[masraum]

Originally Posted by imcarthur

I was thinking about this yesterday as I passed 2 cars driving blindly in the left lane - with no close traffic fore or aft - on a lonely stretch of 24 north of Chattanooga. I was wondering how people can be so dazed? On the drive from Atlanta to Nashville, I probably passed two dozen cars on the right because they wouldn't yield the lane. No transports of course . . .

Ian

Yes. I drive home on the freeway in Houston at 9pm so there is very little traffic (for Houston at least) sometimes with large gaps between the clumps of cars. I've seen folks get on the freeway in one of the huge open sections and go directly from the on ramp to the far left lane with all of the other lanes open for 1/8 mile in both directions. Often, they then run right at the speed limit which is no where near as fast as the rest of the traffic.

I've also seen times of light traffic where there will be 10 cars lines up essentially bumper to bumper at 70mph in the left lane, with 4 cars in the next lane taking up the same space, and then the next two lanes to the right may have 3 cars total. So often, it's not even that they are in less traffic or going any faster than the other lanes.

I think too many folks drive on autopilot.