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"Keep right except to pass" sign along U.S. 127 in Jackson Friday, May 22, 2015. (Danielle Duval | MLive.com)

(Danielle Duval | MLive.com)

LANSING, MI -- You're going 70 miles per hour on a two-lane highway. You move to the left to pass a big truck and -- brakes! -- you're stuck behind somebody going 65 miles per hour in the left lane.

That situation should sound familiar to Michigan drivers. With the vehicles in the right and left lane moving around 65 miles per hour, you slow down and wait for one vehicle to inch its way past the other and go on your way. As Vox explains, the people traveling in the left lane at lower speeds than other traffic create a ripple effect and slow everybody down.

And it's not just annoying; it's the law. We're all supposed to be driving "upon the right half of the roadway," in legal terms. There are a few exceptions when drivers can move into the left lane:

to pass a vehicle in the right lane

when the right lane is closed due to construction

when a state or local vehicle is working on the roadway

on a road with three or more lanes

prior to making a left turn

Since 2012, the Michigan State Police have issued 6,090 tickets for improper lane use, according to MSP spokeswoman Tiffany Brown. The number of citations has been climbing: 1,322 were issued in 2012, 1,935 in 2013 and 2,070 in 2014. So far in 2015, 763 have been issued.

It's a civil infraction. As of 2014, the recommended fine was $110 to $128 for first-time offenders.

But Michiganders are notorious for flouting that particular law and have been for more than half a century. A document from the 1949 Michigan Highway Conference mentions official signage that warned Michiganders to "Keep Right Except to Pass."

Fast-forward to modern times and Urban Dictionary, the popular community-based website for defining pop culture words, lists the second-most popular definition for "Michigander" as "A driver, usually from the state of Michigan, who drives in the left lane, refusing to move over."

States have tried to address this as a public policy issue. In fact, every state has laws on the books that encourage traveling in the right lane. But some states are moving to crack down on left-lane hogs. Lawmakers in Oregon, Ohio and Washington are considering instituting fines for the offense. Police officers are targeting people for the offense in Texas.

In Michigan, we last moved to address the problem through improved signage. State lawmakers passed legislation in 2006 that required MDOT to roll out signs reminding people to drive in the right lane.

MDOT spokesperson Jeff Cranson said MDOT, in 2011, officially adopted a "Keep Right Except To Pass" sign (pictured).

"MDOT has adopted this sign into its guidelines for signing and placement, for the interchange signing sequence," Cranson said.

There are signs in place along a couple of corridors on I-96, on I-69 between St. Clair and Genesee county lines, all along I-194, on I-94 from US-31 to M-51 and on US-131 from the Kent County Line to Cadillac. MDOT is recommending their placement as part of future signing projects as well.

But there's some evidence that signs in general don't work. A 2007 study from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute piloted signs that said "Keep Right Pass Left -- It's The Law" instead of what was in place at that time, "Slower Traffic Keep Right" signs. Prior to that, sometime in the 1970s, the state used "Slower-Moving Traffic Keep Right" signs.

The researchers did not see a statistical difference in left lane behavior. The study concluded different signage likely wouldn't change driver behavior.

"One particular element that may explain the lack of response of motorists to the tested sign may be that drivers generally pay no attention to signs reminding them to drive on the right lane when not passing other vehicles, whatever the sign is," the study noted.

So if signs and more than 1,000 citations a year aren't the fix, what is? Leave your ideas in the comment section below.

Emily Lawler is a Capitol/Business reporter for MLive. You can reach her at elawler@mlive.com, subscribe to her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter: @emilyjanelawler.