From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader)
Subject: Re: sdebar re passing or right (was sidebar re 401 (: -))
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
Distribution: ont
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 92 07:41:43 GMT

Martin Taylor (mmt@dciem.dciem.dnd.ca) writes:
> Ontario used to have a speed limit of 70 mph on expressways, but the
> conventional driving speed was 90 mph or thereabouts.  I remember once,
> passing Kingston, I pulled out of the slow lane to pass, and got a blast
> from a bus that had come up fast behind me without my noticing.  I was
> going with the traffic at 95 mph.

Well, I am not as old as Martin, but I do remember when the expressway
speed limit was raised from 60 to 70 mph, and it was still 70 mph when
I got my driver's license.  In those days I observed speed limits pretty
strictly, traffic permitting, and I certainly did NOT see a "conventional
driving speed" of 90 mph.  I may not have been the fastest driver on the
road, but neither was I uncomfortably slower than the stream.

But I remember reading newspaper stories to the effect that when the
limit was raised from 60 to 70, the average speed of traffic *decreased*.
The 60 mph limit had come to be considered ridiculous; when drivers were
given a speed limit more suited to the road, they respected it, or at
least, enough of them did so to make a noticeable difference.

It's possible that conditions were different on the Toronto-Kitchener
stretch that I was most familiar with, than on the Kingston section that
Martin speaks of.  But I suspect that Martin may really be thinking of
the time before the increase to 70 mph.

> As soon as the speed limit was reduced, to save fuel (not for any safety
> reasons), the conventional travel speed dropped to about 70 or 75 mph.

Yes, I believe it did drop.  Clearly different factors were operating
in the public mind than at the time of the earlier change.

> If there are two offences that I would give automatic tickets for, it is
> the complementary pair--being in the left lane other than to pass or to
> prepare for a left turn, and passing on the right when the passed vehicle
> is not turning left.

Well, I have driven on expressways in many states, several provinces,
and a few foreign countries including France and West Germany.  In many
of these places, lane discipline is pretty strict, just as described
above (or with "left" and "right" reversed where they drive on the left).
In others it is less strict, as in Ontario where passing on the right
is legal.

I find that I'm more comfortable where it is not strict, and this is for
two reasons.  First, if it's legal to pass on the right, then a single
slow driver who persists in occupying the left lane does not obstruct
traffic.  But more important, in places where people feel compelled to
free up the left lane, they tend to do so *even if the cars in the right
lane then become dangerously close*.

People have talked in this thread about the dangers of speed itself, and
the dangers of unexpected maneuvers, and the dangers of speed too fast
for conditions.  The danger of following too closely has been conspicuously
NOT mentioned, but it is at least as bad as the others.  And if all the
cars are occupying the right lane except a few that are overtaking, then
the following distances in the right lane are roughly half of what they
would be if the cars could be distributed among both lanes.

Another unmentioned danger is that of cars moving at greatly different
speeds.  In my ideal world, expressways would be posted with speed limits
that actually reflect the maximum sustained safe speed, and *minimum*
speed limits, for good conditions, about 10% lower.  (Political efforts
to reduce fuel consumption would use fiscal means, and I don't mean
speeding fines.)  The point of this is to reduce the amount of passing
that's needed in the first place.  Oh, and one more thing... if the right
lane was moderately full, people would spread out into the left lane
until a faster vehicle came along, but when it did they would merge back
into the right lane to let it by.  And the drivers in the right lane
would let them in.

On second thought, in my ideal world they'd all be on trains in the
first place, and traveling two or three times as fast.
-- 
Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto  |	Rocket, 1829: The first 30 mph train.
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com	     |	TGV-A, 1989: The first 300 mph train.

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