Life in the Left Lane

I've lived in areas of the country where surface roads are newer and typically contain turning lanes, at least at intersections.  But in older areas, there is typically just a couple of lanes in each direction separated only by a solid line or two.  Since a lot of people have trouble finding that little rod on the left side of the steering column when making a turn (and even if they don't), traveling on these moderately to heavily trafficked* two laners involves a fair amount of mental calculus.  The left lane usually goes faster, but what if someone in that lane has to make a left, in which case you lose, and have to wait for the left lane turn to be made or for the right lane traffic to go by to proceed around that left-laner. At best, the on-coming traffic is thin enough for a quick left causing only a mild delay.  But if there are no turners, the left lane is a win.

When you're in the left lane you may see the left-laner ahead preparing to make the dreaded turn; do you dare try to merge back to the right?  The static right merge, where merging from a standstill in the left lane into uncoming right lane traffic, is a hazardous maneuver requiring guile and judgment, as typically there is not a lot of space to the the car in front, and finding and integrating into the moving gap is perilous.  A complication here is if there are cars in front or behind you who may also be contemplating the merge.  But this pales in comparison to the dynamic right merge, which in addition to static merge concerns, involves driving toward stopped cars and has only a small window of opportunity to make the merge.  This can be a bold and sometimes reckless move, as you need to keep an eye on the rapidly approaching car(s) ahead which have slowed or stopped while simultaneously gauging the speed of and gap between the upcoming right-laners. You must mentally define the position of the cars in front, calculate what their likely future position relative to yours will be over the next few seconds, and translate that to opportunity time, i.e., the time until you reach the "event horizon," where there is no longer a margin for stopping if you can't merge.  If you have not committed to slowing/stopping by this time, you must merge or likely rearend the car in front of you.  If you have calculated that the forward opportunity time to the event horizon is enough to consider the high risk/high reward of the moving merge, you then must quickly determine the probability that the dynamic merge can be successfully executed.  This entails looking away from the upcoming slowed/stopped cars to the oncoming right-laners.  If you look in the rear or side view mirror, you've bought a little extra time and may have some peripheral contact with the lane in front of you, but have reduced your field of vision and accuracy in gauging the upcoming right-laners.  And remember, objects in your mirror may be closer than they appear.  If you turn to look, you've got a better view and can make a more accurate read on the probabilities for merging, but have lost a fraction of a second as well as lost peripheral vision contact with the left-laners, thereby expanding your computational error term and opportunity for corrective action.  But regardless of whether you are a mirror viewer or a turn viewer, the "event horizon" approaches rapidly and may require a split-second all-in or fold decision. Sometimes you're lucky and the dynamic right merge is a piece of cake, or sometimes there is simply no opportunity to attempt the right merge.  But sometimes there is but a brief chance to make it back to the staid right lane, but it may require an act of courage if not an act of faith, be it gutsy or stupid.

And then there's the prospective left-laner who has crept over the divider to coerce the on-coming drivers to let him/her make the turn, which for them may or may not be an act of free-will.  But in so doing, the left lane turn creeper has freed up some room in your lane.  Is there enough to squeeze by, which will require usurping a slice of the right lane? 

Sometimes you get in the left lane even if you have to make an up-coming right, figuring that one of the cars on the right will have to make a sooner right and open up a gap.  Of course, you might see a "war-veteran" plate on a car ahead and figure that he'll be slow enough to open a gap, but what if there's a car ahead in the left lane who is thinking the same thing, in which case you'll need a two-gap or double opening to make your merge, never mind the left-turn risk.  Or what if there is a car in the left lane not moving fast enough for you to reach the gap?  It's a gamble.

Yes, you can live life in the right lane, where everything is slower, safer, and more predictable, but do you have what it takes for that wild ride in the left lane?

*Never being involved in the drug trade as supplier or consumer, I don't think I've ever written that word as a verb in the past tense. Why isn't the "c" doubled for the "ed?"  Odd spelling, but so much in English is.  It's reasonable, for instance, and this isn't an original thought, that "ghoti" could be the spelling of fish:

• gh, pronounced /f/ as in tough /tʌf/;
• o, pronounced /ɪ/ as in women /ˈwɪmɪn/; and
• ti, pronounced /ʃ/ as in nation /ˈne͡ɪʃən/.