Keep right, part 2

To my complete shock and utter disbelief, the driving habits of thousands of Western New Yorkers did not suddenly improve after my exposé of their faults. Perhaps they felt I was unfairly singling them out, that they had good reasons for driving in the left lane. Ok. Let’s be fair and review some reasons, both valid and invalid, for driving in the left lane.

OK: “There’s an on-ramp ahead, I’ll keep left so merging traffic can join the flow easily.”
Not OK: “I’m already going n miles per hour over the speed limit, and that’s fast enough for everyone!”
OK: “There’s nobody behind me for at least a mile.”
Not OK: “The car behind me hasn’t rammed me yet, so I’m free to putter along.”
OK: “The plow only cleared the left lane, and there’s 8′ of snow everywhere else!”
Not OK: “It’s snowing! All rules of the road are immediately suspended!”

The last point in particular was directly from today’s drive home. The 190 right around downtown was seeing some snowfall. Somehow, the term “lake effect” translated to “I must drive 40mph in the left lane while everyone passes me on the right but it’s ok because it’s snowing.”

No, it’s not.