Enthusiastic amateur tries traffic engineering.

On big divided U.S. highways the leftmost lane is set aside for passing. We've seen the signs and know the benefits yet some travelers still camp out in the left. It makes safe passing more difficult. I'm here to help.

The big idea behind this design is to encourage folks to merge right ASAP. The rumble strips would be cut wide enough so you couldn't avoid them and the noise would drive you nuts, buzzing every 15 seconds of travel.

Has this been done before? Do you hate it? Who's going to pay for it? What are your thoughts?

In reply to Crxpilot:

Well there are always the anomalies like Wisconsin. Our law is slow traffic keep right, or at least that's the posted sign says.

Of course be careful 'engineering' DOT stuff. "Electrical engineer fined for ‘practicing engineering’ without a license after exposing traffic light flaw"

I remember driving through one of the Southern states in 1999. Tennessee? Anyhow, the right lane of the interstate was so damaged by trucks that everyone drove on the left until someone came up behind them. I was in convoy with some Germans, and it was driving them completely crazy

I just rode across New Brunswick and Nova Scotia last week. Apparently this is not an issue in Canoodia. People keep right, pass left and generally aren't jackholes in traffic at all. Even on regular two lane roads with passing they move right to make room so you can go by if you want.

We really just need everyone in the US to stop being a bunch of c0cks.

In reply to The0retical:

The critical flaw in that solution is that it assumes a left lane camper will look anywhere other than directly out the front of their windshield*. I firmly believe that's why people camp in the left lane in the first place. They can't be bothered with looking at mirrors or blind spots. They want their highway experience to be as minimally interactive as possible. This is why they will merge onto the highway and immediately move all the way left without looking and proceed to stay there and go whatever speed they want to (it will vary widely).

• excepting their phone of course.

In reply to RossD:

Yeah I've posted that one before. Don't mess with the Commisars.

Regarding the original post: It seems like a good idea until you drive on a high traffic route where all the lanes are full anyway. How does it work on highways with more than two lanes? Only the extreme left lane gets the rumble strips? Maybe some of those issues would get sorted if people moved right after passing, but I doubt it. it would be interesting to get thoughts on this from an actual traffic engineer, but I suspect they would like to see all lane utilized to maximum capacity.

Keith Tanner wrote: I remember driving through one of the Southern states in 1999. Tennessee? Anyhow, the right lane of the interstate was so damaged by trucks that everyone drove on the left until someone came up behind them. I was in convoy with some Germans, and it was driving them completely crazy

I remember having to drive in the left lane of I95 in NC for the same reason.

Huckleberry wrote: We really just need everyone in the US to stop being a bunch of c0cks.

hat tip to you sir.

Wouldn't work in northern states where they have to plow snow and ice off the roads.

A co-worker, who had passed his EIT exam but not his PE, sent a report to the state of SC signing it as a staff engineer. He got a very serious cease and decist order letter. We are consultants. Anybody that works in an industrial setting can call themselves an engineer.

Keith Tanner wrote: I remember driving through one of the Southern states in 1999. Tennessee? Anyhow, the right lane of the interstate was so damaged by trucks that everyone drove on the left until someone came up behind them.

I've done that many times driving through Iowa and Missouri on I-35, as long as the traffic is light (it's not uncommon to be able to see from one horizon to the other with no other cars on the road.) If I see someone coming up in the rear view mirror I pull back in the right lane well before they catch up to me, so no harm no foul.

WilD wrote: Regarding the original post: It seems like a good idea until you drive on a high traffic route where all the lanes are full anyway. How does it work on highways with more than two lanes? Only the extreme left lane gets the rumble strips? Maybe some of those issues would get sorted if people moved right after passing, but I doubt it. it would be interesting to get thoughts on this from an actual traffic engineer, but I suspect they would like to see all lane utilized to maximum capacity.

Yeah, the "left lane is for passing only" rule falls apart once the road is full, and even if the road in question never gets full today, it probably will in 10-15 years.

Here the right lane has constant speed variations with all the people merging and exiting. You have to work to avoid getting merged on top of by people entering, lane changed on top of by people exiting, and rear ending people who slow down to 30mph before they get to the ramp or enter traffic at 30mph. That drives everyone wanting to drive 10mph below the limit to the middle. The left lane is then full of people with their cruise set +/- 5mph of the speed limit. Better lane and merging etiquette could improve things, but being at or over capacity most of the time means things are fairly hopeless.

