Woo Hoo! I want to move to Colorado!

All I can say is please come to Florida and ticket the old asshat in the crown vic that held about 50 cars back this morning by going 50 in the left lane in a 70 mph zone and then speeded up everytime someone tried to pass him.

Colo. Cracks Down on Left-Lane Dawdling

Mon Apr 4, 9:15 AM ET Strange News - AP

DENVER - Colorado is serious about its no-dawdling law in left lanes. Drivers who insist on staying in the passing lane are risking tickets as the State Patrol has begun enforcing a law requiring motorists to use the left lane for passing only.

Since the patrol started enforcing the "Left Lane Law" three months ago, troopers have written about 460 tickets or about an average of five a day to drivers who dawdle in the left lane.

The law applies in zones with speed limits of 65 mph or higher. It took effect July 1, but troopers gave drivers until January to get used to the new law; warnings were issued instead of tickets.

Master Trooper Ron Watkins said that since the ticketing campaign began three months ago about 90 percent of the drivers he has pulled over for dawdling or cruising in the left lane said they didn't know that it was illegal to do so.

Violators of the left lane rule may be fined up to $41 and have three points tacked onto their driver's licenses. The law is not enforced when the highway is too congested to allow drivers to pass.

Hehe..I read that this morning and my first thought was, "I wish they would do that here!".

I have a horrid commute to and from work each day, and one of the most aggravating parts is all these drivers cruising along in the passing lane, going below or right at the speed limit, hunched over their steering wheels with looks of terror or confusion on their faces.

Even when 20+ cars are lined up behind them and people pass them honking and flipping them off, they still refuse to change lanes or speed up. It's gotten to epidemic porportions.

This is a terrible problem here in Minneapolis. Our highway system is at least ten years behind to begin with, then you get these teens on cells phones that have forgotten that they are in the left lane doing 45mph, and old codgers who, as Rose stated, do it on purpose.

I used to live in the southwest US during the 80's. There were signs telling those doorknobs to get their asses over into the right lane. Oh how I wish we had that here.

I have a good friend of 30+ years that I grew up across the street from, who is unfortunately a stick in the mud when it comes to these issues. I was riding with him in his truck one day and he was doing 50 in the left lane with traffic piling up behind us. I finally got up the nerve to ask him if maybe we should move to the right lane. He got all bent out of shape and spat out "Those people are breaking the LAW! Fuck THEM!" Sigh. I shut my mouth and let him drive. I have not ridden with him since.

This needs to be in effect everywhere.

Agreed. Drives me up the wall.



I wonder what that's all about. I'm not much of a honker (or flipper) myself, but I've been trapped behind a lane slug more than once where other victims were more, ah, open about their displeasure. But the slug won't speed up or move. Is he/she clueless? Confused? On a power trip? Thinking "I'm better than everyone behind me because I'm obeying the posted speeding limit"?

Austin recently instituted a "No Trucks in Left Lane" law. With the NAFTA freeway running through the middle of town, it helps a lot! However, we still have plenty of dawdlers that putz along in the left lane, oblivious to the 25-car backup they are creating behind them.

Ok allow me to clarify this. First of all, I live just outside of Denver and thus consider myself in-the-know on this one. Theproblem in Colorado is only partially left lane slugs, note that the law specifies that left lane is for passing only, NOT "left lane is the hussle your ass and get around zone". See the roads in Colorado have no rules. You think Im joking, I'm not. There were NO designated lanes here. It's madness... like Mad Max in a slightly more confined area... you essentially drive as fast as you can in any open lane.
There will be a person doing 110 in the right lane and 25 in the left lane, and then by the time you hit the next exit: 90 in the left, 10 in the right and the guy in the middle is literally parked and smoking a cigarette.
Further more, people here do NOT use turn signals (I know people everywhere dont use them enough, but in Colorado they are straight up NOT USED).
This state of absolute chaos exists on every road from two lane residential street to five lane highway.
So, while the new law prevents lane slugs it is also used to enforce some semblance of order so that people do not drive like theyre in a roman chariot race.

-Still afraid of driving,
Spider

Heh, I can vouche for that. It's absolutely insane driving here. If you don't know how to read another drivers mind on what they intend to do, you might find yourself being cut off suddenly then having to break like a mad man (luckily I picked up on this skill quickly). 9 times out of 10 I can guess the driver in the other lane is wanting to get over so I make a gap, and he usually does get over. But yes, people here don't use turn signals at ALL. Also what pisses me off, is people drive without their headlights on and its dark! How do you get away with that?

One day I find myself nearly smashed because in the middle of a busy intersection, someone decides to make a U where it wasnt meant to be one there, nearly smacking into the guy.

