Drivers in the Nutmeg State may soon have fewer impediments in freeway traffic, at least if a new law works as intended.
Part of a senate bill signed by the governor in June, the new rules are intended to increase safety by allowing first responders easier passage on freeways whilst attending to an emergency. We suppose lawmakers and their PR types could have stopped there with the spin but chose to also point out that the new regs are likely to ease highway congestion. Good.
“We see it on (our) own and hear it from the first responders, who we partner with, that people are camping out in the far-left lane, which is creating traffic congestion,” Connecticut Department of Transportation spokesperson Josh Morgan said in an interview with local media. “It’s blocking response vehicles from getting to a scene more quickly.”
The law, like most things in government, will grind slowly through the wheels of bureaucracy until it comes into effect on October 1st next year. Its precise wording states that no motor vehicles are allowed in the left-most lane “on any divided limited access highway that provides more than two lanes for traffic proceeding in the same direction.” Exceptions are made during overtaking maneuvers, within short distances when a highway exit is on the left, for the aforementioned first responders, and a short list of other very specific circumstances.
Legislation already on the books, which this law is intended to clarify, already prohibited commercial vehicles and the like from unnecessarily hanging out in the left lane. The changes will cover just about every machine on the road and – hopefully – banish the scourge of Uncle Walt doing 55 mph in the passing lane while everyone behind him loses their mind. There will be signs to remind drivers of the new rules, and anyone who runs afoul may be tagged with an $88 fine.
[Images: AAA, logoboom/Shutterstock.com]
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