I see this subject pop up all of the time. I think it’s important to note that this is an entirely different discussion if the traffic conditions are free flowing or congested.

TL;DR The passing lane law does not take into account congestion..letting someone by in heavy traffic vs free flowing are two very different things.

Free flowing? Sure I’m doing 80-90 most likely but if you’re feeling like a mad man, you can scoot on by.

Congested? I’m not moving because I am not the problem and generally consistently passing if there isn’t a huge backup. I would contend that in congested conditions that the left lane should be considered a travel lane. Simply that space/lane is needed to distribute flow. In this conditions I would argue that people who expect to be passing and aggressively change lanes to do so make traffic worse. Why? Because tight merges between lanes causes other people to brake, which causes other people to brake, which ultimately can have the effect of slowing down many people behind this event just so one person can get somewhere 1-2 min faster.

In these congested conditions some people need to accept that things are just going to take a little longer and there is no magic way to pass your way by the traffic.