[Jayomatic]

Driving on Ontario highways really is quite the frustrating experience. I know its wrong of me to do but I mostly stay in the right lane to pass vehicles. It's usually empty most of the time and also it is always the fastest way to get anywhere most of the time.

I find a 3 lane highway a driving personality filter.

In the left lane you have;
1. People who don't know how to pass
2. People who believe they should never move to the right except to exit.
3. People who are too brake happy and never look more than 1 car ahead of them

All this causes the left lane to usually be the slowest of all the lanes in the end.

The Middle lane is for people who usually go with the flow and and understand the rules of the road. I like the middle lane people.

The Right lane is for people who are either going dangerously slow or just looking for a place to coast.

I'd say that 80-90% of people who merge onto the highway never stay in the right lane, even if it is empty. Everyone always merges into the middle or left lanes right away sometimes making a careless lane change.

The trick is to look as far ahead as possible and to understand your surroundings. You should always know where you would go in an emergency and position yourself accordingly. Try and stay out of other drivers blind spots, and leave enough space around you that if you had to swerve, you have an area to do so.

 

[marcus_a_j]

Jayomatic's "driving personality filter" describes the drivers on the DVP especially. I tend to be a quicker driver than most, but not when there is a lot of traffic making it unsafe. The right lane on the DVP is the quickest since it's usually empty (on most of the occasions I use it, weekday evenings southbound). Cars entering the highway slow it down, but they quickly merge in to the centre lane.

I find that there are very few places on the GTA's highways where the right lane just ends, and those are found where the highway bottlenecks because of all the reduction in lanes (like 401 wb at 410, which really is a pain in the arse). Everywhere else those are just on-ramps that end, not through traffic lanes. Occasionally the right lane will become an off-ramp (401 eb at Kennedy and Markham Rds, 401 wb at Yonge, though that problem eb at Yonge was just fixed with the extra lane added). But seriously, it's not like the right lane is ending resulting in only one lane. Nowhere does it force you into the left lane. Just change into the centre lane which (should be) slower than the left.

The last thing I want to see is the left lane ending. This forces quicker drivers to slow down because their passing lane just ended. That would be really unsafe.

My main concern is the amount of notification given that a lane ends. I find Ontario highways are really poor in this regard compared to highways in the U.S. There are places on the 407 that don't have any lane ending signs

 

[nfitz]

It is idiotic that the right lane ends at all. You never see that in Europe.

Haven't driven much on the right in Europe. But in England the LEFT lane frequently disappears.

 

[nfitz]

Jayomatic's "driving personality filter" describes the drivers on the DVP especially.

The DVP is an odd duck. Heading south, all 3 lanes are well used until Wynford/Eglinton, at which point most traffic in the right lane has then vanished. But if you get in the right lane here, you end up on it through the Don Mills Road exit, which has that really poor set-up where you need to quickly merge to get off, or to get on the DVP. Traffic in the right lane frequently is only 80 km/hr through there, and can stop very quickly. Although I think drivers should stay right as a rule, this is certainly one place where it makes sense to be in the middle lane.

For the most part, the stay right rule does not mean stay in the furthest right lane, under any condition, on urban expressways. It's primary function is on rural expressways - which is what most of our highways are.

 

[MisterF]

2. People who believe they should never move to the right except to exit.

The Middle lane is for people who usually go with the flow and and understand the rules of the road. I like the middle lane people.

No, middle lane people don't understand the rules of the road. Nobody should be cruising at 110 in the middle lane if the right lane is empty.