I doubt this week even half of the drivers were swiss on the highways. Also northern europeans sometimes drive all night to reach italy and they sleep at the wheel.
Anyway if you flash them they usually get out of the way.
Nothing to do with that as they do exactly the same on UK motorways. Simple laziness and the mentality of “Oh I can see a car on the inside lane up ahead that I’ll have to overtake so I’ll just stay out here.” It’s even worst there because you have people hogging the middle lane of 3 so you either have to undertake them (not allowed) or go right out to the third lane to do it correctly.
They are drivers. This happens in other countries as well.
In such situations, I get into the right hand lane and match my speed to be approximately the same as the left hand lane. Generally speaking, if you get into the right hand lane at the first sign of congestion, you'll make better progress than hogging the left hand lane in the hope that somehow you'll get past the truck a km up the road more quickly. I've never had a problem getting back into the left hand lane when I finally reach the truck and need to overtake. After overtaking of course I get back into the right hand lane as soon as practical.
You'll find that driving in this way makes it easier to keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front, and overall a more relaxed driving experience. It also won't significantly impact your journey time.
Yes and no. Probably forbidden still in this case.
The federal court ruling ( BGE 142 IV 93 ) requires "Kolonnenverkehr" (lines of cars) on both lanes (all, respectively). This is characterised by "reger Verkehr", lively traffic.
A single car on the right lane does not satisfy that condition, neither a couple.
ETA:
I originally missed the fact that OP must have accelerated by 20km/h after switching to the right. Since that made him clearly faster than the left lane the ruling doesn't apply. As a consequence, I think it was clearly illegal.
I felt it was REALLY odd that the right lane was so empty and the left lane was so very full.
I felt, while on my trip & in traffic, that much of the traffic could have been smoothed out if we drivers used both lanes.
And trust me, I wasn't trying to speed past traffic in the right lane... I just didn't want a perfectly good lane go to waste --- I mean, seriously - the right lane was EMPTY.
This is the problem with the "No passing on the right" rule - above a certain traffic density it effectively turns every highway into a single lane road.
The advantage of the rule? "You don't need to check your blind spot when moving right"...
Although I _don't_ pass on the right, I think it's about time that the law was dropped - it is from a bygone era.
That is the weird thing about this autobahn rule. It is forbidden because it is dangerous. But it is only dangerous because it is forbidden. Considering it is and was always allowed inside city limits the rule should be abolished.
There ought to be worldwide laws that prohibit shooting video footage in portray mode unless it's a rocket launch, a X-mas tree, a flagpole, one person (two at the very most) standing in front of a boring backdrop etc..
But of course! The driver on the left lane who wants to change to the right lane has to make sure his manoeuvre is safe so s/he MUST check to ensure there's no one on the right.
What's the difference? This ruling describes the situation as:
Dense traffic on the middle and left lane but only "reger Verkehr" on the righmost lane. No car immediately in front of the complainant(?) but the verdict says nothing about (lack of) cars following behind. Yet there must have been some cars on the rightmost lane otherwise "lively traffic" wouldn't apply.
I should have put quotes around "advantage", and used a couple of smilies to indicate sarcasm.
I don't believe there is an advantage to the law/rule, but have had various people "explain" it to me as above. In most cases these were older gentlemen doing their best to educate a boorisch American.
Perhaps the reason I never accepted their justification is that I am neither boorish, nor an American. I also check my blindspot and mirrors while driving, regardless of the local law or convention.