Road design, safety and Vision Zero

[dtkvictim]

People's behaviour tends to be better on four-lane highways (such as highway 6 going toward Hamilton) and worse on six-lane ones (401, where slower people gravitate to the centre lane).

In Germany, where people follow this rule religiously, it's really good because you won't get surprised by people passing on the wrong side or weaving. But on the autobahn you do need to keep your eyes on your mirrors if you do pull into the left lane to make a pass!

Anyway, back to the 401, you might be OK from a ticket point of view driving 100 in the left lane. But you'll aggravate people who want to drive faster, who will then drive even worse than usual and potentially increase accident risks. Not worth it for me.

Just for the record, given that the normal and de facto legal speed is at least 120km/h, I consider it completely inappropriate to sit in the left lane doing less then approximately 120km/h (the exact number is debatable but the fact that it is significantly more than 100 is not). The question is up to what speed this still applies. My vague recollection is that the police seemed to be indicating they could ticket somebody for doing 100 in the left lane; but since this is well under the speed of traffic this actually does make sense under the HTA section quoted above. Maybe this answers the question — if I’m keeping up with traffic, then I won’t be ticketed for not accommodating speed demons who want to go even faster.

I tend to go a medium speed on the 401, so I tend to use the middle or left lane in 6 lane segments; if I’m in the left lane, somebody comes up behind me, and the lane is clear ahead then I will move over to let them pass. I don’t take on traffic enforcement by blocking traffic as a job when I’m driving; but on the other hand I won’t move over if the only result would be to put the vehicle behind me in my former spot.

So for me the question I posed is academic. But still interesting. If I regularly set my cruise control at 140 then it would no longer be academic — would I move over for the guy coming up behind at 160 or just let him tailgate me?

As Dan said, it shouldn't have anything to do with speed. You should keep as right as possible, unless actively overtaking. I don't think this is in the laws here though, unlike most of the rest of the civilized world. Having extremely wide highways on top just means people will do whatever they want.