We drove to the other side of the Netherlands yesterday (and back) to visit some
relatives. Of course we used the highways for that, as that is the only way to
quickly get around in our small country. Many of the Dutch highways are 4 lane
highways (2 on either side) but there are more and more places where 6 lane
highways have been built in order to be able to cope with the traffic. While
driving on such a highway, it is a rule in the Netherlands to always drive in
the rightmost lane that is available. You do not keep your lane here (as in the
USA for example), but you overtake on the left hand side, and then go back to
the rightmost lane that you can occupy. That system works well, when people
stick the rules, but I always (and yesterday was not different) find people
staying in the middle lane for extended periods, even when the rightmost lane
is not occupied or even remotely busy.
I fail to understand why people do this? It is very annoying to the other people
sharing the same road, and I simply do not see why this would be beneficial for
anyone. Are these people afraid to move from lane to lane? Do they think they
are masters of the road, and anyone else is of no importance whatsoever?
