🚀 go-pugleaf

Rahul Dhesi wrote:
> 
> In <366DAF31.7103@xix.netcom.com> Mike Smith <m-smith@xix.netcom.com> writes:
> 
> All this will happen if you have only half as much traffic as will take
> two lanes.  If the left lane has very few vehicles in it, traffic
> capacity is cut down sharply.  There is no way around this.
> 
> I don't see such spare highway capacity here in the Bay Area.  Are you
> in the boonies somewhere?

If the left lane has very little traffic in it, hardly anyone is
overtaking. In this situation, everyone is satisfied with their
progress. And yes, this is not a congested situation. When the right
lane begins to slow due to congestion, traffic will correctly overtake
to the left and begin to fill this lane. As capacity is approached, both
lanes are being fully utilized.

Having read some of your other replies, I don't think you are as greatly
at odds with everyone else as you at first appear. For example:

> My own experience is that some people will prefer to go faster, and > some
> will prefer to go slower.  If slower traffic stays to the right, and
> faster traffic stays to the left, nobody needs to change lanes.  Stay > in
> your lane and go with the traffic at a speed you prefer.  Repeated
> lane-change is totally unnecessary.  Each lane of traffic is > constantly
> passing the traffic to its right.  There is no need to change lanes to
> pass, then change back.  If you want to go at the same speed, stay in
>the same lane.  If you want to go faster, move a lane to the left and
> stay there.

This is true for a heavy traffic situation where the lane(s) to your
right are slower than you and fully populated. However, when/if the
traffic to your right is clearing and the traffic in front of you is
leaving you behind, YOU are now slower traffic and should yield to
following traffic. It should not be necessary for traffic to go around
you to the right. "Your lane," as you put it, is the one farthest to the
right in which you can proceed at your chosen speed until a need to
overtake is reached. And before you say it, I'm not advocating jumping
in every car-sized gap to the right and back again to let a car go by.
I'm talking about pulling over when you can proceed in that lane at you
chosen speed.

However, when you are the lead car in the left lane, ie. the slowest,
you should make an effort to be courteous and allow following traffic to
pass you by pulling over as soon as is practicable. You might even
consider accelerating to make this easier. Obviously, in a situation
where you ARE lead car, traffic cannot be congested so you have no
excuse to block the lane.

Oh and FYI, I live in an area with very heavy traffic. I said I too had
SEEN what Branden talked of. It wasn't in the US.