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LETTERS: Left-lane use on gov’t shoulders

Editor: The provincial government has now enacted a law to compel motorists to drive in the right-hand lane of freeways.

Editor:

The provincial government has now enacted a law to compel motorists to drive in the right-hand lane of freeways unless they are in the process of passing.

The government has to shoulder some of the blame why drivers use the left lane to excess.

It has to do with on-ramps on freeways where drivers don’t speed up to the traffic flow. They enter at a speed that is often 20 km/h less than the traffic-flow speed.

This is either because the slow enterers don’t know, or that the on-ramp is not long enough for all vehicles to attain the proper speed.

When a slow vehicle enters the flow, it has often a tail of vehicles behind it forced to do the same.

The same thing happens in reverse near off-ramps that are too short. Motorists are forced to slow down the highway flow or stomp on the brake as soon as one is out of the flow. Either way is not good traffic management.

Motorists know these slowdowns occur and get in the left lane before it becomes impossible to do so.

Harmen Kooyman, Surrey