ClearLeftLane

1. You want people to pass you on the left because it’s safer. You have a much better view of what’s going on. If the overtaking vehicle swerves unexpectedly (think blown tire or squirrel), you’ll see it much faster and have a better chance of saving your hide. The right side of the car is the most difficult to monitor and you don’t want to be put in a blind position as an enraged driver passes you on that side.
2. Sitting in the left lane opens you up to a much higher chance of a head-on collision. If a car in the opposite lane loses control and heads across the median (if there is one), you’ll have much less reaction time and space to avoid tragic results.
3. If you’re the one losing control, you’re that much closer to on-coming traffic and have less options to deal with the emergency.
4. You may think it’s saving the planet lots of fuel by making people drive slower, but the reality is, as people jocky for position trying to get around the clutter you caused, they’re accelerating and decelerating very inefficiently.
5. If you get a flat tire or your car dies suddenly, there’s often nowhere to go in the left lane. If you were in the right lane where you belonged, it’d be much easier to make your way safely over to the emergency lane.
6. There may be a legitimate reason for somebody speeding past you. What if a loved one was sitting next to you dying, while a left lane swatter prevents you from getting to the hospital more quickly – when seconds matter. What if the only person in the world capable of stopping an immanent nuclear explosion got caught up in your wake and missed defusing it by only seconds – way to go, jackass.
7. The world is filled with people crazier than you! Road rage escalates to lethal levels far more often than it should. Do you want to be on the receiving end of that just to make a point? Putting yourself and your family at risk makes you no better than the people you’re trying to “contain.” Rage is a very dangerous emotion that breeds irrational thought. Don’t be foolish and think somebody wouldn’t be stupid enough to do something crazy. Enraged people are not necessarily stupid, just enraged. Some people control that better than others.
8. People are going to speed regardless of your best efforts to thwart them. Becoming a barrier only puts lives at stake when you force them to take unnecessary actions to maneuver around you. Is your personal pride really worth somebody dying, or worse, an innocent bystander who is driving responsibly, dying from the now enraged driver’s actions? Sure, you can take the hard-line and say you didn’t “force” anybody to do something stupid, but if you weren’t there as a barrier it wouldn’t be an issue. Take some responsibility.)
9. Clogging up the highway adds to the difficulty of emergency response vehicles from getting to their destination in a timely manner. What if that ambulance was coming to save you? Again, seconds often matter.
10. Cars in the left lane get more scrutiny from law enforcement, as that’s where the speeders should be, theoretically at least. And if you’re doing the speed limit or less and you’re in the left lane, then you’re pretty much the definition of jackass.

For a fair and balanced argument, please view the Top 10 Reasons You Should Hang Out in the Left Lane.

Tags: Highway, tips, top ten

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