I think it would negatively override the current purpose of rumble strips.

Rumble strips are very effective on shoulders. I'm convinced they have saved millions of lives.

They promote an automatic physical response which produces the desired result. If a car drifts onto the right shoulder, rumble strips jar the driver into pulling the car quickly left. If they drift into the left shoulder, the opposite happens.

The purpose is a loud and abrupt warming that your vehicle is leaving the road.

If rumble strips were put in the left lane, they'd be hit more frequently, taken more for granted, and people would learn to ignore them. They would not be there as an abrupt warning for an impending accident, but rather just as an annoyance (which would piss people off). They would loose their effectiveness at alerting drivers that their vehicle was leaving the road.

I would hate those, I even hate the rumble strips that cross the whole road before toll booths (I understand why they are there but it doesn't mean I like em).

Don't make me hit a rumble strip unless I'm doing something wrong.

I do heavily pull right if someone is coming up behind me, and I also use my 'flash to pass' regularly.

Now, if you made the rumble strips in varying frequencies and spaced them correctly, you could play music by driving over them. Imagine 'stairway to heaven' via rumble strip.

In reply to Robbie:

The hate is what I'm hoping to generate! I hate being in the left lane so much that I'll stay over here on the right until it's time to pass. Mission accomplished.

Robbie wrote: Now, if you made the rumble strips in varying frequencies and spaced them correctly, you could play music by driving over them. Imagine 'stairway to heaven' via rumble strip.

like these Musical roads?

RevRico wrote:

Robbie wrote: Now, if you made the rumble strips in varying frequencies and spaced them correctly, you could play music by driving over them. Imagine 'stairway to heaven' via rumble strip.

like these Musical roads?

Ha! Not the first time I've had a good idea that someone else already thought of.

spitfirebill wrote: A co-worker, who had passed his EIT exam but not his PE, sent a report to the state of SC signing it as a staff engineer. He got a very serious cease and decist order letter. We are consultants. Anybody that works in an industrial setting can call themselves an engineer.

When I was an EIT, the firm I worked for used "designer" for all engineering graduates that did not have a PE. If you represented yourself as an "engineer" in any document, email, or business card with the firm's name it, that was an offense for which your employment would be terminated.

SC LLR takes that pretty seriously. Their interpretation is that using the term "engineer" in one's job title implies that individual is a registered professional engineer. See item "b" below...

From the SC LLR website:

" A person must be construed to practice or offer to practice engineering, within the meaning and intent of this chapter who:

    (a) practices any branch of the profession or discipline of engineering;

    (b)  by  verbal  claim,  sign,  advertisement,  letterhead,  card,  or  in  any  other  way  represents  himself to be a professional engineer or through the use of some other title implies that he is a professional engineer or that he is licensed under this chapter; or

    (c)  holds  himself  out  as  able  to  perform  or  does  perform  any  engineering  service  or  work  or  any other professional service designated by the practitioner or which is recognized as engineering."

WTF with the formatting? My post above has gone to heck in a handbasket...

RossD wrote: Well there are always the anomalies like Wisconsin. Our law is slow traffic keep right, or at least that's the posted sign says.

I have personally witnessed Ohio State Patrol pulling people over for camping in the left lane.

I feel that it's nothing that a few roof mounted .50s can't fix.

Crxpilot wrote: In reply to Robbie: The hate is what I'm hoping to generate! I hate being in the left lane so much that I'll stay over here on the right until it's time to pass. Mission accomplished.

Right, but it's misplaced hate.

Rumble strips are currently used to prevent imminent death. Shoulders, approaching a toll booth, approaching a stop after a long section of empty road.

You are suggesting using them to retrain drivers from their bad habits which are actually just annoyances, not a risk of imminent death.

The punishment doesn't fit the crime.

As annoying as I find people who park in the left lane, there is nothing inherently unsafe about it. I just have to drive around them.

You are also assuming the traffic load could adequately be handled by the right lane only. That's not the case in a lot of places.

Millions of dollars invested in permanent road alterations to annoy people into driving right would never be approved by anyone.

Look at the bright side- autonomous cars are in the horizon. They will know better.