Is This Annoying Driving Habit An Exclusive Michigan Thing? Yes.
When I first started off on this quest of a blog, I thought I was going to only blame people from the east side of Michigan, who liked to exclusively drive in the left lane, but the more I asked around, I now believe any true #PureMichigan resident (or true Michigander) tries to drive in the left lane.
Here's why I was only going to blame eastsiders, it started off when I went on a road trip with Christine. She grew up around Detroit, so when I've ridden with her and she's jumped in the left lane, I thought, “well it must be because she speeds and hates being behind people.” I’ve also known her to tailgate, which again I attributed to “big city” driving. That is until we went to Chicago and she wasn’t the fastest on the road(although she claims she was driving 85 mph) but she was in the left lane and people were passing us on the right side.
Ok, so that piqued my curiosity about left lane hogs. I started watching drivers and noticed these two situations happen too frequent, someone merges on the highway OR they’re already driving in the right lane and out of nowhere, they just move to the left, usually not quite going the speed limit OR they’re going just barely above it. This happened yesterday when a driver in a red van merged onto 196 and immediately went to the left lane, crossing over the lane they should be in, and then driving 55 mph, slowing down a line of traffic that was coming upon them. We all ended up passing the red van in the empty right lane.
THIS IS ONLY SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS IN MICHIGAN.
I’m now convinced that around the country when you get behind a left lane hog, they’re originally from Michigan! In most states, the left lane is for passing or as my friend’s 7-year old says, “going fast”, not just doing the speed limit.
My only guess is Michiganders get in the left lane because our roads are SO INCREDIBLY CRAPPY that you’re just trying to avoid the potholes, because it’s been my experience as someone who likes to drive fast, just hanging out in the left lane, usually draws the attention of police looking for speeders; and then when you don’t even speed… WHAT’S THE POINT!? So it must be the potholes, cause why else are you in the left lane?
The left lane is meant to keep faster drivers moving/passing… it’s not a requirement to be in the left or “fast” lane if you’re just going a bit faster than the speed limit; you only need to move over when you want to pass another YOU (slower than the left lane) on the highway.
I doubt this will fix anything, but I feel better saying it.