Driving anywhere comes with its own challenges but few annoyances grind the gears of car enthusiasts like a left-lane camper. In many states driving in the left lane without passing is actually illegal. Now, Arizona is cracking down on the practice and educating drivers in the process.
While many practices that drivers engage in on the highway are dangerous, camping in the left lane is perhaps one of the least noticed. Forcing drivers to pass on the right can create congestion, confusion, and dangerous driving conditions for every road user. Even though it’s illegal in many places, lots of drivers fail to obey the charge to “keep right except to pass.”
Officers from Pinal County in Arizona are fed up with it and they’re documenting their efforts to stop the practice and educate drivers in the process. They’re even going as far as to make these “left lane campers” the butt of the joke in videos they post to their YouTube channel.
Read: Florida Wants To Ban Drivers From Cruising In The Left Lane
During the first of many documented interactions, the officer explains the problem to the driver of one car before that same driver admits that he’s piloting the car with a suspended license. “That’s why you don’t know that you can’t be in the left lane… it’s because you’re a terrible driver” the officer remarks. In another interaction, he tells the driver of a truck “you should have a backpack and a tent because you spent the last I don’t know how many miles just camping in the left lane.”
In just a few days since its posting, the video has garnered half a million views and it’s not the first time Pinal County has gone after these types of drivers. In a view from mid-2023 the Sheriff of the department goes on a similar patrol and lays out the issue to one stopped motorist who complains because he was going the speed limit. “It’s not about going the speed limit, it’s about the left lane is for passing.”
Perhaps instead of giving tickets to drivers who are driving above the speed limit but with traffic, left-lane camping could be a new revenue generator for police departments around the country.