If looks could kill, the highways of B.C. would be littered with the corpses of sanctimonious, self-appointed traffic wardens — the stubborn twits who refuse to yield the left lane, because driving at the legal speed limit means they shouldn’t have to move over.

At the same time, there’d be carnage on every twisty road from Sparwood to Tofino, where the pilots of slow-moving campers and RVs refuse to pull aside and let other traffic past, even as a convoy of infuriated drivers snakes along behind them.

Such drivers aggravate, infuriate and annoy — and at their worst, they cause dangerous situations in traffic, as faster motorists lose their patience and take risks to get past.

Well get ready to smile.

In a smart piece of traffic legislation that Alberta should adopt as soon as possible, British Columbia is putting left-lane hogs and sluggish single-lane drivers on the wrong side of the law, clearing the way for safe passing and a lot less frustration.

“These people that occupy left hand lanes — some don’t know any better, but there are some who are sociopaths, who somehow feel they own the moral high ground and it’s their god-given right to be there,” said Ian Tootill, founder of Sense B.C., a motorist advocacy group.

“They feel, like George Carlin said, that everyone driving slower is an idiot and everyone going faster is a maniac.”

For the past two decades, lobbyists like Sense B.C. have been pushing the province to adopt traffic rules like the one used in neighbouring Washington state, where the left lane is strictly reserved for passing.

It’s a wish that may finally be granted, with B.C. Transportation Minister Todd Stone introducing amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act this spring, giving police the power to target and fine left-lane squatters.

“We’re committed to strengthening the language in the act to give law enforcement better tools so they can actually crack down on left-lane hogs,” Stone told reporters.

For the frustrated majority, the change should help clear passing lanes for actual passing, while a further amendment is expected to force RVs and other slow-moving vehicles on single lane roads to use the nearest pullout, once five or more vehicles are being held up behind.

Tootill, whose organization was part of the stakeholder group which produced the Rural Highway Safety and Speed Review last year, says the government’s willingness to act on the report shows decades of speed obsession may finally be coming to an end.

“This is one of the things we’ve been looking for since day one, and it seems we’re finally seeing a departure from the past, when the sole focus was going after people exceeding the posted speed limit,” said Toothill.

“Now we have a more nuanced approach, and a more intelligent approach as far as I’m concerned.”

The simplistic mantra that speed kills has certainly kept many governments from looking at real improvements to traffic safety, for fear it would like an endorsement of breaking the posted limit.

But faced with increasing evidence that smooth flowing traffic, even when speeding, is much safer than erratic traffic hampered by left-lane squatters and those who refuse to maintain the pace, enlightened legislators are starting to react.

Germany, Washington, Oregon, California and now B.C. are among the jurisdictions where left lanes are reserved for passing, allowing for safe, smooth overtaking by vehicles moving at a quicker pace.

Alberta should be next, if safety and science were the only motivation behind traffic laws. But the reality is a $60 million-a-year traffic fine industry, and politicians who’ve been repeating the “speed kills” message for too many years.

Back in October, when Stone announced B.C. speed-limits speeds would increased to as much as 120 km/h, matching the latest studies on smooth traffic flow and reduced collision rates, Alberta’s Transportation Ministry said there was no plan to make any changes here: “We’re always interested in the data that comes out, though we’re not particularly interested in it.”

Alberta has little motivation to change — that is until B.C. shows us just how safe smooth-flowing traffic can be.