Keeping right

January 17th, 2010

Back in November, a law was passed in Oklahoma to ban drivers from driving in the left lane on highways and clogging things up. It is now being enforced by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. If a person drives in the left lane, unless he or she is passing or turning left from the highway, can be ticketed.

Even though there are already laws on the books that tell slower drivers to stay right and allow for ticketing drivers who impede traffic, State Rep. Glen Bud Smithson, D-Sallisaw, one of the authors of the new bill, seems to think we need yet another law for drivers to be wary of.

Also, while there are signs to tell out-of-state drivers that slower vehicles should move to the right, there won’t be any signs that tell drivers it’s illegal to drive the left lane even if there is no traffic.

There are also questions about enforcement on state and federal highways inside city limits. For example, here in Muskogee, Shawnee, Main Street, part of Okmulgee Ave, Peak Blvd, and 32nd St. are all state or federal highways. It doesn’t make much sense to enforce this law on these roads. Doing so will impede traffic in and of itself.

Did we need a new law or just stricter enforcement of the impeding laws?

For more information, see: Muskoge Phoenix: Left lane law creates a stir