If it helps, lane changing is one of the main reasons for congestion so if you're only making a short trip (e.g. same city) you might as well keep right-ish.

In heavy traffic it's usually not even much slower, and sometimes even faster, so I often stay in the right two lanes if I'm just going downtown or something. I usually also help with the flow of traffic by letting people in and out for the three or four exits I'm passing, since I try not to tailgate.