Why Japanese drivers drive slowly on the right lane even though in theory it should be used mainly for overtaking?

11 comments

1. Because the leftmost lane has parked cars and bicyclists and you don’t want to drive around them every time, that would be even more dangerous.

   If you mean the highways though, I’m yet to see really slow cars in the rightmost lane. Shutoko is a bit of an outlier because it has exits at random places, otherwise slow cars drive left. If you mean slowing down those who are going well over speed limit, then it’s just illegal and you should not be complaining about the people who don’t move aside to let you break the law.

2. It’s just bad etiquette. They don’t care about getting in your way.

   Of course, a legitimate reason to drive relatively slowly in the right lane is because you’re about to turn right, but you’ll notice most J-drivers are simply not following the etiquette.

3. I do because my exit is on the right in a kilometer and I don’t want to speed

4. Are you talking about local roads or expressways? I’m not so sure that the passing lane rules apply to local roads. And I find drivers in Japan are pretty good about passing lanes on expressways, which some exception in crowded areas like Tokyo.

5. I always undertake these selfish assholes.

6. I see this on Niigata bypass, there are even 2 spots where the right most lane will actually stop completely at busy times even though there are 3 lanes.

   edit: this has only left side entrances and exits except for one right side expressway entrance and exit.

7. I’m what most people would consider a slow driver. I rarely go above the speed limit, even here in Japan where the limit is in most cases so ridiculously low. I do this because driving relaxes me, so whenever I need to go somewhere I leave with enough time.

   The main reasons why sometimes I stay on the right:

   * My exit is on the right and is coming soon
   * I moved to the right lane to overtake someone who was driving even slower than me, and now I don’t have room to merge back into the left lane
   * I know that soon there’s an exit on the left that’s going to be crowded and will back traffic up, as is the case with the 新三郷出口 on the 外環自動車道 on weekends, so I move to the right and stay there until passing the choke point

   Other than these cases, I rarely stay on the right lane when I’m driving slow.

8. The right lane for overtaking is only relevant on highways/expressways.

   And because goddamned it they’re going 1kph over the speed limit in their white kei truck and they’ll be goddamned if they’re going to risk getting stuck in the left lane because they can’t merge back right again and are overtaking that car 2km in the distance as long as a strong headwind doesn’t cause them to have to slow down.

   Overtaking on highways/expressways on the left is technically illegal but you see people do it all the time. I might, perhaps, do it myself when I’m in a rush and not willing to deal with people who’s idea of breaking the law is <40kph over.

9. Not only that but on the highway I hate those big trucks trying to overtake each other but the guy trying to overtake is slow af and they block both lanes, soon as he overtakes he/she will indicate back into the left lane but I am beyond pissed off at that point, I look over my shoulder like the fucking luigi meme in Mario kart as I overtake the cunt.

10. Typically the right lane is for passing and fast traffic… but some.Japanese people don’t get it for some reason … like the people blocking the left or right side escalator .

    if I blink my high beams or honk once they usually get out of the way

11. Police told me to slow down when I overtook using the left line