Florida Driver Education
Driving Safe on Florida Roads
What exactly is the left lane on the turnpike for? One thing is for sure it's not for slow moving traffic. In fact the left lane is primarily for passing. The Florida drivers handbook states that you should always drive in the right lane except when passing on both two and four lane highways. Apparently many drivers don't know this.
Say you're cruising along the Florida Turnpike at the speed limit and come upon car driving slowly in the left lane. What should you do? First of all the driver blocking the left lane should not be there. When they see you coming they should move over to the right as soon as it is safe. But you should not take aggressive action to get them to move.
The Florida highway patrol considers occupying the left lane a form of aggressive driving. In some cases sitting in the left lane and in effect block traffic has triggered road rage. Especially when the car blocking traffic makes it clear they do not intend to move by slowing down or slamming on their brakes.
The problem of the left lane has become so common that the Florida legislature is considering making it illegal to drive in the left lanes of certain highways except when passing or when no other vehicles are behind you. That sounds like a bad idea. It's virtually impossible to enforce.
Reading the news these days is difficult. Stupid behavior seems all too common. But blocking the left lane on the Florida turnpike, I95, or other major highways seems like an easy problem to fix. Just move over.