More in the US than elsewhere. In Germany, you obey the speed limit, and only rubes pass on the right. In the US, everyone drives 9 mph above the posted limit if they're being careful, and people pass on the right willy-nilly, regardless of what local laws say. But if the police really want to enforce that on you, they can.
There are tons of "blue laws" in the US, some from over a hundred years back. Sometimes the police decide to enforce those. One such occasion precipitated the landmark Supreme Court case Lawrence vs. Texas.
It's kind of strange. In the U.S., people get angry if they get a speeding ticket for going 12 miles over the speed limit (see any conversation about speed cameras). There doesn't seem to be any push back against having speed limits; rather, it seems like most people think we should have them and then ignore them.
That has varied. The speed limit commonly got set to 50/55 mph due to the National Maximum Speed Law in 1974 [1]. It ended up being a giant government shit show that resulted in an estimated < 1% gasoline savings. There was a lot of push to repeal that over time, which worked.
Typically you'll see 70 or 75 on US highways now. To go much higher, the US is going to have to up its road construction & maintenance game, as the German autobahn is maintained at considerably higher quality.
I'll stop passing people in the right lane when they stop cruising at 5 below the speed limit (or more frequently: fluctuating their speed from +10 to -10 of the limit randomly) in the passing lane.
If you are going the same speed as the person to your right, you are in the wrong lane.
People just have no clue. The number of times I've seen some overloaded U-Haul lumber over to the left lane and just sit there as it struggles to get up hills is supremely aggravating.
I don't like passing on the right and will avoid it when I can, but I also don't like being in a traffic clump and will always look for ways to escape it or avoid getting trapped in it. If I have to pass you on the right to avoid getting pincered by the clump of traffic coming up behind me, I will.
Foreigner visiting Germany here: I ALWAYS try to keep to speed limit, sometimes 10% slower. You have well hidden radars and you can't use radar-finding apps (forbidden by law). Last time I was driving not strictly I had two photos in 15 minutes. If this makes you upset, drop the radars, I will happily drive 10% faster.
German living in Germany here: er, no. Typical is slighly more than +10%. If you keep to the speed limit, people behind you will get upset.
My one trip to Germany was in Stuttgart in the early 2000's, and it was my German coworkers who made that observation. The car ride I took seemed to corroborate it.
Has it always been that way, or has it changed over time?
Rant: I see this in the Bay Area all the time. On many freeways, the fast lane is also the carpool/HOV lane, at least during high-traffic times. The idea is that the government wants to encourage carpooling and/or low-emissions vehicles, therefore restricting the fast lane to such people would encourage such things.
But I often see people get in the fast lane not because they want to go faster than the adjacent lane, but rather because they have more than one person in the car and they just feel entitled to use the fast lane regardless of how fast they want to drive. Like, they don't understand the concept of lanes being related to speed, and are just thinking, "hey I'm a carpool, I get to drive in the carpool lane!" or something.
I've seen people in 20-year-old Chrysler minivans packed full of kids go all the way over to the fast lane and proceed to drive 10 under the speed limit, followed by a parade of cars passing them on the right because WTF. I can only assume that they literally don't understand that if the other people in their lane are going faster than they are, they're supposed to move over to a slower lane. Or they just don't think about it at all. I have no idea.
It's illegal in Colorado to use the left lane without passing. For a while, the cops were actually enforcing this and it was a joy to drive in Colorado. But for about the past year, the cops seem to have stopped enforcing it and the left lane hogs have returned.
Per the CHP, there is no concept of a "fast lane" or a "passing lane" on a freeway. While it is customary and polite for slower cars to drive on the right, they're not required to do so.
It varies from state to state. Some states prohibit passing on the right. Some don't. In Ohio in the late 90's, the law was that anything which you could drive on was a lane. I was slowing down in the right lane and signalling a right turn into a parking lot, right when the young lady behind me decided to drive over the empty parking spaces on the right-hand side and pass me. There was a fender-bender. The policeman summarily ruled it was my fault, because according to the law in Ohio, I was responsible for looking out for someone passing me in the "lane" comprised of the empty parking spaces. I think California Law is different, so people can have bike lanes.
Understood, I know the legalities vary from state to state. I was ranting about it purely based on etiquette. I’ve lived all over the US, and every area seemed to have a distinct traffic personality. I expected Bay Area traffic to be either very aggressive or very polite, but was surprised to find it best characterized as extreme rudeness via profound levels of incompetence and/or obliviousness to other drivers.
No, wouldn’t surprise me if people did. Clearly not what I was talking about. I’ve watched a car attempt to pass on the shoulder because two jackhats were driving side-by-side on a two lane highway going 10 under they lost control and nearly hit me. I was pissed at the driver attempting the stupid maneuver and the one blocking the left lane for miles on end.
I saw that in the US once, as well as someone cutting off a funeral procession. In the latter case a cop almost instantly pulled them over, fortunately.
Hell, I would get this outside SF when I was young and dumb enough to work stupid hours, and would occasionally be driving (well, speeding) home from the office around bar closing time. After a quick "follow my finger with your eyes" test, they'd let me go with a warning.
There are tons of "blue laws" in the US, some from over a hundred years back. Sometimes the police decide to enforce those. One such occasion precipitated the landmark Supreme Court case Lawrence vs. Texas.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jan/...