In this case, I'm speaking of our highway system.

This Thanksgiving I had the frustrating experience of driving on our American roadways during a busy holiday season. What I noticed, after trying to drive like a sane person, and noticing many, many signs (gladly ignored by my other fellow drivers) to "keep right, except to pass", that while the freeway lane going your opposite direction is to your left, the passing lane in the United States is on the right.

I hate tailgaters as much as you do. And while flashing your headlights in Europe is a reminder to a left-lane hugging driver that "oh crap, I'm being a total ass, sitting here in the left lane when there are two lanes to my right", here it apparently means "I'm the one that made you an orphan, that shivved your brother in prison, broke your sister's heart, and keyed your car in the parking lot".

So clearly, if flashing your headlights at the car ahead of you is a major faux pas (never mind driving at 60mph in a 70mph zone in the leftmost lane), and you refuse to tailgate, then what's a driver to do?

Well, imagine you're in Thailand, Japan, or the United Kingdom, and pass on the right.

On my recent trip to Portland and back on I-5, I punched in the cruise control at 75mph, 5 over the limit for approximately 10 minutes. I sat in the right lane, and aside from having to get into the middle lane to pass the occasional truck, I passed over two dozen vehicles cruising in the right lane. Only one car passed me on the left during this entire stretch of freeway.

So the thought that occurred to me was that this was remarkably like driving in the U.K. The only things out of place was the semis in the right lane, and the opposing lane of traffic on the left instead of the right.

Bottom line? U.S. drivers suck. They don't read road signs, or if they do, they don't understand them, or if they do, they ignore them.

Why am I venting about it here? Better here than on the road. And in the off chance that one of my readers is a "left lane sitter", I've just done the rest of us a favor by reminding them that they call it the "passing lane" for a reason.