Let’s Revisit Kentucky’s Left-Lane Driving Law

Before I got my learner's permit, Dad began teaching me how to drive in the Towne Square Mall parking lot. It could've gone better, to be honest.

I don't mean to make it sound like it was a full-on disaster, but I had never got in behind the wheel of any vehicle and so it was ALL new to me. Additionally, he was teaching me in his old Datsun pick-up truck, which was a stick shift. Looking back, that was like skipping Algebra I and starting with Algebra II. I simply could NOT get the clutch-shift combo that first time and he got pretty frustrated with me.

Much later, about a year and a half after I'd had my driver's LICENSE, we were all headed out west on vacation and I was driving. And, of course, he was still teaching. One thing that really stands out was being on this LONG stretch of nothing in Kansas (they have a lot of that there) and I found myself in the left lane.

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And I stayed there.

And I stayed there.

And it was clearly far too long and Dad wasn't pleased. "Will you get back into the right lane, for garden seed (he always said that in front of Mom instead of 'for God's sake')."

I'm not sure if, in Kansas, it was against the law to stay in the left lane if you weren't passing or not. But Dad seemed to think it was.

Well, Arkansas has just passed a new law that goes into effect on July 28th and it's all about NOT driving in the left lane except under certain circumstances.

And since that is just now happening in the land of the razorbacks, I wondered if, in fact, Kentucky had a "left-lane law" on the books. I always thought so, but Arkansas caused me to second-guess.

But, nope, sure enough, in Kentucky, it IS illegal to drive in the left lane on a limited-access four-lane highway with a speed limit of 65 MPH or greater unless you are passing, moving over to stay away from a police or state police vehicle, or in the interest of safety.

And it's interesting this comes up now. Recently, on the Audubon Parkway, another motorist and I were behind an SUV pulling a massive RV and it was traveling well below the speed limit. So we both moved around it. I expected the driver in front of me to merge back into the right lane and I planned to follow, but he never did. So I did. And he stayed there a good while--faster than the SUV and RV but slower than other traffic that had to pass him on the right.

So, yeah, just a friendly reminder to stay in the right lane unless there are circumstances that allow you to use the left lane.

Besides, and I don't about you, but I think it feels weird to stay in the left lane when there's nothing in the right lane.

They're not going to ticket me for this one.