The Wise Drive

Q: What are the rules for high beams on parallel roads or divided roads? Does the 50-foot wide median on the freeway negate the need to dim your high beams for an approaching car? What if the median is full of vegetation or has a wall that divides the freeway? What about a vehicle on a frontage road when there are cars on the freeway?

A: I’m going to make an assumption here; you’re asking this because you’d like to use your high beams as much as possible within the boundaries of the law. That makes sense. You can outdrive your low beam headlights at surprisingly low speeds. Even high beams aren’t as effective at illuminating our path as we might hope. How ineffective? We’ll get to that in next week’s article. That’s right, this is a two-parter.

Continue reading “High Beams and Parallel Roads”

Q: We live in a neighborhood with sidewalks. Skateboarders are using our streets and speeding down the hills. We have almost hit them by simply driving and being overcome by speeding skateboarders passing us. Is it illegal for them to be using the roads?

A: Just for fun, I’d like to add a second question to this: Does the speed limit apply to pedestrians? Unless you’re capable of running at speeds in the range of Usain Bolt (max of 27 mph) this seems like a pointless question. But the legal definition of a pedestrian includes more than walkers and runners. The Revised Code of Washington defines a pedestrian as, in addition to folks on their feet, a person using a wheelchair, power wheelchair, or “a means of conveyance propelled by human power other than a bicycle.”

Continue reading “Skateboarding with Traffic”

Q: It’s obvious that many drivers routinely exceed the speed limit in many areas, not just on freeways. So the next logical question is: How are speed limits determined? One would hope that there is some science, not just politics or customary historical norms, that inform the speed limit decision for a stretch of road.

A: Your hope is not unfounded. The law does set default speed limits for various kinds of roads, which I guess you could say is setting limits based on historical norms, and they’re set in state statute by elected officials, so you could call that politics, but there’s more to it than that.

Continue reading “How Speed Limits are Set”

Did you know that starting January 1^st it is illegal to kill a pedestrian with your car? Hopefully when you read that you thought, “You mean it wasn’t illegal already?” Okay, I admit I’m being a bit sensationalist with that opening sentence. We already have a vehicular homicide law.  But we did have a significant gap in our traffic laws – one that left pedestrian, cyclist and other vulnerable road user deaths surprisingly unpunished.

Continue reading “New Law Increases Penalties for Pedestrian Deaths”

Q: We are helping our nephew learn to drive. On a recent drive, he was first at a green light, and did not look to see if anyone was running the red light for the cross street before he proceeded. His uncle maintains a crash would be the fault of the red-light runner, and I say the law requires you to make sure the intersection is clear before you proceed, so the person proceeding through without first making sure it is clear could be at fault.

A: I should not get involved in a family dispute, but I’m going to anyway. Collisions between two vehicles sometimes happen because of the actions of both drivers, so it’s not uncommon for both drivers to share some responsibility for the crash. In this case though, I’m siding with the uncle, and I’m basing that on what the law requires for each driver.

Continue reading “Red Light Runners and Green Light Waiters”

Q: How can a police officer know if a driver is impaired by drugs? With alcohol there are roadside tests like walking a line, and a breath test. Are there similar tests for drug impairment? Alcohol has a .08 limit, and now cannabis has a limit, but are there limits for other drugs?

A: It’s time for a pop quiz: At what point has a driver had too much alcohol to legally drive? This isn’t exactly a trick question, but if your answer was a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08, well, you’re wrong. Surprised? I’ll explain.

Continue reading “The Real Test for Impaired Driving”

Q: Yesterday, my neighborhood had a power outage.  The traffic light nearby was impacted and had no power. I believe the rule is that you treat a dead traffic light like a stop sign.  I was surprised to see everyone I came across treating it like a green light and proceeding through at almost normal speed, even though I was waiting at the intersection. Am I missing something?

A: As someone completely unqualified to make any sort of psychological assessment, I’m going to do it anyway. Years ago in an intro to psychology class I learned about the fight, flight, or freeze responses to stress. And maybe that’s what you’re observing. Specifically, the freeze response.

Continue reading “What to do when the Lights go Out”

Q: I have never found the answer to this – even in the DMV book. If two cars coming from opposite directions on the same street (without stop signs or traffic signals) want to turn onto the same side street, who has the right-of-way to make that turn first?

A: It’s not easy to find a one-sentence answer in a 142-page document, so I’ll help you out. The information you’re looking for is on page 3-25 of the Washington Driver Guide. And so you don’t have to go look it up, here’s what it says: “Drivers turning left must yield to oncoming vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists.”

Continue reading “Right-of-Way for Opposing Drivers”

Q: How much should parents trust their teen drivers to make safe driving decisions?

A: Almost every week I respond to a reader question, but this week’s question is mine. I got to wondering after reading a new survey of teen drivers and parents.

We’re not always the best at assessing reality. What do I mean by that? Well, as one example, somewhere between 70 percent and 93 percent of American drivers (depending on the study) consider themselves better than the average driver. Either there’s some strange new math going on, or at least some of us are wrong about our driving skills. And, despite crash data saying otherwise, about 15 percent of Americans think we’re the best drivers in the world. (It should be noted that nearly the same amount of us think we’re the worst.)

Continue reading “Should I Trust My Teen Driver?”

Q: There’s a freeway exit I sometimes take that ends in a roundabout. The speed limit for the roundabout is 10 mph. When traffic is heavy, it is very risky to enter the roundabout because people do not slow down. Would speed bumps prior to the roundabout get people to slow down or would that make it worse?

A: Before we get into roundabouts, let’s talk about speed limits. We tend to think of a speed limit as the sign with black numbers on a white background. That’s part of it, but the first paragraph of the speed limit law requires drivers to travel at a reasonable speed for conditions, be aware of potential and actual hazards, and limit speeds to avoid a collision. Sometimes the legal speed is lower than what’s posted on a speed limit sign.

Continue reading “Speed Limits in Roundabouts”