Why do school buses tend to move to the left lane on highways and interstates?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - You ever notice that school buses tend to move to the left lane on the highway or interstate?

Someone wanted to know why that is.

Is it a law? A strategy?

We reached out to North Carolina’s Department of Public Safety and learned it’s not actually required.

Here’s what they told us: “It is most likely simply strategic. It’s likely a case of getting where the driver needs to be. I’ve noticed that bus drivers have a tendency to look for the earliest or least disruptive opportunity to merge into the lane that they need to be in to minimize disruption once people start adapting.”

“They don’t want to have to change lanes when traffic is flowing much faster around them, or in heavy traffic where people prefer not to let them in.”

“Therefore, if when merging in the left lane, it’s probably because they really need to be in that lane in the next few miles and it’s likely better to do it sooner than try and force their way in closer to the turn.”

So, they likely needed to make a left within a few miles or they just want to avoid other cars merging into the traffic.

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