I drive I-69 between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis frequently, so I can see the wisdom of the "move over" law:
EVANSVILLE - Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois have passed laws within the last decade to require drivers to move over to the left lane when police have stopped vehicles along the side of the road, but such laws have proven difficult to enforce.
Motorists who ignore so-called "move over" laws often drive just inches away from officers conducting traffic stops, the Evansville Courier & Press reported. Since 2003, at least eight Indiana State Police troopers have been injured and one was killed while making traffic stops.
It also makes sense, though it's not written into the law, to move over when someone in front of you is driving onto a limited-access highway, say from the access ramp or out of a rest stop. But sometimes it's difficult, because the left lane is clogged with cars too close to you. You have to see the activity ahead of you in enough time to slow down and maneuver into the left lane
And why does this happen? Because THERE ARE MORONS who do not understand how you are supposed to drive on the interstate. You stay in the right lane, unless you need to pass -- the left lane IS A PASSING LANE. Once you have passed, you get back into the right lane. But, I swear, on every trip I make to and from Indy, I encounter at least a dozen drivers who either don't know or don't care about this rule of the road. They cruise down the left lane, at or below the speed limt, for the whole trip, as if they're on a city's surface street, driving a few blocks to pick up a quart of milk at the supermarket. If we want to make driving safer, let's have a law about THAT.
Comments
I drive from my home here in central Texas back and forth to Houston several times a year and we have the same problem here. I'm convinced that age old rule of driving in the right lane unless you're passing is all but forgotten. (And, we have the "move over" law down here also, and because of the lost drive-in-the-right-lane-unless-passing rule, it's sometimes difficult to follow the law, ...)
I agree that something needs to be done with these vehicular idiots. The sad part is NOT that they are ONLY driving with absolutely NO idea of what they are doing on the HIGHWAYS...they are applying the SAME mindset on our city STREETS to GET to those highways!
Running stop signs...running red lights...failure to yield to oncoming traffic...driving left of center....DUI...leaving the damn turn signal on for blocks (or miles)...turning in FRONT of other drivers from another lane...failure to properly MAINTAIN a vehicle (like having brakes and lights that ALL WORK, for instance)...EVERY one of these (and more) cause many innocent people to become another statistic, and I didn't even mention buckling up the seatbelt (a requirement now given with the sheer NUMBER of motorheaded morons).
Used to be...you see a *priority vehicle* alongside the road.....get the heck OVER...you see one coming up behind you and even *if* he's NOT after you...get the heck OVER (and signal your intentions so others AND the officer/paramedic KNOWS what YOU plan to do).
And lord KNOWS we have too many (in vehicle) *distractions* taking these pinheaded minds OFF of the task at hand; namely DRIVING THE DARN VEHICLE. Boomcar drivers can't HEAR any priority vehicle as it is....and they drive while lying on their backs, so it's dubious they can even SEE that much. Oh, but they CAN hold a "40" and the wheel at the same time...seen that done.
I've already seen people driving with HEADPHONES on (as well as bicycle riders), TVs in cars (isn't that what movie houses and the living room are for??), fast food *franchises* on the dashboards of SO many cars and trucks, and so on.
Like my dad said many times: "Driving used to be fun...now it's my *second* job".
Ain't THAT the truth!
Bob G.