By T. Scott Boatright
Navigating across Lincoln Parish roadways can sometimes be tough enough to drive you crazy.
But at least one new state law that will kick in next week will hopefully ease that pain for some of us.
I can’t tell you how often I get caught in a line of 10 or even more vehicles stuck behind a left lane driving on 20 refusing to even drive the 70 miles per hour speed limit, even when there are that many vehicles trapped behind them.
And it often seems more about attitude. When did discourteous driving become so common, as if it’s a legal right?
As the month of August begins, it won’t be, as specially stated by law.
Starting Friday, thanks to SB11, which was authored by Sen. Jay Luneau, cars traveling in the left lane of Interstate 20 will be illegal, and (hopefully) enforced by an escalating fine.
I truly believed that such a law already existed. There are signs all along the interstate telling vehicles to stay to the right unless passing another. There have been many times I’ve been stuck in the middle of a left lane quagmire as all the vehicles pass a law enforcement vehicle parking along I-20.
And each time I thought to myself, sometimes out loud, “Why doesn’t the driver caught causing the backup get pulled over and given a ticket?”
But, as I’ve only recently learned, I didn’t fully understand the original law.
In Louisiana, rules regarding lane usage were initially adopted into state law in 1962.
Then what really had me scratching my head while being stuck behind a slow driver, the current (until Aug. 1) iteration of the law specifically addressing driving too slowly in the left-hand lane has been in place since 2009.
The new, stricter law targeting slow left-lane drivers goes into effect on Aug. 1.
That updated law removes the previous exemption enacted in the 2009 iteration of the law that allowed drivers to linger in the left lane if they are going 10 mph or more under the speed limit.
Under the new law, drivers must stay out of the left lane unless they are passing another vehicle.
Period. No excuses or exemptions. Or that’s the way the new law is written, anyway.
The new law also imposes increased fines for violations, starting at $150 for a first offense and escalating to $350 and potential jail time for a third offense within a year.
It’ll be interesting to see how many tickets will be handed out after that change, but I am hopeful its enactment will make for a more courteous driving experience.
Speaking of driving courtesy, what happened to moving over to the right lane when passing an onramp to allow vehicles to merge into the right lane of the interstate?
That’s a rare occurrence these days. Numerous times over the past month as I’ve try to merge onto I-20 eastbound coming out of Grambling, I’ve had drivers refuse to move left or speed up, even when they’ve had all kinds of room to do so, and sometimes they’ve even tapped their brakes to slow down in what very much seemed to be an attempt to force me to drive on the shoulder of the road before being able to merge into traffic.
A lot of times I see officers posted along onramps trying to catch speeders passing under the Tarbutton Overpass. And I often wish they had partners with them looking for those drivers refusing to allow others to comfortably merge onto the interstate when they had all kinds of room and time to temporarily move left and allow the merging process.
Another new law coming into effect on Aug. 1 is another that only makes simple sense is Act 124 stemming from HB 25 that will stipulate that drivers that are involved in a wreck and leave the scene, especially if someone gets hurt or even worse, you could go to jail for up to 10 years or pay up to $5,000. Or both.
I didn’t realize, but that’s not an official law until Aug. 1.
It’s not just the right thing to stay, it’s about to be the law..
The final new law will make traveling east along I-20 early in the morning or west along the interstate in the late afternoon a little more comfortable from those with tinted windshields.
That new law will change Louisiana’s front window tint limit from 45% visibility to 25%. That means more dark tint up front will be allowed and that Louisiana will as of Aug. 1 not be one of the most restrictive states in terms of window tint regulations.
And while we’re talking about driving courtesy and frustrations, I’m all about progress, but when the price of that progress makes for dangerous driving, it can get pretty annoying to say the least.
People traversing the Tarbutton Overpass know what I’m talking about. Between work trucks parked on sides of the road and on top of the islands driving the overpass lanes, along with the huge coil of cable tubing that has been sitting on that westbound stop sign island for weeks now, trying to drive from Woodard Avenue and merge onto I-20 westbound can be downright dangerous these days.
Fortunately, most drivers traversing the overpass slow down because of all of the construction. But more than once in recent weeks I’ve had to quickly react to vehicles flying down Tarbutton that couldn’t be seen until “the last minute” because of all the parked trucks and equipment.
Sometimes there are workers with slow/stop signs that prevent that, but often there aren’t, making trying to get to the westbound experience a nerve-wracking experience to say the least.
Unfortunately, by far the quickest way home for me is to go back across the Tech Drive/Cooktown overpass. And again that can become a line of sight issue.
Taking the I-20 offramp to get to that pass, you come to a stop sign to turn either left or right. According to the white lines on that offramp, it’s supposed to be only one lane. But many a time as I have gotten to the stop sign and try to turn left, vehicles behind me drive on the shoulder of the offramp to pass my and try to turn right, impeding my (and other driver’s) line of sight at oncoming traffic moving from south to north across the overpass.
It can get frustrating, to say the least.
And the thing is, it simply seems with a little common sense combined with courtesy, it should all be easier, and safer, for all of us.
Hopefully it will become that way starting Friday, when the new laws go into effect as the calendar rolls over to August.
