Er, um, slowing tickets in Georgia?

A bill that sets a minimum fine for driving too slow in the passing lane on Georgia interstates and highways raced through a committee of the Georgia House yesterday afternoon.Members of the House Transportation Committee voted unanimously to send HB1047 to the House Rules Committee. The Rules Committee will decide in the next few weeks whether to send the bill to the full House for a vote.The measure to cut down on traffic congestion and driver frustration was introduced by State Rep. Mark Butler, (R) Carrollton.”They’re causing a lot of frustration for the drivers behind them,” Rep. Butler said Monday to the Associated Press, singling out, as an example, drivers who travel in the left lane at, say, 50 mph in a 65 mph stretch of Interstate. “They’re also causing people to weave in and out of traffic in order to get around the slower drivers, which also causes a much larger hazard…. The left-hand lane on these multi-lane roads is supposed to be used for passing only.”The bill would impose a fine of $75 on drivers caught going slower than the speed limit in the left-hand lanes of Georgia highways and interstates. Can it be? Now Georgians can be ticketed for driving too fast and for driving too slow? Are we headed to a life of cruise control? Can you imagine being pulled over, a state patrolman approaching your car, your window rolling down only to hear the patrolman say, rather firmly, “Sir/Ma’am, do you know how slow you were going?”