If you don't know how to be a defensive driver in this day in age. You're in for a rough ride.

Based on what you say, I simply cannot imagine what it is like driving in Colorado during snow and ice conditions - it must be an absolute mad house.

We have enough nuts in Florida between the foreign tourists who don't believe that red light means stop and grandma and grandpa on god knows what drugs, that think they need to drive 45 mph in the left expressway lane, topped off by Junior Johnson in the 4 ton pick up that has six foot tires and a gun rack weaving between it all.

Not to mention the stray HumVee limo that gleefully runs you out of your designated lane by taking up two lanes at a time.

Nevertheless - we don't have snow and ice. Thank Goodness.


.

I thought you were talking about Alabama. That is almost exactly the way it is here. We don't use blinkers because the people in the other lane speed up if they know you are wanting in front of them. People around here have not heard "Slower traffic keep right" in 15 years. Now the lane slugs complain about the tailgaters, and lane changers.

It can be... but there a far less morons on the road... so its all relative. If the snow ups the accident rate by 50% but theres 50% less people on the road...
and also yes... as Eins pointed out... people do not know how to work their goddamned headlights in this state.

It should be noted people do use headlights, and blinkers even... but they dont use them as *intended* i.e. they will simply put their blinkers.. or hazards or whatever on as theyre pulling out of the driveway and leave them on for the duration of their trip, and/or turn their headlights on at noon, or alternately, during a blizzard, turn their high beams on so when theyre oncoming you're greeted by a lovely wall of blinding whiteness. It should further be noted for non-blizzard condition drivers that yes, driving with your high beams on in a blizzard means youre driving INTO a wall of blinding whiteness.

I hate drivers in this state.

HEY! You forgot the most important law of all in colorado! A red ligth means only 2 more cars can go!

And I-25 is bad I think, im a sissy and usualy take Parker Road or Santa Fe into town, although those can be just as bad, or even worse at times.

You all don't know how good you have it!! Having lived in Colorado for 3/4 of my life, I can empathize. However, when you endure the hell that is Austin traffic (lack thereof) engineering, you learn to appreciate just how good things were back home.

Oh, I love Austin. I love the warmer weather, the rolling hills, the funky culture. But, this is truly the town that hillbillies built. We have nearly 1.5 million in a metro area that has infrastructure to support less than half of that. And now, to supposedly "solve" the problem, the powers that be want to build a maze of tollways all over the city -- and to convert existing highways to tollways!!!

So, although the trek from Denver to Colo Spgs can be a true white-knuckle experience, you ain't lived until you've lived on the NAFTA highway.

Actually yeah there are wore places... one of the craziest ass towns Ive ever driven in is santa fe NM... the roads were layed down about 100 years ago by... donkeys. Pretty literally half the roads are just paved over from old donkey trails... donkeys are not good at laying out city streets and thus within one or two blocks the road doubles back over itself two or three times, goes in circles... strays off to the left where some hundred year old donkey saw a tasty piece of grass. Its madness.

Whats a "lane"?

Mike in NYC

Ha ha ha ha ha Aw *** /wipes brow, holds stomach *** Ah ha, ha, ha, ha

We down here in Florida noticed that.



.

Hmm...The lane is the big black (or white on a concrete road surface) part that lies bettween the white or yellow lines on a road. A road in this case would be best described as a paved surface intended for automobile traffic. Typically the lanes on a road will run in in both directions, one direction on one side, the other on the other side. Sometimes there are one-way roads, where all lanes (lanes and lines actually being the components of a road) will go in a single direction. Also, many larger roads (called by many names...highways, bypasses, parkways) have several lanes going in both directions, with all of the lanes of one type on one side...etc.

I almost forgot about this (computer generated) beauty
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Psychopaths at the Wheel!

Thu Apr 7, 9:14 AM ET Oddly Enough - Reuters

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Anyone climbing aboard a bus or taxi in Peru should think twice because many drivers have psychopathic tendencies, a university study said on Wednesday.

Some 40 percent of the 640 taxi and bus drivers surveyed by Lima's San Marcos University suffered from psychological problems and showed psychopathic tendencies, such as aggressive, anxious and antisocial behavior, the study said.

"Drivers showed they would not feel any guilt in injuring or running over a pedestrian," the study added.

Peru's capital, Lima, is crowded with aging, pollution-pumping taxis and buses, many of which do not obey traffic rules or stop lights.

Hundreds of people die each year in bus and taxi crashes in Peru because of bad roads, poorly maintained vehicles and recklessness by drivers. In just the last three months of last year at least 85 people were killed in crashes, according to police figures. Prosecution is rare.