The Highway Lane Next to Yours Isn’t Really Moving Any Faster

Details are still emerging about the tragic car crash that killed John Nash, the mathematician celebrated in A Beautiful Mind, and his wife, Alicia, but early reports suggest their (inexperienced) cab driver lost control while passing another vehicle. It’s possible the lane maneuver was justified. But whether or not that’s the case, the news offers a fitting, if terribly unfortunate chance to remember the following persistent traffic myth: the lane next to yours isn’t actually moving faster.

The fact that changing lanes is such a regular part of the daily traffic grind—on average, we tend to do it once every mile and a quarter—inures us to the risky nature of these moves. When you’re changing lanes you lose sight of the cars in front of you, make braking demands of the cars behind you, and often end up in the blind spot of the new car beside you. You make very quick calculations about spacing and velocity that soak up some cognitive attention you might otherwise be using to monitor the road.