i know this is a rule, but why? i cannot think of how or why this would be bad. also, if you’re in the middle lane, pass to the right for an exit, and happen to be going faster than the middle lane, is that illegal?
so sorry if this is mega dumb but i genuinely cannot understand why this is illegal.
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The real question is why do these people sit in the left or middle lane and cause people to pass on the right…
I think its a blind spot issue but not positive.
You’re pulling into a lane that can be moving very different speeds than the one you’re in. While this is true no matter which way you merge, it’s a problem when merging right because the driver is on the left side of the car and therefore can’t see around possible obstructions (like other cars) in front of or behind them as soon as if you were merging left. And also because the right lane is typically moving slower so you’re at greater risk for hitting a slow or unmoving vehicle.
There is a video of a car undertaking (passing in the right lane) a semi only to run smack into the back of a semi that was stopped in the right lane. Give me a minute to find it and you’ll understand why.
Edit: Finally found it: [Link](https://www.reddit.com/r/carcrash/comments/gcgn5d/yikes/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf). The semi is stopped in the off-ramp here but the same principle still applies—This happens in the slow lane, too.
Because it makes it organized instead of every man for himself. You can also predict cars left to go faster and right to go slower instead of everything being a chaos.
And yes you can overtake right if you drive in the exit lane
Passing on the right is illegal if the lane change is illegal, like if there’s a solid line rather than a – – – dotted line. Or if you’re trying to use the shoulder of the road to pass, rather than an actual lane.
Otherwise, it’s not illegal to pass on the right. There’s an “expectation” that slower vehicles should use the right lane, and faster vehicles should pass by using the left lane, but sometimes it doesn’t happen that way. So you can pass on the right if there’s a slower vehicle stuck in the left lane… but because it may be somewhat “unexpected”, be careful when you do it. Perhaps there’s a reason why that vehicle on the left lane is so slow, that you’re not seeing, so be careful when you pass on the right.
Its organized so that the slowest cars are always on the side with the exits and on ramps. This is because the lane closest to them is responsible for allowing them to merge. This will require frequently slowly or speeding up slightly to accomadate especially large semis.
It’s harder to check your blind spot on the right side of your vehicle than on the left, especially if you’re in a truck. By banning passing on the right, it’s easier to know if there’s a car in your blindspot there (there will only be a car there if you’re in the process of passing them, so hopefully you’ll remember they were there).
The general idea is that it’s unsafe on smaller roads. Obviously, it’s unsafe (and wildly illegal) if you’re on a two-lane road, because passing on “the right” means you’re passing on the shoulder, and hopefully the reason why that is illegal and unsafe doesn’t need to be explained.
If you’re on a four-lane highway (meaning, two lanes in each direction), it’s unsafe to do because it’s an unpredictable move. The thing that makes many of the reckless things drivers do “unsafe” is that other drivers aren’t anticipating those unsafe maneuvers, and so they change lanes, or turn, or slow down with no idea that doing so is about to cause an accident, because they didn’t see the psycho weaving in and out of traffic behind them.
So, if someone moves into the left lane to pass someone ahead, or move over for someone on the shoulder, or who-knows-what, they’re not expecting someone else to swoop in next to them on the right to pass, and then they move back over. Or if there was something (or someone) on the shoulder, that you don’t see and they move over and you try to pass on the right thinking they’re just left lane riding, you could hit it (or them).
On larger, multi-lane highways, it’s not as big a deal. Like you said, that rule becomes increasingly impossible to obey the more lanes come into play, and the more unpredictable the traffic situation around you becomes.
Basically, it’s just unsafe to do in many circumstances. However, as you pointed out, there are times it’s either unavoidable, or just sort of “happens” because they were in the left lane and you *needed* to be on the right. You can’t control every circumstance, and you’re not going to get a ticket for being in the right lane when someone slower than you decided to camp on the left like they pay rent there. The idea is just that you don’t go out of your way to try to aggressively get around someone on their right side without a reason.
Defensive driving courses teach to steer to the right when avoiding an obstacle. As a driver driving on the left side of the vehicle on the right side of the road to the left the right side is harder to see out of three mirrors. So passing on the right and blowing by them and then usually already trying to get out of the way causes accidents. So people are instructed to not pass on the right to help prevent accidents.
Basically because people will not expect you to be there and it could cause an accident.
In order to make driving safer, you want to limit the amount of situations where people might collide. Although you always need to check your mirrors before you merge, there is an expectation that no one will be coming up to pass you on the right.
This makes it easier to change lanes. And since the rule is that one should keep in the right lane if possible, especially if there are only two lanes, it is likely people will be merging into the right lane often.
It’s just as dangerous when there are three lanes. The left lane is the one for passing- if people start passing on both sides, they can crash into each other coming around the same car from different sides.
Also speed like others mentioned- not everyone will be driving at the same speed. The right lane is for slower cars. The left is for anyone moving at the max speed limit ( in practice people go over, but that isn’t legal) and if possible should be kept clear for passing.
A driver who is driving on the left side of the car is close to their left mirror. Because they are closer to their mirror, they can see quite a bit out of it. The driver can also glance over their shoulder to the left without much getting in the way. Passing this driver on the left is safest because the driver has the best vantage point to see you approaching. The opposite is true for the right side, especially of large vehicles. It’s much harder to judge distance or in some cases, see you at all due to blind spots. Also, glancing over the shoulder to the right has a lot of obstacles in the way.
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