Keep Right Except to Pass

It appears the Colorado legislature approved the only bill I cared about during this session. HB04-1076 CONCERNING A PROHIBITION ON DRIVING MOTOR VEHICLES IN THE PASSING LANE has passed both houses and is headed to the governor's desk.

Is there anything more annoying than tooling down the highway at a decent clip only to be dangerously slowed down by an oblivious driver occupying the left hand lane? If I'm not mistaken, it's illegal in Colorado to demonstrate your frustration with horn honking and headlight flashing. In my experience those tactics tend not to work anyway. Surprisingly, however, I've found the German technique of turning on your left blinker to be quite effective. As I approach slow traffic in the left hand lane I click on my turn signal and the vehicular obstructions generally melt away.

My theory on this is that if you honk and flash the driver ahead of you knows you're frustrated and therefore ignores you. But, if you're in the left lane with your left blinker on he can't be too sure that you're not crazy. Not knowing what you might do he wants to get as far away from you as possible.

Anyway, while I'm happy that the legislature is adopting an eminently sensible traffic regulation I highly doubt that very many drivers will be cited. Perhaps though the law will make its way onto driving tests so slow and oblivious drivers everywhere will understand that the left lane is for passing only.