No passing fancy: Left-lane dawdlers told to stay right

ST. LOUIS — From stricter laws to public service campaigns and pleading electronic road signs, states have a message for the drivers clogging the inside lanes of the nation’s highways: Get the heck out of the way!

Few things infuriate drivers more than a car or truck in a highway’s left lane that isn’t keeping up with the flow of traffic.

Most states already have laws stipulating that the left lane is for passing or turning left, not for cruising. Nevada, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and Oklahoma are among states with new laws increasing fines and ratcheting up enforcement.

Others are taking a more subtle approach. Missouri nudges drivers with funny signs. Michigan troopers use traffic stops for a teaching moment.

Some experts believe that driving too slow in the passing lane is at least as dangerous as driving too fast because people trapped from behind get frustrated and make dangerous maneuvers, creating anger and accidents.

As far as Derek Stagner is concerned, any crackdown is long overdue. Stagner, 46, commutes 10 miles every day to his job at the downtown St. Louis creative firm Elasticity, and frequently gets caught behind slow-moving drivers in the left lane.

“Why has no one ever told them this is not what you should do?” Stagner asked. “I think it creates road rage. People get upset and then it becomes combative.”

Oklahoma’s law, which took effect Wednesday and requires drivers to stay to the right unless passing or preparing to turn left, carries fines of more than $200 for left lane dawdlers.

“I believe it has caused some road rage incidents,” said Trooper Dwight Durant, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. “It’s caused some collisions with property damage, personal injury and even death. We’re hopeful this new law will cut down on that.”