Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pucc-h
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!we13!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!CS-Mordred!Pucc-H:aeq
From: aeq@pucc-h (Jeff Sargent)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Left Lane Blues
Message-ID: <517@pucc-h>
Date: Sat, 4-Feb-84 10:00:55 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.517
Posted: Sat Feb  4 10:00:55 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Feb-84 07:55:41 EST
References: <337@hou5g.UUCP>
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 71

Response to (** FRODO **):

>    Jeff, you want to drive in whatever lane you please (when the traffic
> is "light") ???   Wrong!  I understand and appreciate your viewpoint,
> HOWEVER.....
  
>    Whether I like it, agree with it or not....it's the law.  Whether
> it is posted or not, it's the law.  In order for all of us to get along
> together in a complicated system, we have to agree upon rules.  Rules
> tha we all abide by, and let us know what the other person will(should)
> be doing in any circumstance.

Maybe in a few silly states, it's the law.  I have driven through, I think,
the majority of states in the lower 48.  I know of only 2 that have KEEP RIGHT
EXCEPT TO PASS laws.  As I said, SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT is an eminently
sensible rule, one which I adhere to (if I am enjoying the left lane and I see
a mega-speedster [especially an 18-wheeler] coming up fast behind me, I move
over ASAP); it is quite sufficient.  What's wrong with you, that in 1984, you
want more arbitrary, capricious, nit-picking, straitjacket government
regulations, rather than less?
  
>    If I start taking left hand turns from the right hand lane, then I
> will probably cause a large number of accidents.  If I were to 'GO' on
> 'RED' and 'STOP' on 'GREEN', I would probably kill myself and others.  If
> I were to randomly slam on my brakes("I want to test them"), I would
> probably hurt, or scare the s**t out of quite a few people.  If I were to
> always drive in the left hand lane, even though I was supposed to be on the
> right, then others would not know what to expect from me and therefore I
> would be placing them and myself in danger.

Now when did I advocate doing something as obviously silly as anything you
mention in the first three sentences?  Those things indeed do harm.  But when
I'm traveling on I-40 in the Texas Panhandle with no vehicle within a mile of
me, it doesn't make the slightest difference which lane I'm in!  In your
congested state (yes, I'm aware the northwest part near the Delaware Water Gap
is nice, that not quite the whole state is paved), where you get agoraphobic
if there isn't a car within a meter of yours, things work differently; but
even in that case SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT would be sufficient.  Finally, if
you ALWAYS drive in the left lane, people will certainly know what to expect--
they'll expect you to be in the left lane.  Quite simple.
  
>   You want to drive in the left lane....change the laws.

I don't have to!  Indiana law is already nice.

>   Until then,
  
>         EVERYONE should be in the right lane, unless you are currently,
>     actively passing someone, and then you should move back over to
>     the right hand lane as soon as it is clear.

If the traffic volume is heavy enough (e.g. in or near a city), this makes
some sense.  However, if I am on a long highway trip and I pass through a
city, it's much safer and more sensible for me to just stay in the left (or
at least not in the far right) lane so as to avoid all the on/off traffic.
Doesn't that make more sense than continually moving left to let a car on or
off, moving right afterward, and then having to move left again for the next
car?  Cops have pulled people over for less!  That's called LANE WEAVING.
  
>                  It's the LAW !!!!

Not for me.  And anyway, being well aware of the persecutions of the
Christians in Rome and the Jews in several places and times, I am always a bit
cynical about LAW.  Surely you aren't one of those abominable "my country,
right or wrong" types??


... Wow!  This is the first time that I've actually really flamed, rather than
just analytically expressed grievances.  That was fun!

-- Jeff Sargent/...pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq