REPORT: Kansas enacts 'Right Lane Law,' officially lands on Autoblog's Christmas card list
Few driving annoyances irritate the automotive enthusiast set as much as a slow-moving driver clogging up the far left lane of a highway. Mercifully, this is one instance where the law is on your side, as that left-hand lane is meant for passing the slower traffic that should be driving on the right (as the helpful sticker on the Lego Volvo above illustrates).
In Kansas at least, a new law went into effect on July 1 that will allow police officers and the Highway Patrol to better enforce the rules of the road. On all multi-lane highways in The Sunflower State, it's now illegal to drive in the far left-hand lane "except when passing or turning left or when instructed to do so by traffic-control devices or officers."
Trooper Mark Engholm of the Kansas Highway Patrol tells USA Today that "the law is designed to reduce road rage and prevent motorists from trying risky maneuvers." Finally, a good reason to drive through Kansas... let's just hope that the powers that be in the state (and others) enforce it.
[Source: USA Today | Image: Boxybutgood.us]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Jeff Johnson 7:04PM (8/20/2009)
please come down to texas and start enforcing it here too. It's so rare when lawmakers and policy makers actually enact something that makes sense.
The main problem here is asshat 16 year old girls on their cell phones doing 60 in the left hand lane, or uninsured illegal aliens that are in a 1984 ford pickup spewing more smoke than a coal plant going 55 as to try not to draw attention to themselves.
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Randy915 9:03PM (8/20/2009)
Come to California too, we have plenty of illegal aliens doing 45 on the freeway in pickup trucks.
Acefighter 9:40PM (8/20/2009)
Agreed, Jeff, except for one thing - I think you and I are the only people in the entire state that don't want to drive slowly in the left lane. Young, old, male, female, doesn't matter - everyone wants to drive slow in the left lane.
Acefighter 9:40PM (8/20/2009)
And it actually is illegal here for the traffic in the left lane to travel slower than the right lane - but no one enforces it.
mitchw 10:14PM (8/20/2009)
Driving on 95 from DC to NYC the left lane is usually blocked. One night I observed a police car driving up behind those people and flashing them with all his lights. Boy did they jump out of the way. He continued this process for a good sixty miles. Nice.
And another time I got trapped behind a Viper, also blocking the left lane. He kept looking at me in his rear view mirror, obviously unwilling to let the lowly Civic pass. So after about a mile of this crap, I passed on the right. Long-story-short, my explanation to the state trooper for why I was going 88mph was persuasive enough to get me out of there with only a warning. Lesson; always begin the conversation with, "I'm sorry officer...."
Jeremy 10:49AM (8/21/2009)
@mitchw, and that's exactly the problem with this otherwise good-intentioned law. Usually, laws that say the left lane for passing come with a stipulation that says you cannot pass on the right. So, if someone hijacks the left lane you're screwed. What they're doing is illegal, but you have to do something illegal to get passed them.
montoym 11:38AM (8/21/2009)
Yeah, CO has this same law too and yet I've never seen or even heard of anyone ever getting a ticket for disobeying it.
Doesn't do a whole lot of good to create a new law if no one is going to enforce it.
They do fill almost every overhead LED sign with something akin to, "Keep Right Except to Pass, it's the LAW".
But that also assumes that those same drivers even bother reading roadsigns to begin with which is questionable.
Ty 7:08PM (8/20/2009)
Interesting that this happens in a relatively rural state where you could just pass on the right most of the time without a problem. In Seattle the right lane -is- the fast lane. Everyone gets on the interstate and immediately gets as far left as they can regardless if passing or not.
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Samurai Jack 7:33PM (8/20/2009)
Absolutely true; I see it on a daily basis on I-5. And I laugh every time because it's just so stupid.
The thing is, Washington already has a law that can be enforced to prevent this. It's time to write a (paper) letter to the chief of the State Patrol. Enough of them and you might start to see an "emphasis" effort on enforcing this.
