Sensible lane usage is one of those perfect cures

Jim Kenzie

WHEELS COLUMNIST

If you pass somebody on the right on the highway, chances are:

a) he’ll think you’re an idiot,

b) he has no idea he’s breaking three separate provisions of the Highway Traffic Act.

I say “chances are” with respect to point b), because there’s only a strong probability (as opposed to a certainty) that he’s breaking the speed limit. I mean, who isn’t?

The other two provisions?

By definition:

The HTA states in Part X “Rules of the Road,” section 147, subsection 1:

“Any vehicle travelling upon a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic at that time and place shall, where practicable, be driven in the right-hand lane then available for traffic or as close as practicable to the right hand curb or edge of the roadway.”

Exceptions are when the overtaking vehicle is passing, or the overtaken vehicle is preparing to turn left.

In other words, if you’re not passing someone actively, i.e., some time between now and, say, Quebec, move the heck over!

(I assume you’re not preparing to turn left off the 401.)

And, section 148, subsection 2:

“Every person in charge of a vehicle or on horseback on a highway who is overtaken by a vehicle or equestrian travelling at a greater speed shall turn out to the right and allow the overtaking vehicle or equestrian to pass.”

(Who let those horses out onto the 401?)

So if someone can pass you on the right, you’re violating 147 (1). If someone actually is passing you on the right, you are violating 147 (1) and 148 (2).

Note that neither of these provisions makes any reference to the speed limit, only to “the normal speed of traffic at that time and place” and “a greater speed” respectively.

Hence, these provisions apply regardless of how fast you and the other vehicle are going.

Just obeying one law doesn’t give you — you should pardon the expression — carte blanche to break others.

Just because you’re not spitting on the sidewalk doesn’t mean you can commit murder.

Note too that in Ontario anyway (section 150, subsection 1) passing on the right is legal, providing “the movement can be made in safety,” and that the road is wide enough to do it.

Now, all these provisions are critically important because the good lane discipline they enforce generates so many benefits.

Improved traffic flow not only gets everyone home sooner and safer, but saves fuel and reduces emissions too.

And making full use of the Jim-only lane (that’s the right-most, with which so few drivers are familiar — come on in; I won’t bite) means a better bang for our highway-building buck.

Who doesn’t want to see their tax dollars go further, do more?

Every day, I see people coming on to the highway. The right lane is empty from here to Quebec (or Detroit) as far as anyone can see. Yet they move straight over to the middle lane or (worse still) the left-most lane where there are inevitably more cars.

You just want to pull them over and ask, “What? Why? What’s going through that little brain of yours? Why would you move from an empty lane to one that has more cars in it?”

In my experience, England and Germany have the best lane discipline (other European countries like France and Italy are, sad to say, backsliding).

In Germany, the Drive Right/Pass Left thing is taken very seriously. They pull left, they pass, they move back right. Immediately.

Of course, an AMG Mercedes might be bearing down at light-speed in that left lane, so you better get out of the way.

I’m convinced proper lane discipline is a huge part of the reason why Germany’s fatality rate is so good, yet their average speed is much higher than ours.

It’s also why I feel much more confident driving over there at a buck-sixty than I do at a buck- twenty over here.

In England, their motorways feel just like our freeways, except over there the right lane is supposed to be the fast or passing lane.

Of course, the British are famously polite (Okay, except for soccer games) and queue up for just about everything. They’re practically religious about standing on the right on escalators — odd, given that they drive on the left. Either way, they stay out of the way.

Perhaps public displays of order are part of the culture.

So, what’s wrong with us?

It doesn’t help that our cops don’t enforce these provisions. They tell me that if they lay these charges, the justices of the peace won’t convict; justices of the peace I’ve spoken with tell me that if the cops won’t charge, there’s no one to convict.

How do we break that cycle?

Maybe we get both groups into one room at the same time and not let anybody out or give them anything to eat or drink until they come up with a plan.

Any reasonably energetic cop could get his or her ticket quota — oops, I mean, “expected productivity” or whatever they call it — for the entire month in a couple of afternoons if they ran people for just these two offences.

Eight out of ten cars, a minimum of two HTA violations per — rack ‘em up, Sarge.

Then they could take the rest of the month off and make some extra coin directing traffic for Pusateri’s.

They’d also be doing something that might actually make traffic safer, as opposed to fishing holes (radar traps on near-deserted roads at 7:30 on a Saturday morning) or running people for warning other motorists of same (yes, the Toronto cops are still doing that, despite the fact that it is patently not illegal to warn people of speed traps).

From my experience, driving on just about every continent where it is possible to drive, lane discipline ranks only behind seatbelt use and impaired driving (whether by alcohol, drugs, fatigue, or stupidity) as a factor in traffic safety.

So, enforcing lane discipline would make traffic move more smoothly, more swiftly, more safely. Reduced congestion would save fuel, save money, reduce emissions, help your taxes go further.

Cops could write millions of tickets, generating all sorts of revenue to fix our potholes (and repaint the highway lane markings so the right lane doesn’t keep disappearing — I’m sill fighting that one too).

It would reward politeness and penalize rudeness.

I’m having trouble seeing any downside here.

Why doesn’t our law enforcement system pay the slightest heed?

jim@jimkenzie.com

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