Lane Discipline

Americans need to learn lane discipline. In full disclosure, I'm an American and am lobbing that grenade at my own. Lane discipline is taken for granted as the correct way to drive and is mandatory in many foreign countries. It costs nothing, inconveniences no one, benefits most drivers, and reduces traffic congestion. For some reason, it's completely absent from US driving.

Since I'm expecting most readers are American, I should explain lane discipline. It refers to the practice in which drivers of cars and trucks stay in the slowest lane possible at all times except when passing. Note that our foreign friends tend to call this 'overtaking'. When a driver approaches a vehicle from behind because they are driving faster, she changes lanes long enough to pass the vehicle in front, and then she returns to her original lane.

That's all there is to it. If you're interested in reading how others describe it you may find this UK blog post on lane discipline helpful.

Note that this practice scales perfectly to multi-lane highways (e.g. 3 lanes or more) like those common in Southern California and other metropolitan areas. If you move into the next 'faster' lane and the 'slower' lane you left is full of traffic such that you can't return to it without immediately needing to change langes again, then you stay in your current lane. If your new lane is occupied by vehicles traveling slower than you, simply change lanes again in order to be able to overtake the vehicle(s) in front of you.

The key behavior that is woefully missing from US drivers is to return to the next slower lane at the earliest opportunity. This is the key that clears the faster lanes allowing other, faster, drivers to easily and safely overtake when it's their turn.

Our culture of left-lane blockers is comprised of a combination of lazy, ignorant, and selfish people. These are harsh words, and I've struggled to find a way to sugar-coat this. The harsh truth is that driving isn't a right, it's a privilege. Driving safely and in consideration of others shouldn't be optional.

Laziness accounts for a certain amount of staying in a faster lane when the slower lane is clear. This attitude seems to stem from the view that 'eventually, someone will be going slower in that lane so I may as well stay over here'. Meanwhile, these drivers make it impossible or unsafe for someone to overtake them.

Another group of left lane blockers seem to believe that if they are traveling at or near the legal speed limit then there is no reason to make room for other drivers to pass. Of course, this is ignorance of a high order. The blocking of a fast lane by someone driving at the speed limit has no effect on the driver who is exceeding the speed limit, except to tempt them to overtake unsafely on the right. Note that many foreign countries back up their culture of lane discipline with either rules or conventions barring passing 'on the right' - rightfully viewed as dangerous. We should acknowledge our friends who drive on the wrong side of the highway - but for the moment this is a case of political correctness we can survive without.

I think there's another group that is essentially merely selfish in blocking traffic. These drivers seem to equate sitting in the fast lane with easier, no-hassle driving - presumably because people are only able to merge into their lane from one side.

Before reacting as though I'm some sort of crank, note that I'm not the only one who feels this way. Motor Trend's Matt Stone shares his thoughts in this article. Remember, there are only benefits to everyone driving this way - no costs to anyone. And the benefits may be huge. Reinhard Clever, Phd. published a paper that observes that apparently only America sees an increase in traffic fatalities correlated to increases in speed limits, and surmises that lane discipline is why Germans can drive without speed limits and without increasing traffic fatalities.

It seems that only in America would the vast majority of people choose petulant imposition of 'the speed limit' on others despite the negative impact on traffic flow and safety on everyone. I'm embarrassed whenever I visit England, Germany, or the myriad places where they outshine America in the astonishingly simple practice of driving safely and efficiently.

In an effort to make partial amends for castigating vast numbers of drivers as lazy, ignorant, or selfish I'll say the following. If you're lazy or selfish, you have to take responsibility for that. Perhaps you can reconsider your approach to driving. If you honestly didn't understand the principle of lane discipline, then perhaps this article raised your awareness. Of course, this raises a key question of driver education but we'll leave that for another time.

Americans, I'm challenging all of us. Get out of the fast lanes except for the time it takes to pass the vehicle in front of you. Nothing but good will come from it.