This isn't and doesn't need to be a stressful drive, people.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
There are few certainties in South Florida. Summer thunderstorms. Publix chicken tender subs. A personal injury lawyer billboard staring at you right now.
But perhaps the most baffling phenomenon of all is the driver doing 60 mph in the left lane of Alligator Alley.
Why? Seriously. Whyyyyyyyy?
The stretch of Interstate 75 connecting Broward County to Florida's Gulf Coast is arguably the easiest road in the state. It's flat. It's straight. The speed limit through much of it is 70 mph. There are no complicated interchanges. No mystery exits. No endless construction zones every half-mile. No drawbridges. No Brightline crossings. No downtown traffic patterns requiring a Ph.D. in urban planning.
It's basically a ruler laid across the Everglades.
And yet somehow, every weekend, a brave soul decides to plant themselves in the passing lane and cruise along at a speed normally associated with sightseeing trolley tours.
Let's review some basic etiquette.
The left lane is for passing. The right lane is for cruising.
This is not controversial. This is not a Browardist opinion. This is driving.
Alligator Alley itself has come a long way. Fun fact: When the route first opened in the late 1960s and early 1970s, much of it operated as a two-lane toll road slicing through the Everglades. By 1986, major efforts were underway to expand it into the four-lane corridor drivers use today, creating a safer and more efficient connection across the state.
And yet efficiency remains elusive when someone decides their personal comfort speed should become everyone's speed.
During a recent Browardist drive across Florida, what should have been one of the smoothest stretches of highway turned into an endless cycle of brake lights, lane changes and frustrated drivers stacked behind vehicles treating the passing lane like a reserved parking spot.
The culprit wasn't weather. It wasn't construction. It wasn't an accident.
It was simply people dragging ass in the left lane.
Look, nobody is asking you to drive 90 mph. Nobody is asking you to channel your inner NASCAR driver.
Just move over when faster traffic approaches. That's it. That's the entire assignment.
For more information on Florida's lane usage laws, visit the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
