PINAL COUNTY, Ariz. — Drivers can get a ticket for cruising in the passing lane of the highway under Arizona law.
The law has been in place since the beginning of the year, but a video of Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb pulling over drivers violating Title 28-721 garnered hundreds of thousands of views since being posted Thursday.
The law stipulates that “on all roadways of sufficient width, a person shall drive a vehicle on the right half of the roadway except as follows:"
- When overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction under the rules governing the movement.
- When the right half of a roadway is closed to traffic while under construction or repair.
- On a roadway divided into three marked lanes for traffic under the rules applicable on the roadway.
- On a roadway designated and signposted for one-way traffic.
“A lot of people don’t realize you’re supposed to travel in the right lane. The left lane is only for passing,” Lamb explained to a driver he pulled over.
The sheriff only gave verbal warnings to the drivers in the video, but he noted that it's a fineable offense and a traffic hazard for other people on the highway.
Even if a driver is going the posted speed limit in the left lane, authorities say it impedes the flow of traffic and encourages unsafe passing.
“When I’m in the left lane I can see much better,” Lamb said. “If I have to go on the right, I’m coming into a blind pass where I don’t necessarily see, as a driver, what could be in that lane.”
