Well, as long as cars are crossing back and forth you have to be alert to what’s going on, because in dense traffic it often requires easing up on the gas here and there, letting people in, etc., but, yeah, you can space out a little more to some extent in the center lane. As long as you are fairly matched in speed with the center lane. If you go too slow people are constantly cutting around you, which is dangerous, but the center is usually near the speed limit, which I think most drivers on the road can maintain.
I’ll tell you, the turnpike here is 70mph, and the left is often traveling at 80–85mph, and I’m just not up for the high speeds most of the time anymore. People drive even faster sometimes. The no stop sunpass lanes for the tolls are on the left, and some of those tolls are still 25 mph to cross through. Many of the speed demons don’t want to slow down enough for the toll and it is scary shit. They aren’t trying to do 80 through the toll, but often as traffic is slowing to 50 as they approach the toll, those guys are still wanting to go super fast, and then hard braking right up against the tail of the cars in front of them right before the toll crossing. It is not good.
I find when I don’t feel good keeping up with traffic, because the traffic is too fast, that I feel more vulnerable on the road. Part of it is cars whizzing around me, and part of it is whatever has me feeling like I want to drive slower is the very thing probably making me feel less confident. It might be that it’s night time, or lane changes from construction, or some other condition.
The more aggressive drivers typically are more up-to-the-second about exactly where the cars around them are on the road. If you just passed a car you know where it is, if you are constantly looking for a faster way forward, you are constantly analyzing traffic. When a driver’s main desire is to get in a lane and not have to worry about traffic so much, then they are more prone to be in a sort of hypnotic state and check mirrors less. I find this with myself for sure. I now drive slower than when I was younger, and I choose slower lanes, because I know I’m not driving at my most heightened I can be, even though I consider myself to still be paying attention to the road and other vehicles.