There is a single 6 lane highway going through the town I live. From slowest to fastest the lanes are: Middle, Left, Right.
What happens is all the slow traffic (-5 to +2 of speed limit) doesn't want to deal with the absurd number of on-ramps (12 in 13 miles!) so they move to the middle lane. Then the moderately faster cars (+2 to +7 of the speed limit) pass on the left. Then you get all the people that want to go faster and they go to the right lane and then cut across to the left when cars are merging.
As a slower-than-average driver, this is exactly what I do on any highway except an interstate.
My logic is that if there are 3 or more lanes, the furthest right lane should be for getting on or off only, further left is for fast long-distance driving, and the slowest lane should be second-from-the-right.
I do not see how it makes sense to encourage slower drivers to take the far right lane in this scenario. It is actually pretty dangerous for people trying to merge on to have the right lane heavily occupied.
However, indeed the counterargument is that this leads to a lot of lane swapping when people get on and want to cross over to the far left to travel, and then all the way back over to the right when they want to get off. Especially since speed of travel is not necessarily related to whether the car is making a short or long trip on the highway.
The real question, I think, is what should a fast driver do if they get onto a highway, and are planning to get off in 1-2 miles. Should they bother crossing over to the left or stay in the right lane?
If you're going the same speed as the lane, it doesn't matter how busy it is as long as there's a car sized gap. If you're coming to a full stop and then trying to merge with a moving lane (what you shouldn't do), then yes, the busy lane is much more dangerous.
But if you're trying to merge on, whether or not you have to stop before merging is not totally in your control. Specifically, if the right lane is packed, you may have to stop if there is no opening as you pull up. Then it will be harder to merge in, not only because you are starting from zero velocity but also because the lane is packed.
That is why I think people should not get in the right lane on a highway unless they are about to get off.
Don't stop if the right lane is packed. Keep going and a gap will open as traffic accelerates away from the stopped group creating distance - you don't need to merge immediately.
yes, in california we also have drivers who sit in the middle lanes ignoring the surrounding traffic conditions (which is totally fine if traffic is light, or very heavy since everyone is stuck doing the same speed). and so similarly, the right lane is often the fastest lane, which, on city streets, raises the overall danger (particularly to pedestrians and cyclists).
although i believe the biggest cause of accidents is distracted driving (which is hard to correct, short of culture change), i'd still support raising the overall technical skill of driving in the population through a variety of means: more training (defensive and offensive driving), simulation (video games? competitions?), stricter testing, differential licensing, etc. maybe then everyone would know how to speed up and slow down to merge properly and the right lane wouldn't be so unnatractive.
What happens is all the slow traffic (-5 to +2 of speed limit) doesn't want to deal with the absurd number of on-ramps (12 in 13 miles!) so they move to the middle lane. Then the moderately faster cars (+2 to +7 of the speed limit) pass on the left. Then you get all the people that want to go faster and they go to the right lane and then cut across to the left when cars are merging.