Maybe I didn't make it clear, people will be in the right lane and the assistant will instruct them last second to move to the left lane. This creates a dangerous situations as many US drivers do not care about traffic laws and cross the median. This is dangerous since this is generally unexpected to other drivers who will often have to sverve / brake to avoid collissions.
They may also be uncertain what another driver will do. For example, turning right onto a two lane road may be safe if the right lane is open. However, despite it not being legal, a driver in the left lane may change lanes mid intersection. I'd prefer not to risk it to save myself a few seconds.
> If you want to guide left-turning vehicles around the right lane you need to put something IN FRONT of the lane you closed.
The important point is that a human driver (as all the human drivers in the video) has no trouble. A lot of driving is not by the book, but humans coordinate and go with the flow. The software in these cars breaks down as soon as anything unexpected happens.
At 0:47, there is a car in the right lane, so it makes the right turn and immediately merges into the left lane.
Yes, you're supposed to drive in the right lane when not passing - some localities are more strict about this than others. For example, here in Michigan, there's a fine for driving in the left lane and not passing anyone for...one mile? Two miles? I forget, it's never really used. And you're supposed to "FALL" into the First Available Legal Lane. But in practice, if the second lane is open, people will jump across the first lane for the second - just watch your rearview as you accelerate and make sure the oncoming car wasn't moving over for you.
This is more aggressive driving than I would have expected from an automatic algorithm, but perfectly matches my expectations for the driver of a luxury sport car like a BMW, Audi, or Mercedes - and probably a Tesla, or a compact car driven by a young driver. I would expect a minivan, hybrid, or small commercial vehicle to wait. And I would expect a bus, garbage truck, or semi truck to just pull out and force the oncoming car to merge into the left lane.
Also, it would be a safety risk, not a security risk.
A few years ago google maps told my wife and I to "use the left lane to turn right" at an intersection of major 5 lane roads. The diagram even showed a car in the far left turn lane making a suicidal right across all the traffic. I couldn't believe it. Not a new road either.
I can understand a bad sequence of directions emerging from the process, but issuing an individual instruction that on it's face is dangerous and wrong?
> silly situations like being half-way on the wrong lane while passing a green light
You're not supposed to change lanes in an intersection. It's confusing to people trying to turn and figure out what lane you're in. This is why they fine that activity.
> Having driven both in Europe and the US, this is one of my pet peeves in the US.
Funny, one of my pet peeves since I moved to the US is the "keep right unless passing" or "left lane is for passing only" or any other variation of the same sermon. Sounds logical at first, but it's really bureocracy.
If the highway is congested, then the rule becomes meaningless. The traffic density is so high, that it's perfectly natural to use all of the available lanes.
If the highway is not congested, then the density is low enough that you should be able to change lanes as necessary, with minimal fuss. If that's the case, then the whole "keep to the right unless passing" is really just a crutch. In this situation, what we really want is something along the lines of "pay attention and don't make people pass you on the right", but that's not enforceable. So we come up with a rule like "keep to the right unless passing", because that can be enforced by cops.
> Here in the US, the right lane very often "disappears", i.e. becomes an "exit only" lane.
Are there any instances where there isn't signage that informs drivers in advance? I'll drive in the right-most lane and if I see one of those signs, I'll check for traffic, signal and move to the lane to my left.
Every lane change that anyone makes significantly increases the risk of a crash vs. just staying in the same lane. This is basic driver's ed right here.
Passing on the right is illegal most places for a reason: it's harder for the driver to your left to see you. The whole point of the convention of having faster traffic to the left and slower to the right is to increase predictability of behavior.
I agree with the parent you're replying to. Chill out and stop weaving in and out of traffic. Yes, it's annoying that people don't move to the right to yield to faster traffic, but ultimately you only save seconds or a small number of minutes. The risk -- assessment of which you seem to be not particularly good at -- isn't worth it. I'm not saying I follow my own advice 100% of the time, but I am under no illusion that I'm being safe when I don't.
> Regardless of where you drive, if there are people behind you in the left lane, you should move over to let them pass.
This is different than "the left lane...is for passing. Unless you are passing you should NOT be in this lane". Under this rule, it would be perfectly acceptable to be in the left lane if you aren't passing and also aren't obstructing faster traffic. However, this rule has traffic management problems similar to those with the left-is-reserved-for-passing-rule (which is probably why its even rarer in law than the left-is-reserved-for-passing-rule, though a couple states do have something like it).
The more common legal rule -- and there are good reasons for this rule to be preferred -- is that you have to use the rightmost lane if you are moving slower than the normal speed on the road (independent of the legal limit); this is different than a reserved for passing rule and also different than a move-right-for-faster traffic rule, and is superior to either for traffic management, since with a simple move-right-for-faster-traffic rule, a very small number of drivers wishing to drive at excessive speed could oblige significantly greater congestion in the other lanes with drivers forced to yield to them (and, of course, a strict reserved-for-passing rule has a similar effect). The move-right-if-slower-than-normal rule is pretty much the best rule for traffic management.
I find right lane driving dangerous. Every week I see drivers slow down or come to a complete stop on the acceleration lane, others are risking it all to make their exit.
I've seen that as well and that only ever happens when the left most lane is also an exiting lane. It's not intuitive by any means but it's also consistent so if you know the rules and can see the road ahead, you'll be safe.
Americans could rather use a robot highway driving instructor.
"Consider moving over to the right line; you're driving at the speed limit, and a speeding car is approaching; you may confirm this in the rear-view mirror."
"I have detected that you came to a full stop at the end of a generous freeway entrance ramp in light traffic. Suggested future action: look over the shoulder as early as possible and match the speed of the traffic."
"Suddenly exiting out of the left lane is dangerous. Please know which exit you're supposed to take, watch for its approach early, and change lanes ahead of time. If you miss an exit, do not make a sudden, dangerous action. Look for an alternate route or U-turn starting at the next exit."
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