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Highway Driving (speed, passing and etiquette)

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That is correct--although I've never found a speed--not even in rural Saskatchewan--where someone isn't passing you, only the number of passers per mile gets lower.
I drove through rural Saskatchewan once, about 22 years ago. Drove from North Dakota up to Winnipeg, picked up a couple of friends, and then on to a big gathering about 200 km north of Saskatoon. As soon as we crossed from Manitoba into Saskatchewan, driver behavior changed: Every time we came up behind another car on a two-lane road where passing was difficult, they'd pull over and let us pass. Once back in Manitoba on the way home, nobody did that. A decade later I ran across someone from Saskatchewan and asked her if there was a law there, requiring that. She told me that in fact it's illegal, but everyone does it anyway. Though I've heard that with the influx of new people to work in oil, it doesn't happen any more. I might have moved to Saskatoon if it wasn't so dadblamed cold up there in winter. Same reason I eventually left North Dakota.

Sorry for the off-topic post. I really loved Saskatchewan.
 
Well 130mph can be a convenient traveling speed on a German Autobahn, on weekends when there is little lorry traffic. I was startled when some Mercedes (AMG?) came thundering along the left lane with >200mph.

It is in the USA also. ... Until you stumble upon a police officer. Or one of our many terrible drivers decides to move into the left lane, doing 60mph, and no one is in front of them for miles (happens all the time).
 
It is in the USA also. ... Until you stumble upon a police officer. Or one of our many terrible drivers decides to move into the left lane, doing 60mph, and no one is in front of them for miles (happens all the time).

Yeah, what's up with that?! I wonder which world these drivers' heads are at when they do that? Forces one to pass on the right - less than desirable if not unsafe - to get ahead.

And, I don't think our freeways here can support those speeds anyway. Most freeways around here have fine crater patterns and even the smooth stretches are inherently bumpy.
 
Forces one to pass on the right - less than desirable if not unsafe

This is a big reason why I don't drive Hwy 5 between SF and LA anymore - It's drive on the left except to pass. Because no-one wants to be behind a big truck, but it's scary to pass it at 65MPH, so you just sit on a diagonal across from it and block the whole road. Which is OK because you own it, right? And the trucks make the parement in the right hand lane bumpy, so you don't want to drive in it even if you're only doing 50MPH in a 70 zone.

Also, there's quite a bit of antagonism to what the rules in this flipped world should be - Do you actually pass on the right? Do the cars in the left lane need to let you in? What's the right period of "waiting" for other cars to go by before moving over?"

Thanks - I needed to vent. I'm really bummed that the Tesla SuperCharger will be on Hwy 5 between SF and LA. I really like the Rabbobank locations along 101 and may continue there even despite the additional time. I just really really hate driving Hwy 5.
 
This is a big reason why I don't drive Hwy 5 between SF and LA anymore - It's drive on the left except to pass. Because no-one wants to be behind a big truck, but it's scary to pass it at 65MPH, so you just sit on a diagonal across from it and block the whole road. Which is OK because you own it, right? And the trucks make the parement in the right hand lane bumpy, so you don't want to drive in it even if you're only doing 50MPH in a 70 zone.

http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html

In most states (almost all, California included), you can drive on the left lane, but you must move over to the right to let someone faster than you pass (regardless of speed limit). In a small handful of states, the left lane can only be used for passing or left turns. In a few states, they don't care.

On I-5, I usually stick to the left (for the same reasons, don't want to stick with trucks and the roads on the right are crap from the trucks). However, I always travel about 5mph above the limit (like most traffic) and move over to the right to let cars faster than me pass. In my recent trip on I-5, I haven't came up to a car that was blocking the way on the left, although there were some trucks that did so when passing (trying to pass too many trucks at the same time).
 
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More than undesirable, I believe it's unlawful in many areas.
Laws against passing on the right refer to using the shoulder or breakdown lane to pass. They do not prohibit passing a car on your left while you are driving in a proper driving lane. On busy freeways/highways it often happens that lanes move at differing speeds, and sometimes the fast lane is slower than the slow lane. Clearly, at those times, there is no law against traveling at the speed of traffic even when the right lane is moving faster than the left lane. But using the shoulder or breakdown lane to pass is reckless, and so is illegal in most states.

Whether its safe to use the slow lane to pass a distracted driver, who might at any time decide to move over, is another matter. If he's unaware that he's in the passing lane when someone wants to pass him, he might move over without bothering to check his blind spot.

There are people who feel they're doing a public service by driving at the speed limit in the fast lane or passing lane, to make sure that nobody can exceed the limit. This is illegal behavior in most places, even though people passing would themselves be breaking the law. I just try to be philosophical and tell myself that by keeping me at the speed limit he's preventing me from getting a speeding ticket. Though I never go more than 5 mph over except sometimes to pass. And I find that most people pull over as soon as the traffic is clear. Of course, Spokane is not L.A. or Florida.
 
Here's our law in Oregon about passing on the right.
811.415 Unsafe passing on right; penalty.
...
(2) For purposes of this section, a person may drive a vehicle to overtake and pass upon the right of another vehicle under any of the following circumstances:
(a) Overtaking and passing upon the right is permitted if:
...
(B) The paved portion of the highway is of sufficient width to allow two or more lanes of vehicles to proceed lawfully in the same direction as the overtaking vehicle; and
...
(b) Overtaking and passing upon the right is permitted if the overtaken vehicle is proceeding along a roadway in the left lane of two or more clearly marked lanes allocated exclusively to vehicular traffic moving in the same direction as the overtaking driver.

Source: ORS 811.
I'm dumbfounded, and learned something new. There are signs all over the place "Slower Traffic keep right."
I guess this law allows you to get around those who disobey that law.
 
One of my favorite rules (really!) was posted on US Hwy 2 (Stevens Pass Highway) in Washington. This is a mostly two-lane road through mountains. The law requires that you pull over into the frequent turn-outs if you have five or more people backed up behind you. Amazingly, people seemed to obey this, at least the couple of times I've been on the road.
 
One of my favorite rules (really!) was posted on US Hwy 2 (Stevens Pass Highway) in Washington. This is a mostly two-lane road through mountains. The law requires that you pull over into the frequent turn-outs if you have five or more people backed up behind you. Amazingly, people seemed to obey this, at least the couple of times I've been on the road.

Awesome. I'm not sure people would obey that here... If they did, there might not be reason for it in the first place.
 
One of my favorite rules (really!) was posted on US Hwy 2 (Stevens Pass Highway) in Washington. This is a mostly two-lane road through mountains. The law requires that you pull over into the frequent turn-outs if you have five or more people backed up behind you. Amazingly, people seemed to obey this, at least the couple of times I've been on the road.
In California at least, that is the law on all single-lane roads.