Catagorizing the driving lanes

So today, I'm going to try to simplify my assumptions on drivers in the various highway lanes. I really wanted terribly to use this picture, but unfortunately today, I won't be designating lanes by douchebaggery. I'll save that for another day.



No. Today, I will be designating generalizations of how people drive on the highway. It's actually fairly straightforward in theory.

In general, the rule is "Stay Right, Pass Left." This means faster traffic is supposedly in the left lane and slower in the right lanes, but this is difficult in high-traffic/high-speed situations, and traffic adjusts to compensate.

In 2-4 lane highways, this rule actually holds true (for the most part).

For a five lane-highway that is in full traffic use, things start to change. Let us say that fastest traffic travels in the left lane designated as "lane 1." This lane usually travels at 15 mph over the speed limit. The next lane over (lane 2) travels at 10 mph over the speed limit, which works with our "rule." The lane furthest right (lane 5) contains merging and exiting traffic, and as expected, they are going the speed limit or slower (boo-hiss). Lane 4 contains people trying to escape/enter lane 5 and so they are traveling somewhere around the speed limit if not 5 mph above.

The middle lane however contains a mix of traffic. Usually people stuck in the 2nd lane but cannot switch over the left lane become frustrated and start using the middle lane if there is open road. In a similar manner, people in lane 4 that think going 5 mph over the speed limit is not fast enough for the road warrior ways move over to the 3rd lane to speed ahead. The result is that the 3rd lane becomes another passing lane, containing high speed traffic. Unfortunately, this speedy little getaway is also normally broken up by a driver who is under the impression that they are perfectly fine driving in that middle lane slower than the traffic to the left but without any regard to how traffic flows to the right of them.

Note, this alternating fast-slow-fast-slow may also cause drivers to be extremely fast in the 5th lane (as a stupid-fast driver might).


And now that I've cleared all that up, I will confess: that's all BS.

I hope this isn't just me that does this, but I tend to not care about what the lanes are "supposed to do" based on the speed limit. I have what I call a "default speed" when I drive on highways. Currently, it's 72 mph ±3 for the GSP/I-287, 75 mph ±3 on the turnpike, and a measly 58 mph ±3 on US-1 (there are stop lights). When I drove it, I-76 was 72 mph ±3 (although it was 76 before my unfortunate ticket). You might think this is a little bit strange for me to distinguish speeds so meticulously, but it makes a big difference in how you travel relative to traffic around you.

So anyway, those are my default speeds. That means I am comfortable traveling at those speeds on those roads, and not too much faster or slower than that. For me, it doesn't really matter what lane I'm in to be going that comfortable speed. A lot of the time it is that left-most lane, but I'll switch over to the right if there's no traffic/I see a stupid-fast driver on his way to intercept my position. Sometimes, it means I use the right lane to pass your slow ass.

Well, there you have it! Highway theory 101 on how lane speeds are designated!