Has anyone ever heard of a ticket for 'failure to move over' before?

Last week, I was doing a pastime of mine, sitting in Tyrone court with a handfull of tickets.

I heard several people being charged with tickets for 'failure to move over'. I had never heard of that before.

A friend stated it was an expensive ticket. That if a policeman is on the side of the road writing a ticket, and you fail to move as far away as possible in passing, you can be given a ticket.

I've never heard of this. Is it a new law? Can someone shed some light on it?

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Submitted by Sick of Fascists on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 9:35pm.

are even more lucrative for the cops than speed traps. Two cops play leapfrog, each one writing a ticket for a car that failed to move over for the last one. Those fines are $500 plus court costs.

Cyclist's picture
Submitted by Cyclist on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 4:15pm.

A handful of tickets?????

BTW here the move over law GVC 40-6-16

40-6-16. Procedure for passing stationary authorized emergency vehicles, stationary towing or recovery vehicles, or stationary highway maintenance vehicles

(a) The operator of a motor vehicle approaching a stationary authorized emergency vehicle that is displaying flashing yellow, amber, white, red, or blue lights shall approach the authorized emergency vehicle with due caution and shall, absent any other direction by a peace officer, proceed as follows:

(1) Make a lane change into a lane not adjacent to the authorized emergency vehicle if possible in the existing safety and traffic conditions; or

(2) If a lane change under paragraph (1) of this subsection would be impossible, prohibited by law, or unsafe, reduce the speed of the motor vehicle to a reasonable and proper speed for the existing road and traffic conditions, which speed shall be less than the posted speed limit, and be prepared to stop.

(b) The operator of a motor vehicle approaching a stationary towing or recovery vehicle or a stationary highway maintenance vehicle that is displaying flashing yellow, amber, or red lights shall approach the vehicle with due caution and shall, absent any other direction by a peace officer, proceed as follows:

(1) Make a lane change into a lane not adjacent to the towing, recovery, or highway maintenance vehicle if possible in the existing safety and traffic conditions; or

(2) If a lane change under paragraph (1) of this subsection would be impossible, prohibited by law, or unsafe, reduce the speed of the motor vehicle to a reasonable and proper speed for the existing road and traffic conditions, which speed shall be less than the posted speed limit, and be prepared to stop.

(c) Violation of subsection (a) or (b) of this Code section shall be punished by a fine of not more than $500.00.

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Submitted by NUK_1 on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 2:04pm.

Police and other emergency vehicles and their getting-out-of-the-vehicle occupants really don't like it when others plow into them when they are on the side of the road. While this seems like something called COMMON SENSE, it's a law because more police die from being hit while out on the side of the road than any other line of duty fatality. This is also covered in drivers ed, along with a whole lot of other topics that are routinely ignored by drivers. My personal "favorites"

1) Left lane is the passing lane, morons! Slower traffic keep right. It doesn't matter if the speed limit is 80 or 20....get to the right lane unless you're passing or about to make a left turn. Europeans mastered this concept a long time ago. Get with it. Yeah, that means you, Grandma, with the death grip on the wheel!

2) Those blinky things called "turn signals." WHOA...so that is what those are for?! No wonder the sound on my CD player wasn't getting louder but I kept hearing this clicking sound!

3) Green light=Go. Red light=Stop. Yellow=caution(not to be confused with slamming on the brakes until your car tips upright on the nose). I'm getting bumper stickers made that say "I Brake For Green Lights" for all the wonderful people who get right up to a green light and decide maybe it's time to stop because it might soon change colors and they are fascinated with that phenomena.

4) Teen drivers. Like, Oh My God, like can't you drive like a sane human being?

5) Real Old Drivers. Clogging roads everywhere and the #1 cause of death at flea markets and a killer of innocent buildings, the lack of any kind of driver testing for geezers is probably the AARP's lousiest "accomplishment" to date.


Cyclist's picture
Submitted by Cyclist on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 3:54pm.

I drive slow but I drive in the right lane. I suspect as the price of gasoline continues to rise more of us will be forced to slow down.
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Submitted by sageadvice on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 3:28pm.

