Bill Description: Senate Bill 1340 would effectively make “keep right, except to pass” the standard for all multilane highways in Idaho.
Rating: -2
Does it directly or indirectly create or increase penalties for victimless crimes or non-restorative penalties for non-violent crimes? Conversely, does it eliminate or decrease penalties for victimless crimes or non-restorative penalties for non-violent crimes?
Currently, Section 49-630, Idaho Code, says, “Upon all highways any vehicle proceeding at less than normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing, shall be driven in the right-hand lane available for traffic, or as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the highway, except when overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction or when preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.”
This existing language already effectively requires slower drivers to use the right lane.
Senate Bill 1340 would amend this section to add a new requirement that, “upon all multilane highways, no vehicle shall be driven in the left-hand lane except when directed otherwise, preparing for a left turn at an intersection or private road or driveway, overtaking or passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction, or when right-hand lanes are congested.”
It would further require that “no vehicle being driven in the left lane except when directed otherwise or preparing for a left turn at an intersection, private road, or driveway shall impede any other vehicle that is traveling in the same lane and behind that vehicle.”
It would also say that “no vehicle traveling in the left-hand lane shall be driven at a speed slower than any vehicle traveling to its right on the same roadway.”
A violation of this law would be an infraction carrying a $75 fine.
While the intent of the law — to prevent slower drivers from obstructing the flow of traffic — may be reasonable, the application is overbroad, particularly in the first part of the law. There are times when, on a mostly empty highway, a driver may choose to primarily use the left lane to pass slower trucks and RVs in the right lane, and because (quite often) the left lane’s surface is smoother than the right lane’s due to the right lane’s regular use by heavy trucks.
Being required to move back into the right lane in between passing (even when no other vehicle is behind the driver) is burdensome and can limit the effective use of cruise control and other electronic driver aids such as lane centering.
Simply requiring drivers in the left lane not to impede another vehicle that is traveling in the same lane and behind that vehicle, would have a similar effect without creating a new pretext for enforcement for driving in the left lane even when doing so isn’t impeding traffic.
(-1)
Does it increase government spending (for objectionable purposes) or debt? Conversely, does it decrease government spending or debt?
Senate Bill 1340 would add additional new language to the law instructing the Idaho Transportation Department to “place signs on multilane highways, in an effort to make motorists aware” of the new requirements imposed by this law.
The bill’s fiscal note estimates $200,000 as the cost “to provide public education and notice” of the new law.
(-1)
