Valsdad,
They do expect to be able to pass people on the right if they want to.
When someone is driving below the speed limit in the left lane do you slow down behind them? I have often seen this and wonder what mentality it takes to give someone else control over you instead of going around them.
I hope I'm understanding you right. The concept I was trying to get across is those people "wanting" to get around traffic, whether or not the person in the "fast lane" is below, at, or exceeding the speed limit. Lots of folks don't even care what traffic conditions exist. Yes, a mostly open road with an inattentive driver hogging the fast lane, maybe it does make sense to pass on the right. Crowded road, traffic moving sorta slow, not much sense in endangering others by going around on the right. Odds are one won't get very far ahead if they do.
Well, what about if they want to pass on the right even if the person in the left lane is going over the speed limit? Lets say by 10 mph, 75 in a 65 zone. Is it OK then because they want to go 80? This is a common situation on I 5 on a regular day, not necessarily a holiday weekend. It just gets worse then.
I will confess to having passed on the right. Mostly I try not too, fortunately with my little four cyl pick up and the fact most of my driving is done on rural rds/hwys I don't run into the situations I did when I regularly put lots of miles on the freeways in SoCal. I do have to come down to the State of Utter Confusion known as California for a few months every year and hate it. Nowadays, I'm the one watching my ass when I have to pull into the fast lane to pass a 55 mph truck on a 65 mph freeway (that's the rule in Cali, trucks and vehicles w/trailers = 55mph). Even watching out for fast moving traffic coming up (yeah, I use my mirrors a lot) I probably piss some folks off as I'm getting around the truck, but as soon as it's safe ( I used to drive a truck and therefor don't cut back in immediately as some "nice" people do) I get back over so they can go on their merry way.
When the situation does arise, I try the flashing high beams trick a few times and if that doesn't work I wish for a vaporizer button on the dash and pass on the right, hating it all the way. You're right, I'm not willing to stay in a lineup that could cause a pileup with me in it.
Years ago I knew a guy from Germany. Don't know if it still holds true, but he told me then that if someone on the 'bahn refused to pull over to let you pass and got caught they had their license pulled for a year. Can you imagine that happening here? I thought it sounded reasonable to me. Be a lot less folks out there driving around with the "I paid the same taxes as you, I'll drive in whatever d--n lane I want to" attitude.
Sometimes people using the right lane to pass are not even the dangerous ones, I've seen lots of them use the right shoulder, center divider, the white line between lanes, even the off ramp back down the on ramp trick. Drive 70,000 miles a year around San Diego, Orange, LA, and Riverside counties and you get an idea what kind of drivers there really are out there. I'm really grateful I don't have to do it anymore.
Now I'm the slow old guy trying to get back in the right lane so I can do the speed limit mostly, trying to not get run over. It's easier on me and my truck gets much better mileage at 2500 rpm than at 3000. And every once in while the need, not want, to pass on the right arises.
