Attention drivers: The left lane in Texas is only for passing

By Edward A. Forbes

The Bulletin

Walter sat firmly behind the wheel of his 15-year-old vehicle, his hands gripping the steering wheel at the 9 and 3 o’clock position.

The new passing lanes on Highway 35 mandated slower traffic keep to the right lane and the left lane for passing.

There were some cars in front of Walter doing 60 mph, and he was doing a blistering 62 mph, obviously a candidate for the left lane.

His wife, Mabel, sitting to his right, remarked, “Maybe you should move to the right lane, Walter.” “Mabel, I’m driving above the speed limit. Anyone driving faster is speeding and needs to slow down.”

Mabel doesn’t want to be a back- seat driver or a virtual GPS, but looking at the line of cars in the left lane blocked by their vehicle, she speaks up again. “Walter, you really need to speed up or move over!” Wisdom is dismissed due to stubbornness, deafness, or ignorance.

Poor Mabel, she only wants a safe journey, lacking in adrenaline rushes and nails digging into the dash.

What Walter failed to realize is that it was taking forever to overtake the “slow” traffic in the right lane, and the stack of cars behind him had drivers getting frustrated as the passing lane was ending without them being able to pass the slow traffic.

 You see, Walter was part of the problem that TXDOT was trying to solve by creating these 2-mile-long passing lanes, periodically alternating between eastbound and westbound traffic.

This 20-mile-long strip of Highway 35 for over 50 years has been the scene of numerous accidents in the past.

 Cars attempt to pass multiple vehicles without exercising proper judgment, resulting in head-on collisions, a trip over grass and through fences to the left to avoid head-on collisions.

I’m stuck behind a “Walter” in the left lane, and there seems to be an opening to pass in the right lane -  if I push my foot down as far as it will go. Rice and grass sprouts transform into a green wall as my speed increases.

This is a memento of the past that could lead to a high-speed introduction to the ditch to the right of the right-hand lane.

The “Walters,” cell phone addicts, and others bereft of common sense, succeed in negating the passing-lane solution to a terribly busy highway.

What TXDOT and traffic laws can’t overcome are the angry drivers, the entitled drivers, the unskilled drivers and the unobservant drivers.

Defensive driving, taught in the past, has been replaced by offensive-driving practices.

(Email Edward Forbes at eforbes1946@gmail.com or send comments to The Bulletin, P.O. Box 2426, Angleton, TX. 77516.)