Time For A U.S. Autobahn

(CBS)  Christopher Lochhead is a former technology executive who now works as a strategy advisor.

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It is early Monday morning. You're late. Racing to work. Testing the edge of the speed limit. Exhibiting your prowess as the next Mario Andretti. Then, you see it. Up a head. A slow car in the passing lane. Actually driving below the speed limit. Only the slow-poke doesn't call it the passing lane. Because that's not what it's called in America. Because the federal and state legislators got it wrong (more on this coming).

For lollygaggers in the passing lane, it's just the left lane. A regular cruising lane. A place where they can relax. Talk on the phone, text message their friends, shave, and paint their toe nails. A lane where they can do all sorts of things, except for drive fast. These people are passing lane hijackers. They are morally bankrupt, evil doing, congestion-creating...yes, criminals!

And it gets worse. Passing lane hijackers don't move when you pull up behind them. They just sit there. Picking their hairy noses, drinking their lattes, wasting our time. They pay no attention to the fact that you are ridding their bumper, flashing your headlights and honking your horn. These acceleration robbers just won't move. They force us to weave back and forth between right lanes and left lanes, like a trapped pin-ball.

To make matters worse, as you flip them the bird while passing, they stare at you with that innocent, "Me? What did I do?" face.

Passing lane hijackers are creating massive problems for America. The problem is forcing some (namely, me and a group of my friends) to seriously consider forming a political action lobby group. Our tentative name is `Free Up Our Freeways Forever,' aka, the F.U.O.F.F. Our agenda is simple and clear: We believe that left lane congestion is a problem we can not hand down to our grandchildren. American tolerance for passing lane hijackers can not stand. We need a public passing lane option that we can believe in.

First, passing lane procrastinators, cause many of us to be late for work. Creating a drain on the economy and causing hourly workers to get paid less. Second, they are a major cause of accidents, by forcing speeders to jam on their breaks, risking precious American lives. And third, they are major creators of stress, road rage, and spontaneous forehead vein explosions.

Just as in heath care, many other countries are ahead of the U.S. when it comes to speeders' rights. Posted on some Italian highways are three different speed limits. This makes it clear that the left lane is for people who are moving. Trucks are never allowed in the passing lane. In Germany or Portugal, Lord help you if you're dawdling in the passing lane. Within seconds a rabid Porsche driver will be in your rearview mirror, honking and flashing. And make no mistake, oh yes, you will move over.

President Barack Obama must act quickly, before his approval ratings sink even lower. For too long we have let Washington bureaucrats come between us and our freeways. They are after all called FREEways. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. This is an American issue. Surely on this we can agree? Here is the three point legislative reform platform from F.U.O.F.F.:

• Re-brand the left lane as "the passing lane."

This would make it clear what the purpose of this lane really is. This is a relatively easy change to the law that could happen fast. (On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd put the probability of this ever passing into law at a 7.)

• Abolish the speed limit on major highways, effectively turning them into autobahns.

This is what a country that cares about driving and personal freedom does. The Germans got it right. Given the generally conservative nature of U.S. drivers and regulators, the probability of this passing gets a 3.

• Issue a $100,000 fine and a sentence of six months in jail, sharing a cell with an axe murderer for people driving below 85 mph in the passing lane.

Laws should put in place strong carrots and sticks. This is a big stick, to solve a big problem. That said, the probability of it passing is a 2.

It is time to get our federal and state legislators to wake up and smell the rubber. We are supposed to be the land of the free. So can we get real FREE-ways? Please.


By Christopher Lochhead
Special to CBSNews.com

[nursemark-2009]

A few years ago I lived in Montana when the speed limit was what was reasonable and prudent. There were always people from Washington state who thought they were going to cross Montana in 2 hours, as there was no speed limit. We saw what was left of them in our hospital after they fished them out of the Clark Fork river. You can not drive as fast as you want on roads here. They were not built like autobans.

[mnbrant]

Have you ever head of redlining? Can you really see that 1985 Chevy van going 100mph? All the tires would pop off in the cardinal directions and the engine would drop and the suspension would implode! All because you want that 2 mile drive to work go faster. I won't even talk about what would happen to the transmission of that van because it just makes me mad to talk about it. I hope you get alot of tickets because of this blog!

[thomderr1]

The major problem here is that the passing lane is for just that - passing. Passing the slower vehicle not going the speed limit. NOT for speeding.

If you are late for work because of the party the night before, or you have one of those 'automatic' alarm clocks that adjust to daylight savings time (the old version - an excuse I just heard today,) it is not an excuse to speed.

Roads in the United States are not built for the speeds on the Autobahn. Just try speeding in the mountains of Kentucky!

However, if you are Mr. or Mrs. Pokey-butt, stay off the interstate. There are minimum speed limits, also.

[stuart-johns2]

In Florida, as it is law in other states, slower traffic must keep to the right. Also in Florida, they acknowledge that this leads to road rage. Of, course, the law is not enforced much as far as I can tell.

But what gets me is what one poster here referred to. And that is the self-righteousness of some who DELIBERATELY block that lane. They are crusaders who have nothing better to do in life than to make others as miserable as they are by blocking the passing lane. Hence the road rage law.

The lane is aptly named, "the PASSING lane". We restrict semi's from this lane in crowded, urban areas so traffic will flow more smoothly and quickly.

I have been and always will be enraged at drivers who clearly know you want to pass in the passing lane but refuse to yeild.

People get killed because of this and not always from a traffic accident if you know what I mean.

And birdbrain or birdflight, I think we hear you.

