My Star-Ledger Letter On ‘Left Lane Hogs’

It's not always the big weighty issues of the day that grab me. Sometimes, some seemingly small thing comes along that I just can't let pass. 

Recently, the New Jersey Star-Ledger published an article by Larry Higgs about driving. In Hey Jersey, move over already. N.J. drivers set a record last year for 'left lane hog' tix, Higgs reports about people who use the inside, or “fast” lanes, not for passing but for cruising at speeds that slow traffic.

Maybe their rearview mirrors suddenly fell off their vehicle.

Or maybe they just don't notice all of the cars whizzing by them on their right side.

It's a basic rule of the road. Keep right unless you're passing.

Yet, for whatever reason, drivers across the Garden State continue to hog the left lane frustrating drivers who want to use the lane to pass and disrupting the flow of traffic.

Drivers can be ticketed for this, and are in record numbers, reports Higgs.

But there is another type of driver that Higgs barely touches on. This other type of driver was the subject of a letter I wrote that the Star-Ledger published a few days later. I played on Higgs’ description of “left lane hogs.” The Star-Ledger no longer posts letters online. Here is a reprint of my letter, which appeared in the July 4, 2018 edition. The Star-Ledger titled it “A Reason to Drive in the Left Lane.”

To the editor;

Well, it didn’t take long for Larry Higgs’ 6/19/18 polemic against “left lane hogs” to inspire one wild boar to stake out the left lane as his exclusive territory.

I was traveling North with my wife in the center lane of I-287 in Bridgewater at 70 mph when I moved to the left lane to pass an 18-wheeler. Soon a car came up behind, the driver flashing his lights, tailgating, and flailing his hands. As it happened, my exit was coming up--the left lane exit onto 22 W. So I had to remain in the left lane after passing in preparation for exiting. No matter. Despite clearly visible signs announcing the exit and signaling my intent to exit, the boar kept flashing, tailgating, and flailing his hands like a nut.

I imagined this wild boar must have read Higgs’s blatantly one-sided article, taking it as license to declare that no one else should be allowed to pass or use a left lane exit.

If the “left lane hogs” are rude--which they are--then left lane wild boars are worse. They are a menace, and more numerous than the hogs.

Michael A. LaFerrara, Flemington