Lefties Beware

As a public service, I want to share a warning from the Illinois State Police…

Stay out of the passing lane on the interstate----unless you are passing.

This emphasis is long overdue and touches on one of my personal pet peeves as I traverse this state. You’ve been behind someone who drove 55 miles per hour on I-64..in the left lane…and stayed there from Wayne City to the Fairfield off ramp. They weren’t passing anyone…in fact they were preventing passing.

You might not realize that a 2004 law basically says to stay out of the left lane “except when overtaking and passing another vehicle.” The State Police announced last week on Facebook that they were going to aggressively enforce the law hashtagging  it---- #leftlanelollygaggersbeware.

Here’s the strategy. State Police will use covert unmarked vehicles and sneak up on left lane lingerers, calling ahead to marked squad cars. The marked squad cars will pull over the lefties and give them $120 tickets.

But that’s not all. Troopers will also use the strategy to target drivers who tailgate as a way to get slower drivers back into the right lane.

I think, unchecked, left lane lingering causes road rage incidents and accidents. That’s how we got the law in the first place over 15 years ago.

You know how I feel about state troopers running radar on Main and Delaware. This news makes it more likely they will stay on the 30+ miles of I-64 in Wayne County where they should be…in this commentator’s humble opinion.

There, I am totally OK with them using any covert strategy they choose to get left lane losers back in the right lane-----

…so I can zoom around them.