[motherlion]

mejordelahistoria - re-read the 2nd paragraph - you are seeing things - and ask yourself if you are a passing-lane hijacker.

[baxeaves]

I do animal rescue. I can't tell you how many animals I have been taking to a vet in a dire emergency where I have been delayed and sometimes to the point where the animal actually died.
I have also been rushing my children to emergency rooms and had the same thing happen.
Driving in the left lane KILLS.
Seriously. I wish I had some pictures of some of the precious dogs that I have had die in my car. Maybe then the sanctimonious folks who are the speed monitors out there would see they are sometimes murderers!
It's not anyone's business other than the police to question anyone on their need to go a certain speed.
In Kentucky, driving in the left land and NOT passing is illegal.
Not that that has stopped it.
Please, for the sake of the parents taking kids to the hospital, of those rushing to see the parents who are on their deathbeds, of those driving a possibly dying animal to the vet, DRIVE IN THE RIGHT HAND LANE
....please....

[billpl-2009]

One point everyone missed

Self rightious road hogs thinking it's OK to drive speed limit in the passing lane, force speeders into the lower lanes to pass them up, which is 10 times more dangerous than just blowing by in the fast lane at 80 MPH.

[danceswithtrees]

Hey take it easy on Lockhead (yes this IS his true name) he's a ski buddy and a great guy. Having said that, while agreeing with him on the amount of slow drivers in the fast lane. There are also inconsiderate drivers who use every lane with no consideration for overall safety on the road.
I think we all need to pay attention when driving, use the correct lane for your speed, look out for the other idiot not paying attention, and get the heck off the cell phone and quit doing your make up, shaving etc while on our crowded roads. See you on the slopes SOON Christopher and keep up the great work with your interesting articles.!

[pcevet4]

Since you cite Europe as the way to handle highway traffic, do what they do. Require trucks and motorhomes to stay to the right, impose severe penalties for unsafe, modified and unregistered vehicles, require insurance, and actually hire cops to do what cops do.

[missme4]

"Hire cops to do what cops do"? You mean collect taxes and look out for the interests of insurance companies? That's all cops do anymore.

[ianlou]

As a former truck driver and an owner of a camping trailer, I know what you mean. I try to stay in the right lane on freeways and I pull over often on two lane roads to let faster traffic get by me. The only problem I have pulling a trailer in the right lane on a freeway is clueless drivers merging in from on-ramps who think everyone needs to slow down or change lanes as they enter the freeway at 40 miles an hour. Trucks and RVs can't slow down or change lanes that easy. Another problem is drivers who change into our lane way to close. They don't realise that if they have to hit the brakes for any reason, trailer pullers and trucks are going to hit them if they are only 40 feet ahead of us. Why do you think we are driving slower than everyone else? To maintain a large braking distance between us and everyone else. Sometimes I think driving a heavy truck or pulling a heavy trailer should be part of drivers training; those who have never done it are clueless to the potential dangers that surround them every day with their assumptions that all vehicals behave the same.

[caeric]

To all of you road monitors who took this as a 100% serious article: Good Job for ~not quite getting it~. You evidently read the same way you drive.

Now, my "TIPS TO PREVENT ROAD RAGE". It's all about driving etiquette, which most drivers today seem to lack completely.

- Drive at least the speed limit.
- When driving on a multi-lane road, stay in the right-most lane unless passing someone.
- When on a multi-lane road, if you absolutely must drive in other than the right-most lane, get out of the way of drivers wanting to go faster than you.
- When preparing to turn onto another road, if you see someone approaching your position in the lane in which you will be traveling who is going faster than you wish to travel, let that person pass your position first.
- If you are in the right-most lane and coming to a traffic light that you will not make it through, if you are traveling straight ahead and someone behind you wishes to turn right, move into the next lane to the left if you can. This will allow the person behind you to turn right at the traffic light.
- Roundabouts are becoming more common in the United States. Learn how to navigate them. Look it up if you need to.
- If you cannot drive normally while talking on a cell phone (most people can't), get off the phone or pull over if you must talk.
- Yes, you can make a turn at more than 1/2 a mile per hour. Even if the road is wet.
- Use your turn signals. They are there for a reason, and can let someone know why you are in their way, or that you intend to get out of their way as soon as possible.
- If you are being held up by some blip that won't get out of your way, try to calm yourself down. It really isn't worth the raised blood pressure, stress and tension. I try to remind myself of this every single time I drive.

In conclusion, if you follow these very simple guidelines, you will have prevented road rage - for the people who DO actually follow them and are asking you to get your incapable-of-driving-properly self out of the way.

BTW, some areas are now having law enforcement ENFORCE "slower traffic keep right". Block a lane and you might get a ticket... even if you are going "the speed limit". See http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html and note that "A few states permit use of the left lane only for passing or turning left."

[linfinster]

You forget to mention: Give yourself time to get to you destination. Leaving yourself only 20 minutes to get to work in the morning when it is a 30 minute drive is dumb; thinking that traffic will part for you because of your poor planning is dumb.

[ianlou]

Here are a couple more:

When merging into free-way traffic from an On-Ramp, it is up to you to find a place in traffic, the best way is to hit the freeway going faster than the traffic. I have accedentally run several people onto the shoulder while pulling a travel trailer because they entered the freeway slow and clueless (often on the phone).

Do not use right lanes that merge left a little ways up the road as a method to pass everyone else who are waiting in a line of traffic. We don't care if you are a doctor or lawyer and drive a Beamer, Your time is not more valuable than ours, GET IN LINE with the rest of us.