Letters like this do matter and they do pay attention to them.
Corren 7:47PM (8/20/2009)
All Washington State needs to do is rewrite the rule to "Stay Left except to pass" and we're golden. As has already been mentioned, everyone already drives in the left lane, the only difference will be now the rule will reflect reality.
inline6 2:14AM (8/21/2009)
Here in Portland, OR, it's the same way. Everyone here brakes when there's a bend in the freeway and is so terrified of merging traffic that they all stay in the center or left lanes, clogging them up.
We're so overly cautious here that if you're in a lane that ends in a mile and traffic is stopped in the other lanes, odds are, you're the ONLY one in that lane. And everyone is cursing your lineage because you're "cutting in line". Like we're all in Kindergarten and those who designed the freeway built that extra lane that doesn't merge for another mile because they thought it was pretty. Some will drift over halfway into your lane to keep you from doing so...going 10mph in halfway in your lane which doesn't end for a mile. These people should be arrested and executed next to their cars.
Also, all rules about 4-way stops vanish in thin air. The only rule that applied is "I don't want you to judge me for being selfish by taking my turn, so you go ahead. And you. And you, too. Oh, and you as well, and...."
BrianFL 9:40AM (8/21/2009)
If you think you have a problem, the old people here in Florida don't even know what lane they are in!! LOL
fixitfixitstop 10:18AM (8/21/2009)
The entire I-5 corridor from Everett down to Olympia is full of this. I've never seen anything as bad, and I've driven all over the country.
hmmwv 12:14PM (8/21/2009)
You save at least 20 minutes if you stay on the right lane when travel from downtown Seattle to Olympia in Friday afternoons.
Mr. Smith 7:10PM (8/20/2009)
I wish the same law would pass in California. But I don't think people would observe it anyway. Typically, the right lanes of the freeways are so badly beaten up by heavy trucks, the only viable option is to drive on the left lanes, most of the time - the very left lane. Not sure about the rest of Cali, but Bay Area/Sacramento's freeways are horrible.
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bmw4dea 7:27PM (8/20/2009)
They are just as bad here in the valley (modesto). But its still no excuse to drive in the fast lane unless you are passing someone. On my commute to and from work I regularly travel about 80 mph, and am NEVER in the fast lane unless passing. And that's how it should be.
e46mike 7:48PM (8/20/2009)
The Bay Area needs this law horribly! I don't know how many times I've been caught on 280 with some damned do-gooder in a Camry going 65 blocking the left lane and screwing everything up.
fmwso 8:25PM (8/20/2009)
well I agree with you that the Bay Area needs this law, but I'm sure people wouldn't care at all. If you drive down 280 south, the left lane is pretty much screwed up as well.
S.P. 9:40PM (8/20/2009)
"Typically, the right lanes of the freeways are so badly beaten up by heavy trucks, the only viable option is to drive on the left lanes, most of the time - the very left lane."
Try a Canadian hwy sometime. I always drive in the left lane...but then I'm usually a little faster than everyone else. The right lane is like driving on broom sticks every 40 ft...drives you NUTS! But...then I too hate the people who drive slow in the left lane...they don't seem to know that THEY'RE supposed to move over!! (I will do that long before you get to me so you don't have to guess which side you need to pass on, if you can get up behind me that is) I was behind a woman in a Civic last week and she refused to move...and I was riding her azz like a teenager on the beech...I finally had to pass her on the right or I'd have had to try the pit maneuver on her. Cow.
Clavius 7:12PM (8/20/2009)
Unless they actually have the officers enforce this regularly this will be a end of the month booster for the state in terms of tickets.
Atleast in my eyes have the "unmarked" police cars patrol the area and if they see people litteraly hindering the flow of traffic by staying in the left lane pull 'em over. Over time it will be in peoples heads that if they stay in that lane to long they'll get spotted and pulled over.
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