A: I was taught, and the driver’s guide says, that when you’re turning left or right, you’re supposed to “turn into the lane closest to the one you came from,” and, “once you have completed your turn, you can change to another lane if you need to.” Is that just good advice, or is it the law? In my view it is often not followed by drivers.
Q: How many times have you been hanging out with friends, and someone says, “You know what I think would be great? Including references to the legal code in the Washington Driver Guide.” Never? Apparently, we’re not friends yet. Just think; having those references would help you identify which drivers are breaking the law and which ones are just bad at driving.
Much of the Driver Guide is based on what’s written in the Revised Code of Washington, reworded to be understandable to non-lawyers. But the guide also contains advice that, while not legally required, will make you a safer driver. For example, the guide gives the following instructions:
- Check the speedometer often
- Do not slow down to look at a collisions
- Do not drive in another vehicle’s blind spot
- Look well down the road, at least 15 seconds
No doubt, these are good practices, but they’re not the law. I’ve said before that following the law doesn’t make you a good driver; the law is the bare minimum requirement. A good driver engages in many other smart (but not legally required) practices to be safe.
I’ll give you a tip about the driver guide though. Section three, titled ‘Rules of the Road’ is just that. It’s a safe bet (but not a guarantee) that what you find in that section comes straight from the law. And that’s where we find the instructions about how to make a proper turn. When turning left, for example, approach the turn in the left-most available lane, and stay in that lane until you’ve completed the turn. That might be a surprise to some folks; there are a few states where you can turn into any available lane. In Washington, stay in your lane throughout the turn. That includes intersections that have more than one dedicated turn lane. Right turns are a mirror of what you just read. Don’t change lanes until you’ve completed the turn and confirmed that it’s safe to do so.
You mentioned that you notice other drivers often not following this law. I have a guess as to why: Human brains are lazy. We tend to simplify steps whenever we can. Blame evolution. The humans that conserve energy tend to increase their chances of survival. That is, unless their effort to conserve energy puts them in peril. The hunter that found a shorter footpath to the antelope herd had more energy for a successful hunt; the hunter that took a shortcut off a cliff, well, that’s how evolution finds a balance.
Drifting into the far lane before you complete your turn, slowing down but not stopping at a stop sign, failing to use a turn signal; these are tiny shortcuts that the lazy part of your brain will take if you don’t tell it who’s boss.
Lazy shortcuts aren’t all bad, but save them for situations where the stakes aren’t so high (like using ChatGTP to write all your work email). Give 100 percent of your attention and do it right whenever it matters. I’d argue that when you’re piloting a multi-ton projectile through cities and neighborhoods on public streets, doing it right matters.