If you fail to move over to the left lane when an emergency vehicle is on the shoulder with lights on you are breaking the law. It's a mandatory court appearance.

It's been on the books since '01. The warning-writing period is over. Beware. My wife just picked this up today. She'd slowed but didn't pull over so the cop jumped back in his car and tracked her down a few miles up the road. Who fucking knew?

Bored motherfucker, eh?

Here's a nifty article: http://www.sj-r.com/News/stories/20573.asp

That sucks Kazz.

I move over to the left lane for anyone on the shoulder 99% of the time if I can anyway. I just never trust those people not to open their driver door, pull out in front of me or pull a suicide jump. Better safe than sorry and it's only a little flick of the steering wheel.

I know a guy that was blocked in the right lane by a couple of trucks. The cop still gave him the ticket. If you see a cop, stop your car if you have to. Get in the left lane! This ticket is freakin expensive.

See now that's just stupid. In my mind its much safer for the guy in the right lane to just slow down and pass the cop car moving slowly than to come to a complete stop and try to merge into the left lane from a stop. In my mind the latter situation is more likely to cause an accident than the former. Why does it always seem like traffic cops are void of common sense?

i agree its a stupid law but it only takes a flick of the wrist to move over for a sec. like markus stated

if you can move over.... sometimes you are stuck next to another car or truck and people aren't always nice enough to let you slide over...

Not being able to get in the other lane could be an issue, but I would say that is the exception and not the standard. Arguing with an exception... I don't know, it just never sits right because I know it doesn't happen as often as the standard.

I could be wrong, but I would hope that a cop would use some common sense if there are two full lanes of traffic knowing that they may not all be able to get over. But in the Peoria area, this is almost non-existent compared to places like Chicago.

where I am at... all of the lanes, be it 2 or 3 lanes, are almost always bumper to bumper on the toll ways and major highways and no-one wants to let anyone over for fear that they might slow them down by 1 or 2 seconds.

so for me, not being able to get over is the standard.

Just to note, my original post was just in response to the senseless cop in NC's story. 90% of the time in Peoria area getting in the left line isn't too hard.

either way, fighting it with the cop on the street is pointless... take it to court, the judge is more likely to have some common sense... as long as you slow to a decent speed, there is definately less danger to the cop that is you cause an accident because you stop to get over.