Loading... Safe Undertaking
Another one geared towards getting you passed slow traffic comes courtesy of those eco-car loving Californians.
Yes they may be renowned for the large percentage of hybrids, electric and even the odd hydrogen car but they also have made a rather good contribution to the world of driving laws.
We have all been there, you are driving along in the slow lane and suddenly you find yourself alongside someone going slower than you in the middle lane.
To get passed them legally you have to slow down, go behind them, move into the fast lane, then move right back across.
Well in California you are legally allowed to undertake as long as it is safe and reasonable to do so.
Of course you are not allowed to exceed the speed limit to undertake but none of you go faster than 70 anyway right?
One we wish existed
So there is one law we can think of which doesn’t exist but we wish did.
There is always a lot of talk about the flow of traffic; there are even professors on the subject.
What they have found is that one of the biggest disruptors of a good ‘flow’ isn’t the cars going at 80 or 90 on their own but when those fast drivers come up against the people changing lane doing 60.
So our proposal, make the speed limit correspond to the flow of traffic and how busy the roads are.
In other words if the roads are quieter and everyone around you is doing 80 then you should be allowed to do 80.
If it is busy and everyone around you is doing 60, then you do 60.
And of course if there are no cars on the road….well just have a look at when we were talking about the Autobahns, you will get the picture.
Add in a minimum speed limit as well to stop people crawling along the motorway and you should have faster flowing roads.
That’s our theory anyway.
