driving in the rightmost lane is very dangerous

Some years ago I visited California, and drove from Sacramento to San Francisco on a holiday weekend. It was interesting... though I'd been warned by locals before the trip. There were Highway Patrol vehicles all over the place, and obviously they were using an airplane to time vehicles for speeding, with the patrol cars then going after them.

What was fun to watch though was the way traffic would clear for a patrol car, and this was what I'd been warned about. If the patrol car would have to change lanes to pbutt, instead of pbutting they would pull the obstructing vehicle over and ticket them for not moving to the right lane. Almost everyone was aware of this, and hence the sight of a Highway Patrol car in the rearview mirror meant everyone dodged to clear the way.

Personally, I thought it was one of the more gross displays of insbreastutional stupidity I've ever seen.

Regardless of the stupidity involved, virtually everything you say about it is untrue. I'll grant that hugging the right side is dangerous (actually, changing lanes is dangerous, but since more of that is necessary as one nears the right lane, the right lane is indeed dangerous as a result).

However, on any highway built to Interstate standards, which is to say if there is *no left side egress*, it is a valid (albeit not necessarily smart) law to require traffic to favor the right lane when not pbutting. It almost makes sense with two lanes, but gets to be less and less sane with more than two lanes of traffic.

The big problem I've seen is rural states trying to pbutt the same laws for roads that are not built to Interstate standards. (Alaska's highways are an example, and they've tried the "Slower Traffic Keep Right" even on roads with left side egress *that* *lacks* *a* *left* *turn* *lane* no less! Abject stupidity!

Of coursed, the best answer is to live 300 miles from the nearest pave road... :-)

--