OPINION: The crime of bad road manners
Rep. Michael Merrifield means well. He views state government as a tool that can make life better in Colorado. So it stands to reason that his response to a traffic annoyance is "there ought to be a law."
Merrifield managed to get a 37-to-27 vote in favor of a bill that would require drivers with at least five cars stacked up behind them to pull over and allow the cars to go by.
Trucks hauling hazardous materials would be exempt, as would commercial vehicles on highways with shoulders narrower than 12 feet.
It would establish an enforcement and compliance nightmare. How are drivers to know the car count behind them? How are they to know those drivers aren't going precisely the speed they desire? Worst of all, this proposed law could be dangerous. It could incentivize drivers to pull over on narrow shoulders, even on curvy, unsafe roads. If a driver doesn't get far enough over, it may cause other drivers to swerve into oncoming lanes of traffic. When traffic is heavy, the motorist relegated to the shoulder may have a difficult and dangerous time getting back on the road.
Merrifield is right. Slow drivers who refuse to move over, even when it's safe to do so, are annoying. They should learn to behave. But trying to mandate common courtesy, by force of state law, just goes too far.