I agree with your interpretation of the law. It is what every individual thinks it should be, right?
I know several times I have been in the diamond lane at 80 MPH and a dude will come up behind me and just touch my back bumper---back off--do it gain, and then hit the high-speed overdrive and zap around me on the right at what must be 110 and then cut me off as he gets back into the diamond causing me to brake quickly!
I've had the same thing happen in other lanes just because that is the lane the dude wanted! Apparently it is OK to speed if someone has your lane!
I suppose you are not old and your grandma doesn't drive, but if I ever see them I intend to thump their bumper, honk my horn repeatedly, yell and wave at them!!
Ever had a tractor and trailer roar up behind you approaching a hill where he knows he need 85-90 MPH to make good speed up the hill, and make those low sucking sounds along with air brake noises to scare you into next lane when you are already doing 75? You want that lane due to 16 other tractors in the other lanes! I'm sure that also fits your profile!
Fact is, if you can get your nose into the middle of an intersection with any color light, the decent people will let you on through to avoid an accident---I'm sure that you have tried that many times, also.
Running yellow lights from 200 feet back is a nice game also. Nobody hardly ever will challenge you. All this will usually get you where you are going 5-10 minutes sooner than if you drove decently.
Must be worth it to you.
I don't want on any road where everyone tries to drive like you obviously drive!
Bet you got a pistola also, don't you?

NUK_1's picture
Submitted by NUK_1 on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 5:56am.

I know it's probably been decades since you've seen a driver's handbook, but slower traffic keep right isn't something for interpretation. They even put signs up along the road to remind people, but they are usually ignored by the arrogant drivers who think they own whichever lane they want to drive in and could care less about anyone else on the road.

I'm not going around shooting at drivers, playing bumper cars, blasting the horn, doling out the middle finger, whatever when I drive. I like to leave with my blood pressure at 125/75 and arrive with it no different. Maybe I'm just jaded, but every time I get behind the wheel of a car, I'm expecting stupidity from my fellow drivers. I'm rarely disappointed. I expect them to not be paying any attention whatsoever to anything besides their cell phone, whether there are any hot chicks to yell at, weaving and going over the center line because they are impaired,changing lanes every 20 feet just for fun, or reaching into the backseat to swat at their kids.

Your assumptions about my driving are what I'd expect from a left lane junior deputy. Because someone drives faster than you think they should, they are somehow "reckless," yet I have never had an at-fault accident and the only one I was involved in came from an OLD GEEZER rear-ending me at 40mph and never touching the brakes while I was sitting at the red-light on Crosstown/74.

Move over, Gramps, or speed up because the bingo game is getting ready to roll.


Submitted by sageadvice on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 7:58am.

You just don't get it!

Yes, the law does say what you said about yielding a left lane to fster traffic.

But, the only way that can occur legally is if you are traveling less than the speed limit.

In no way does the law allow the law to be broken to take advantage of a lane!

All laws must be considered as to their priority with other laws.

You are not allowed to draw your gun and shoot everyone in a bank just because someone is robbing it!

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Submitted by NUK_1 on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 9:10am.

Nowhere in the driver's handbook for GA does it say anything about how slower traffic doesn't have to move over if someone else is speeding. Secondly, it's just common courtesy, something most drivers have very little of. Slower traffic stay right means exactly what it says. The left lane is the PASSING LANE. If you aren't passing anyone, get out of it. Why is that so hard for Americans to understand the further they get from the day they took their drivers license exam? They know it age 15 and age 16, then forget it as the years go by.

The whole discussion here started on bozo's who not only won't move over but also about those who don't even yield to emergency vehicles. It's the same "I own my lane and can drive how I want to and ignore the law" as this concept of slower traffic keep right.

Your attitude is why some people get shot on the highways by unbalanced road rage drivers. If you enjoy PO'ing people because you want to drive in the left lane, are you at all surprised that you say people are aggressively tailgating you and bumping into you? Do you not see the cause-and-effect? If you want to keep taking your chances that you might one day irritate an insane driver who does something besides stay behind you and ride it out, go for it.


Submitted by sageadvice on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 12:33pm.

You ain't gonna never get it so this is my final explanation!

You don't own any lane any more than any one else--even if you want to speed. Go around on the right if you want to violate the law.

All the lanes are there to use so as to move traffic safely at a given speed limit. You have no right to any of them over someone else.
I yield to emergency vehicles and so do most others as is possible. Some simply don't know what to do!

Even in the diamond lane, I must get out and let you by at 110 if you want it, huh? You are crazy.
I can ignore bullies if I want as long as I do not violate the law by violating another law, as you apparently do!
It is threats like you just made that temp some idiots to do just what you said! You may be close.

Why do you need someone to move who is already over the speed limit? Go to another lane and speed even greater, OK? You don't own any lanes either.

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Submitted by NUK_1 on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 2:31pm.

Get a drivers handbook. Here, let me help, straight from state of GA:

http://www.dds.ga.gov/docs/forms/FullDriversManual.pdf

Read Section 2 Chapter 1- TRAFFIC LAWS. Maybe this will remind you of 95 years ago when you last took a drivers license exam. I know you probably won't, so here it is:

When there are two or more lanes for traffic moving in the same direction, slower vehicles should use the right lane except when passing or making a left turn.

