't understand the "stay out of other peoples way" mentality. Someone else's need for speed doesn't trump my desire to maintain a safe speed & following distance on the highway. Of course there are times you need to speed up to get around someone, but that doesn't equate to driving constantly at 90 MPH In the left lane.
I usually stay out of the left lane unless it's an exit or express toll lane, that's how I "stay out of the way". In addition to safety, way too many speed traps along the roads I drive to worry about how "frustrated" someone gets because they haven't figured out yet to leave fifteen minutes earlier for work.
you say you don't understand the "stay out of others way while driving" mentality, but then you say you usually stay out of the left lane.... So you're actually subscribing to that mentality. No one is saying that you can't maintain your distance in your way in the right lane, like you do, while people driving faster maintain their distance too and then just pass on the left when they need to.
I think most cases would show the speed limit is usually extremely conservative. If you put a random sampling of drivers on most roads and took away the speed limit signs and told them to casually drive what they felt was safe and controllable on that road (without mentally thinking about speed or having anywhere important to go), almost every time, I believe, almost everyone would be naturally driving at a speed that is faster than the speed limit for that road.
not everyone wants to leave 15 minutes earlier for work. Some of us value our time at home more than that, and I personally am not a morning person, so waking up earlier is not something that jives well... In fact, morning people frustrate me (I think they are sick and twisted in the head:tongue
, because they seem to never understand that everyone works a little different and that some people are just non functional in the morning. My line of work is full of morning people, so I deal with it a lot. I'll give you three times the work quantity and quality if you don't ask me to wake up at 0430 every day when the same job could be done at noon instead of 0730.
