PSA: Get out of the passing lane!

One of the strangest experiences I had driving was in Italy. No it wasn’t the narrow windy roads of Amalfi coast where any wrong move and your car is diving off a cliff into the pristine blue waters of the Mediterranean. What I’m talking about is the experience on the regular highways that look as plain as interstate 80. Imagine driving for the first time on a highway in Italy in the middle lane and a car passes you on the left and CUTS right in front of you! My first reaction was shock that the person had a heart attack and swerved into my lane. Then a few minutes later another car passed me and BAM cut right in front of me. After talking about these instances with my wife for a few minutes and some light Googling APPARENTLY in Italy they are SO obsessed with not staying in the left lane or passing lane that they aggressively get back into the middle lane.

Now let’s fly over to the wonderful United States of America with our miles and miles of highways which somehow still has traffic in the middle of the night. However my problem is NOT when there is traffic as much as when there are just enough cars to piss you off even more than bumper to bumper traffic. Let me paint a picture for you: you are running late to work so you go in the left lane to get a slight 5 mph boost however there is a soccer mom with every bumper sticker under the sun in your way. So then you try giving that passive nudge with a light tapping of your high beams and of course this does nothing. Then you start debating whether to pass on the right however know that is not the safe thing to do so you escalate to a passive-aggressive light tapping of the horn. AND of course no movement from the COEXIST bumper sticker lady…

To which I say to everybody who drives: stay out of the passing lane. It is called a passing lane for a reason so please use it for passing only and do as the Italians do and after you pass get your SILLY butt back into the middle lane. Grazie!