What part of "slower traffic keep right" can you not understand? WHERE DOES IT SAY THIS IS NULL AND VOID IF SOMEONE MIGHT BE SPEEDING, THEN YOU CAN CAMP IN THE LEFT LANE? Whether you are going 10 or 110, it doesn't matter.

Diamond/carpool/HOV lanes have different rules than regular lanes, as everyone knows, though I'm sure you drive in the HOV by yourself since you feel entitled to be wherever you want to be, whether it violates the rules of the road or not.


Submitted by oldbeachbear on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 3:27pm.

Atlanta is one of the most dangerous places to drive because of just such difference of opions over who owns the roads. You are both wrong to a degree.

I too, hate to be in the fast lane and someone come up on me speeding and laying on my bumper when I'm maybe going 10 or 20 miles faster than the limit. But I try to get over and let them by. I'm really irked when they know there is no where for me to get over to. As I've said before, a lot of people here see you turn on your blinker and they wouldn't let you over it hell froze over! That makes it really dangerous. I've seen the same people who were right on me, scaring the crap out of me, go 5 miles and then give no signal and cross...all...lanes like there is no other traffic on the road, get into the off ramp. They are dangerous to say the least.

But so is the little ole lady with a death grip on the wheel in the left lane.

Me, I just try to drive defensivly, Lord knows, this is the place to learn, and look out for myself the best way I can. It doesn't matter who is right or who is wrong if you are laying in the ditch, dead.

I've driven in Los Angeles for years, SFO, and Boston. Boston may have as bad of drivers as Atlanta, maybe.

The reason I say a 'handful of tickets' is, as always, Tyrone is putting up new stop signs, giving new quotas to the police, and out for a buck.
The reason I was asking about the 'failure to moveover' was I'd never hear of it, and there was a rash of them to say the least, in court that day. The only place in Tyrone you could go fast enough to get a ticket like that is on 74, and the rest of the roads are 2 lane and have almost no shoulder.

Since so many, maybe it is as someone said, hoppscott or whatever.

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Submitted by Cyclist on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 2:41pm.

GA Driver's Manual
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Submitted by NUK_1 on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 2:53pm.

I was going to format the link nice and neatly, then thought about how I am arguing with sage/dollar/ten other names, and realized I'd wasted enough time as it is:)


Submitted by Spyglass on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 4:01pm.

It's not even funny. Folks would not believe how much better traffic would flow if people would just follow that one simple rule. SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT...

Cyclist's picture
Submitted by Cyclist on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 2:57pm.

I know. Sometimes you have to ask yourself, why bother?
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Submitted by hutch866 on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 2:22pm.

What I've wondered lately is when does the red light get red enough? I sit at the light, and when it turns green several people continue through the intersection under the red light, so I wonder, just when does the red light get too red to run? Next week: stop signs and counting to 4.

I yam what I yam....Popeye


NUK_1's picture
Submitted by NUK_1 on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 3:14pm.

Yeah, those kind of accidents are usually T-bone wrecks where someone gets seriously injured or killed too. I'm not in that kind of hurry to die myself, but some people seem to be.


Submitted by eldergent on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 1:03pm.

I,m no lawman or legal eagle but it appears this "failure to move over" is the law. It's supposed to be in 40 states by now and in Georgia carries a fine of not over $500.00

eodnnaenaj1's picture
Submitted by eodnnaenaj1 on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 1:18pm.

Further, I think the "move over" thing applies to any and all emergency vehicles. For example, a HERO truck on the expressway. Kinda like anything with flashing red/blue/yellow lights you best get over and out of the way.

What aggravates me are the folks who won't allow you to get over, guess they've not heard of the law either.


Submitted by oldbeachbear on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 1:32pm.

I thought that if an emergency vehicle comes along, you were suppose to pull off the road if you can. I do that, but it looks sometimes like I'm the only on to do so. And yes, people do bug me as well when I'm trying to get out of the way of an ambulance and they won't let me over. Atlanta seems to be the only place I've ever driven that when you put on your blinker to get over, the other lane tries to speed up to keep you out.

Every location has it's traffic idiosyncrasies

eodnnaenaj1's picture
Submitted by eodnnaenaj1 on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 2:11pm.

How about a funeral procession!?! Try stopping for one of those, traffic will run right over you! I agree with the comment about "common sense" - seems if folks would just use common sense and good manners, it wouldn't matter what the law is, we'd just be doing it. Oh well, that's why I love my commute in and out of Atlanta every day, just wears me out!


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