You should be leaving enough stopping distance between yourself and the next car that someone can merge easily and you have time to react by slowing down or moving to the next lane to make space for them. If you don’t have that much stopping distance, then you’re already in danger if the car in front brakes suddenly, e.g. if they need to do an emergency stop because of something you’ve not seen, they have a medical event making them lose consciousness and accidentally step on the brake pedal, or their car breaks down in a way that forces the breaks on.
It really doesn’t have anything to do if there is a car in front or not.
At least in the Pittsburgh area, because of the hilly terrain, there is often not enough reaction time between seeing if a car is waiting on an on ramp and switching lanes.
Also, it isn’t just me. AAA driving instructions say use the middle lane for through-traffic.
Generally, the right lane of a freeway is for entering and exiting the traffic flow. It is a staging lane, for use at the beginning and end of your freeway run. The middle lanes are for through traffic, and the left lane is for passing. If you are traveling on a roadway with more than two lanes, you should move out of the right lane unless you are driving at a slower speed or preparing to enter or exit.
At least where I am in the US, it’s generally good etiquette to be in the middle lane so cars can merge onto the highway easily.
Where I am in the US that is a violation of traffic laws and you can get a ticket for it.
Where I am the on ramps aren’t so frequent that it’s implausible to move over once in a while when there’s an onramp.
Well thank god we all live where you do. Shame traffic is awful now that we have 9 billion people and inconsistent on ramps though.
You should be leaving enough stopping distance between yourself and the next car that someone can merge easily and you have time to react by slowing down or moving to the next lane to make space for them. If you don’t have that much stopping distance, then you’re already in danger if the car in front brakes suddenly, e.g. if they need to do an emergency stop because of something you’ve not seen, they have a medical event making them lose consciousness and accidentally step on the brake pedal, or their car breaks down in a way that forces the breaks on.
It really doesn’t have anything to do if there is a car in front or not.
At least in the Pittsburgh area, because of the hilly terrain, there is often not enough reaction time between seeing if a car is waiting on an on ramp and switching lanes.
Also, it isn’t just me. AAA driving instructions say use the middle lane for through-traffic.
https://autoclubsouth.aaa.com/Assets/PDFs/freeway_driving.pdf