In addition to many people’s unawareness of the Move Over Law, many drivers don’t know their state’s laws about driving in the left lane.  In Florida that law is statute 316.081.

Florida statute 316.081 states that drivers should always drive on the right side of the roadway (all roads) (unless the road is one lane or road conditions require otherwise) and violating the statute is punishable with a fine.

The statute might sound vague, but essentially the law is states that the left lane is only for passing or turning and drivers who travel at the same rate of speed as cars to their right or under the speed limit while in the left lane are in violation of the law.

An excellent explanation of why the law is so important and how traffic is affected when people do not obey the law is illustrated in Vox’s video, “Why you shouldn’t drive slowly in the left lane.”

The video not only shows that driving the speed limit in the left lane causes traffic, but it is also more dangerous. According to the video, “research has shown that the strongest predictor of an accident is variance from the average speed of traffic and a car going 5 mph slower the surrounding traffic has a great chance of causing an accident than a car going 5 mph faster.”

Officer Paz of the Tampa Police Department also provides a little more insight on the law. In “Reminder: Left Lane is for passing only,” Paz said, "A lot of people want to get in that [left] lane and drive the speed limit, but that's not what that lane is for.  And it drives people absolutely crazy when they get in that lane and people are driving the speed limit.  Now, that's not encouraging speeding, OK? That lane is used for passing."

Another example of a law many drivers don’t know about is the Move Over Law and we covered the Move Over Law here. Any other driving laws you think drivers in Florida need to know about? Please share them with us on Facebook.

Video Copyright: Vox