Idiots in the Breakdown Lane

Here in Massachusetts, during "rush hours" it is perfectly legal to drive in the breakdown lane on certain (posted) roads.  This counter-intuitive use of the BREAKDOWN lane often mystifies out-of-state travelers who may find themselves experiencing a mechanical problem or flat tire.  It is not uncommon for some unfortunate family on a road trip to be wiped-out by a sleepy commuter who was anxious to get to work,barreling down the breakdown lane at 60 or 70 mph.

The state police do not like the use of Breakdown Lanes (BL) for travel. The initial case for opening-up the BL was to spread out the pressure of traffic to another lane, but any fool can see that you are just deferring the logjam to another location ahead where the traffic needs to merge again. unsurprisingly, it has proven ineffective as a deterrence to traffic tie-ups; we still have virtual gridlock on all major highways during rush hour.  Furthermore the use of the BL as a TL blocks the free access of emergency vehicles to get to accident sites.

A sensible implementation of this exception would be
1) The maximum speed limit in Breakdown Lanes is 30mph.  (The BL should not be used as a Passing Lane)
2) Vehicles stopped in breakdown lane are assumed to be unable to travel and you must go around them slowly.
3) Vehicles exiting from Travel Lane have right-of-way at exits. BL drivers must yield.

The idiots who typically drive 70 mph in the Breakdown lane probably cause more accidents and near misses than the statistics reveal.