Law change puts limits on driving in left lane
Attention drivers camping out in the left lane: Doing so is about to be illegal in Oklahoma.
On Nov. 1, law enforcement can stop and ticket drivers — $235.25 and court costs — who stay in the left lane unless they have a good reason to be there.
The new law adopted this year by the Oklahoma Legislature prohibits being in the leftmost lane of a roadway that has four or more lanes, like a highway with two lanes of travel each going in opposite directions. The message from the Department of Public Safety is that the left lane should be clear aside from some exceptions.
Current law is softer on the maligned practice, but the Oklahoma Highway Patrol already keeps an eye out for it.
“You can travel in that left lane,” said Trooper Dwight Durant, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety. “You can hang out in that left lane but if somebody comes up behind you,
you're required to get over to the right-hand lane and let them pass.”
Come November, however, the law says drivers can only be there if traffic conditions and flow prevent you from merging right, if the road is configured in a way that keeps drivers in the left lane or if other vehicles will be merging onto the roadway.
Durant also said drivers should still move over if they pass an emergency vehicle parked on the side of the road with its lights on.
“You get areas like the metro in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, we know people are going to be in that left lane because of congested traffic. That's really not the concern,”
he said. “It’s out here on these turnpikes where you have the two semis or vehicles that are going 65 miles per hour in a 75 mile-per-hour zone, and it takes one five miles to pass the other. That right there creates a public safety issue.”
States have been moving toward more strict left-lane laws over the past few years, but the United States still has a patchwork of laws. A Stateline report in March noted that five states had already passed laws while Oklahoma, Oregon and Virginia were considering them.
Oklahoma’s law was approved in May.
Kara Macek, communications director for the Governors Highway Safety Association, said it’s not a policy that her national organization has studied.
The association is a nonprofit representing the state highway safety offices that implement federal grant programs to address behavioral highway safety issues. Safely driving in the left lane just hasn’t been at the top of federal funding priorities, but Macek said it could warrant additional research.
“People just get frustrated when they’re driving and somebody’s just poking along in the left lane,” she said.
“That could probably be some of the impetus behind what’s causing this movement toward enacting laws.”
As for enforcement, Macek said just having the law on the books and raising public awareness could be enough to severely limit the practice.
Durant said fellow troopers will also consider road conditions when ticketing left-lane drivers.
There are some roads and turnpike stretches where the right lane is uncomfortably rough to drive on.
“If you’re in that left lane and there’s nobody around you, we’re not going to pull you over and write you a ticket for that,” he said.
Mostly, they’re looking for clumps of cars that are causing dangerous driving conditions, including situations that could incite road rage and unsafe merging.
“You’ll have a dozen cars stacked up behind these two vehicles, and they’re all jockeying for position, trying to get in a spot where they can get around these cars,” said Durant. “Every one of those are following too close, they’re making dangerous maneuvers.”
Plus, emergency vehicles use the left lane to quickly respond to calls, he said.