I was talking to a friend of mine recently who is one of the worst lane discipline offenders. He'll get on to a motorway and head straight for the outside lane, then just sit there, no matter what. It's not such a problem in the US because we can (thankfully) overtake on both sides. It's still terrible driving, so I asked him directly why he did it - why didn't he use correct lane discipline? His answer was priceless : 'continually changing lanes wears out the indicators and steering'.
At first I thought he was joking but as the conversation went on it became obvious that he was dead serious. So I pursued this rich vein of absurdity further by asking what he'd do if he was on the Autobahn. His answer - same thing - sit in the outside lane. I pointed out that he would likely be wrecked and/or killed by a truck if he did that but he wasn't phased at all - it seems that in his little motoring universe, imagined wear and tear on his indicators and tyres more than excuses him from irritating all the other drivers around him. And/or breaking the law, because here in Utah, it's the law to move over if someone faster comes up behind you. Doesn't matter how fast you are going - you have to get out of the way. Of course, trying to explain that to someone who's an outside-lane-hog is like starting an argument on the internet (pointless). It's a pity it's not an enforceable law either - if the police did actually ticket people for hogging the outside lane, they'd make some serious bank, and they'd be attacking a cause of frustration, accidents, anger and bad driving.
But clearly it's easier to just ticket people for doing 1mph over the speed limit, even though speeding doesn't cause accidents.
