Congratulations to D Kirsten on his/her letter “Keep Left”. “Keep Left, Pass Right” is the most basic rule of the road in our country and yet it is constantly ignored.
In accordance with this principle, the right hand lane is not the “Fast Lane” as it is most commonly referred to, but is the “overtaking lane”, and should be consistently referred to as such. Even our traffic reports most times refer to the “slow lane” and the “fast lane”. Calling the overtaking lane the “fast lane”, is too great a temptation for those with an over inflated opinion of their own self importance to resist.
By simply adhering to the “Keep Left, Pass Right” principle, not only would our traffic flow more efficiently, but our highways would be much safer. Consider the dangerous chaos that goes on everyday on our highways, due to the incessant weaving of frustrated motorists trying to overtake in whichever lane happens to have a gap. In recognition of this fact, many countries (with far better road safety statistics than ours) have made hogging the “overtaking lane”, a punishable offence. The motoring public needs to be educated accordingly. The traffic reporters on our radios would be a good place to start!
