This post has been brewing for a couple of years but I’ve been hesitant to write it because it might come across as inflammatory and offensive to some. But it is based on several years of observations.
A few years ago as I was plodding along on a highway in southern New Brunswick and noted the traffic was backed up because of one vehicle driving in the passing lane adjacent to another vehicle and travelling at the same speed. I wondered if, in the cases where I could identify a vehicle or driver, is there a pattern to the driver or vehicle that is more likely to block the left lane?
First, let me state a few of the parameters of this unscientific quest:
- These observations were only made on four-lane highways. New Brunswick doesn’t have highway systems like you would see in more populous parts of Canada so the vast majority of the multiple lane highway system is only four lanes. This is important because there is no ambiguity about whether you are in the left lane or the right lane.
I didn’t make any specific observations on four-lane streets. Whether I am right or wrong on this, streets are different in that vehicles in the left lane may be there before they signal to make a left-hand turn onto a side street or into a business. I don’t think the concept of passing lane and travel lane applies on city streets.
I didn’t observe anything regarding drivers of vehicles who stayed in the left lane even when there were no vehicles to pass but they were driving much faster than the average flow of traffic. This is simply because I had no opportunity to pass them if they were driving so far above the speed limit that I couldn’t observe any personal traits.
I didn’t go into this quest with any pre-conceived notions and honestly, I didn’t think that I would really be able to put together any patterns. Part of me expected to see an over representation of elderly people driving slow in the left lane but I tried to put that out of my mind as it wasn’t founded on any observations. I figured the best thing I could do was to simply be guided by what I was observing.
I did find one overwhelming predictor of who may park in the left lane and hold up traffic. There were two other cohorts who were significantly over represented in the left lane population but one of those is definitely related to New Brunswick’s geography.
The number that really surprised me is that an overwhelming majority of the people I observed driving slow in the passing lane were female. I know that simply stating this will cause some people to get angry but I assure you that this is based entirely on observation. And when I say that it is an overwhelming majority it is indeed overwhelming: more than 85% of slow-moving drivers in the left lane were female. Age did not seem to be a good indicator for blocking the left lane.
The second most significant cohort of left-lane drivers were those driving either Toyota Corollas or Toyota Camrys. I recognize that both of these cars are extremely popular in Canada so that alone would account for their higher representation in the left lane. But, if my information is correct the two best-selling vehicles in Canada are the Honda Civic and the Ford F-150. Both are as thick as blackflies in the spring around here but they were not over represented in the left lane.
The final cohort that seemed to prefer driving slowly in the left lane is probably much narrower and not conclusive of what anyone else in Canada (except for perhaps Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island) might experience. I should also add that this cohort is most common during the typical tourist season. The cohort is vehicles that have Nova Scotia license plates on them. I recognize that this will likely cause some offense too, and I will fully admit that New Brunswick drivers wouldn’t win any awards, but I am tempted every time I visit Nova Scotia to flag down an RCMP member and ask if traffic rules are reversed in Nova Scotia: does slower traffic have to keep to the left while passing is done on the right? It seems to be a common occurrence on Nova Scotia’s highways.
Not to make this seem funny, but it seems to me that if you put a female driver from Nova Scotia in a Toyota Camry that she will drive through the entire length of New Brunswick in the left lane.
Does anyone have any thoughts as to why I am observing this? Is there any remedy? You may not agree with me, but I find that people who drive slowly in the left-hand lane tend to create traffic hazards and make things more dangerous for other drivers.
