Rant: I see this in the Bay Area all the time. On many freeways, the fast lane is also the carpool/HOV lane, at least during high-traffic times. The idea is that the government wants to encourage carpooling and/or low-emissions vehicles, therefore restricting the fast lane to such people would encourage such things.
But I often see people get in the fast lane not because they want to go faster than the adjacent lane, but rather because they have more than one person in the car and they just feel entitled to use the fast lane regardless of how fast they want to drive. Like, they don't understand the concept of lanes being related to speed, and are just thinking, "hey I'm a carpool, I get to drive in the carpool lane!" or something.
I've seen people in 20-year-old Chrysler minivans packed full of kids go all the way over to the fast lane and proceed to drive 10 under the speed limit, followed by a parade of cars passing them on the right because WTF. I can only assume that they literally don't understand that if the other people in their lane are going faster than they are, they're supposed to move over to a slower lane. Or they just don't think about it at all. I have no idea.
It's illegal in Colorado to use the left lane without passing. For a while, the cops were actually enforcing this and it was a joy to drive in Colorado. But for about the past year, the cops seem to have stopped enforcing it and the left lane hogs have returned.
Per the CHP, there is no concept of a "fast lane" or a "passing lane" on a freeway. While it is customary and polite for slower cars to drive on the right, they're not required to do so.
It varies from state to state. Some states prohibit passing on the right. Some don't. In Ohio in the late 90's, the law was that anything which you could drive on was a lane. I was slowing down in the right lane and signalling a right turn into a parking lot, right when the young lady behind me decided to drive over the empty parking spaces on the right-hand side and pass me. There was a fender-bender. The policeman summarily ruled it was my fault, because according to the law in Ohio, I was responsible for looking out for someone passing me in the "lane" comprised of the empty parking spaces. I think California Law is different, so people can have bike lanes.
Understood, I know the legalities vary from state to state. I was ranting about it purely based on etiquette. I’ve lived all over the US, and every area seemed to have a distinct traffic personality. I expected Bay Area traffic to be either very aggressive or very polite, but was surprised to find it best characterized as extreme rudeness via profound levels of incompetence and/or obliviousness to other drivers.
No, wouldn’t surprise me if people did. Clearly not what I was talking about. I’ve watched a car attempt to pass on the shoulder because two jackhats were driving side-by-side on a two lane highway going 10 under they lost control and nearly hit me. I was pissed at the driver attempting the stupid maneuver and the one blocking the left lane for miles on end.
I saw that in the US once, as well as someone cutting off a funeral procession. In the latter case a cop almost instantly pulled them over, fortunately.
