Ever been cruising along in the left lane of a three lane highway?  You decide to swing back over into the center lane since you’re no longer passing anyone.  You check your rear views and the center lane you want to be in is clean and green.  You make your lane change, and suddenly – there’s another vehicle filling up your rearview mirror about 3 inches off of your back bumper.

“Where the heck did he come from!”   You brace for impact.

He came from your blind spot in the far right lane.  He came from the “other lane”!  Yup.  He decided to change into center lane at the same time you did, and you almost ended up in each other’s laps.

How often have we seen this happen?  Perhaps we’re in the center lane and two cars ahead of us decide to occupy our lane from opposite sides of the highway?  We watch as they merge together and jam on our brakes to avoid them as they get ready to lock door handles.  If we’re lucky, one or both of them suddenly realize what’s happening and the panic swerve back to where they came from avoids the crumpled side panels – or worse.  Hopefully, neither of them over corrects into a ditch or goes sideways in the process.

Perhaps we’re merging on to a highway or pulling out from a parking lot.  We check the lane we’re going to be pulling into and it’s clear, but there is a buggy over in the far left lane.  Not to worry, off we go – at just the same time as that far left lane critter decides to pull in to our lane at about ninety miles per hour. 

"Whoe boy!"  Another close one.

So how can we avoid impending chaos from the other lane?

When making a lane change it behooves us to always, “check the other lane”.  Not just the one we want to be in, but also that other lane with a driver that could suddenly switch into ours.  It’s also kind of nice to recognize when we may be that “other lane driver.”

On the highway, this may require a little extra effort.  Unless we’re blessed with unusually perceptive side view mirrors, it will probably require the “look over your shoulder” routine.  Even though the side view mirrors are clear, a quick glance over the shoulder will usually provide a last minute glimpse of the other lane and any activity taking place in it that could completely ruin the day.

Situational awareness and speed control will also play a huge roll when dealing with the “other lane”.  If we’ve just comfortably passed the cars in that other lane, chances are they won’t be there when we make our change into the center lane, as long as we keep our speed constant or perhaps even add a little "speed burst" to get comfortably into the new lane. 

If we’re travelling at the same speed as those “other lane drivers” we really have to keep the eyes open.  We’re in the right or left lane and both are bogged down but the center lane is just merrily cooking along.  Gotta’ really check that other lane if it's moving at the same speed as us, before we switch to center and boogie on. If we both switch center at the same time and same speed, well — it's "togetherness!"


We also need to recognize when we are the “other lane driver.”  If we’re chugging along in the left lane and are coming up to a merge (whether on the highway or from a parking lot or side street), it’s probably not the best time to swing over into the lane they’re turning into.

Those other merging drivers won’t expect us to suddenly be in their lane.  If we must change lanes into slower merging traffic, we should at least be expecting that that merging driver might not notice our switch and could pull out right in front of us.  We should be exercising extreme caution and reserving our escape options in the event he does.

Finally, when changing lanes, always reserve the ability to quickly reverse the decision and be back where we came from!  If someone is tailgating us, we really want to be sure we’re clear, both in the lane we’re changing into and in that other lane.  Once we start to make our lane change, our impetuous little buzz bomb friend is going to want to blow right by us.  We won’t be able to quickly change our mind.  The escape opening in our previous lane will now be occupied by our former back door bumper buddy.

We always want to be anticipating the unexpected when we’re piloting our buggies down the boulevard.  But when we’re moving from that “other lane”, we should almost be “expecting” the unexpected. 

Bottom line?  When making a lane change, always check that “other lane”.  And let’s be sure to use extra caution when we make a move from the “other lane.”

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