JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Should drivers be allowed to cruise in the left lane on the highway?
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At least one Florida lawmaker doesn’t think so and has refiled a bill seeking to make the left lane a passing lane only.
In Florida, it’s legal to cruise in the left lane, so long as you move over if someone attempts to overtake you.
But highway drivers we spoke with at an I-95 rest stop reported it’s all too common for slow drivers to hog the fast lane and refuse to get over.
“I think they’re either ignorant or selfish,” said Joy Darish, who was driving through while vacationing from Massachusetts.
“It’s all the time. I used to live in Arizona and you could always tell the California drivers, they used to hog that lane,” said Mike Brown who was en route back home to Merritt Island.
During the 2023 Florida Legislative Session legislation that would have prohibited drivers from cruising in the left lane on roadways with two or more lanes and a speed limit of 65 miles per hour or above sped through committees in the Senate.
“In the last five years, we’ve had 17,404 accidents that were a direct result from passing on the right. This bill is hopefully to get people out of the left lane,” said bill sponsor State Senator Keith Perry (R-Gainesville) during one of the bill’s committee hearings.
But it didn’t have enough gas to make it through the House and stalled out before being brought up for a vote on the Senate floor.
Now it’s back, with Perry refiling the bill for the 2024 session, and drivers we spoke with from in-state and out-of-state said they hope it manages to clear the finish line this time around.
“I think it’s dangerous, people passing you on either side,” said Brown.
“I was just in another state. I’ve been in several the last couple days and it’s the law and it says ‘passing only, left-hand lane’,” said World Golf Village resident Brenda Lanier. “Makes it much smoother! People aren’t weaving in and out and craziness.”
“I see the crazy Florida drivers! Stop it now! Pass your law!” said Darish, who noted the left lane is passing only in her home state.
If the bill passes next year and is signed into law, left-lane cruisers could be slapped with a noncriminal moving traffic violation and receive a $60 ticket.
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