Please correct me if I'm wrong. Regardless, if I ever get my license, I'm pretty much always going to avoid the highway as my anxiety cannot handle those speeds.
This is impossible in a car because we are isolated from each other. To handle this we make rules for each situation that if followed would result in the most efficient use of the road.
The idea of drive right/left lane to pass is that nobody has to say "excuse me" to pass the car in front of them because that's impossible. In the same way it is not polite to stop on a busy street to "let someone in" from a parking lot or to let the car to your left at a four way stop go first. The rules are there so we can predict what anyone else will do.
In reality we all learn a different set of rules or have a different understanding of them so it all falls apart. Arguing about the specific rules doesn't make a lot of sense in reality because for any of them to work we all have to do the same thing and I don't know of anywhere that makes drivers take more than one skill test in a lifetime.
For instance, Washington state: http://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.61.100
The state police had a campaign a few years ago, stating that they were going to crack down on this. Not only did I not see any cops enforcing it, not a damned thing has changed regardless.
The mystery to me is how a geographical demographic of drivers somehow all got together and said, “fuck it, I’ll drive in whatever lane I want!” I know that’s not how it happens, but how does it happen? Taking the example of the worst drivers? Urban legend (“oh, no, it’s against the law to...”)? Some misguided attempt to stick it to The Man?
A lot of southern states are good, like North Carolina or Tennessee. Good mountain roads, reasonable drivers. And believe it or not, I’ve like riding in New York City. Don’t let the bike out of your sight lest it be stolen (I am dead serious about that unless you have some serious locking equipment). Obnoxious drivers, sure, but competent and it’s almost as if everyone knows that if we don’t cooperate at least a little, nobody’s getting home tonight. All of this of course is one giant sweeping generalization, so no one need trot out their personal list of exceptions.
But Seattle? I fucking hate driving in Seattle. It’s as if every single driver is sixteen years old on their learner’s permit with two months behind the wheel. There’s a reason one of the topics of the very first Portlandia episodes dealt with driving in the PNW.
I definitely concur that California in general is pretty great for motorcycles. With 2 jackets you can ride year round. People are well conditioned to lane splitting so they make room for even the largest of bikes. Where most people I know went down was turns in and out of strip mall parking lots. All very avoidable from the drivers side.
I ended up selling my bike a few months ago. The same commute I've done for years is just ever increasing. I've been considering going public transport for a while to regain my sanity.
I think you have it backwards.
It's not that they're thinking "Fuck it, I'll drive in whatever lane I want!". It's that they were never told the proper thing to do, so they just have no idea that it actually matters.
Some people are actually specifically told the WRONG thing. I had a friend who was taught by his parents that if his exit isn't coming up any time soon that he should be in the left lane.
The only states west of the Mississippi for which this is true are Washington, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. 10 if you look at the entire USA. Not nearly half by population or geographic area.