Author: DOUG DAHL

We’re hours away from our most patriotic day of the year, so here’s one from the archives for anyone planning to fly the flag on a moving vehicle.

Flags on Pickup Trucks – Can You or Can’t You? (Or Should You?)

Q: I just heard about something called a ‘right hook,’ and that’s a situation I want to avoid. Can you explain how to make a right turn when there’s a cyclist on the road?

A: Right now all the boxing fans reading this (they’re a big part of my demographic) are confused; what does a punch to the side of your opponent have to do with driving near cyclists? And the Australians think they know what I’m talking about, but they don’t; down under, a right hook is a legal driving maneuver that has nothing to do with cyclists.

Continue reading “Avoiding the Right Hook”

Q: It seems like some of our road signs, for example the signs telling slow drivers to pull over if they’re delaying traffic, just aren’t working. Can we add some extra signs that encourage drivers to be courteous to other drivers?

A: Before I respond to that question, I think we should start with a more fundamental question: What’s the purpose of a road sign? While you may have an opinion on what we should use road signs for (and your ideas might be great), the people that put up the signs follow the rules of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and, in Washington, any modifications to the rules as documented in the Washington Administrative Code (WAC). Additionally, The Department of Transportation has a traffic manual that I haven’t read, but based on the summary it appears to combine the most frequently used details of the MUTCD and the WAC into one more user-friendly (126 pages instead of 862 pages in the MUTCD and 64 sections of laws in the WAC) document.

Continue reading “Polite Signs, Please”

Q: I’ve heard some conflicting information on how to turn my wheels when parallel parking on a hill. Do I point them toward or away from the road?

A: Here’s what I like about this question: it goes beyond what is required and asks what is best. Traffic laws specify the bare minimum requirements for legally participating in our transportation system with your motor vehicle. To parallel park in compliance with the law, “park with the right-hand wheels parallel to and within twelve inches of the right-hand curb or as close as practicable to the right edge of the right-hand shoulder.”

Continue reading “Parking on a Hill”

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.

Continue reading “Making a Proper Turn”

Q: Is it considered distracted driving if I hold my phone to use maps? My car GPS is awful!

A: Our brains are shrinking. And GPS is to blame. At least that’s the conclusion of a study on what happens to us when we depend on our GPS to get us where we’re headed. You’ve probably heard about some GPS disasters; the tourists who drove into the ocean, the out-of-town conference attendees who drove their car into the Mercer Slough, the woman who followed her GPS to a destination 900 miles from where she was headed. GPS is amazing, until it isn’t. And when we rely on it without thinking, we’re not so great either. It turns out that the parts of our brain responsible for navigation and planning shut off when we turn on our GPS.

Continue reading “GPS Is Making Us Dumber”

Q: You say that seat belts save lives, but have you considered that those involved in a fatal crash don’t need extensive medical care? It’s the non-fatalities through use of seat belts that often require extensive and costly medical services.

A: It sounds like you’re suggesting that the reason we shouldn’t use seat belts is because it’s cheaper to have people die than to treat them. That’s pretty messed up. I see two possibilities for the kind of people who think like this: people who don’t care about other humans and people who don’t care about physics or biology.

Continue reading “Seat Belts Save Lives (and Money)”

Q: I’ve seen a few vehicles where their brake lights flash a few times when they first come on. It certainly gets my attention. Is that something available in new cars, or is it an aftermarket product? And if so, is it legal?

A: Assuming you’re not sending me this question from somewhere in Europe, it’s probably illegal. And when I say probably, I’m 99.9 percent sure it’s illegal. The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) section on vehicle lighting is about as long as George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, and way less interesting, so I didn’t read all of it, but from what I did, flashing brake lights are not allowed on vehicles in the US (mostly).

Continue reading “Blinking Brake Lights”

Q: What is the appropriate, safe, and legal response when I am travelling in a center lane, at the speed limit, boxed in by other traffic, and a non-emergency vehicle speeds up behind me and starts flashing its high-beams?

A: What do you already know about the driver this person is asking about, just from this question? Besides that. Yes, they’re feeling an excessive sense of urgency. As a practice, it’s wise to separate yourself from those kinds of drivers, and it sounds like you’re looking for the best way to do that.

Continue reading “Escaping From Tailgaters”

Q: I recently had a near-crash involving an older driver who probably shouldn’t have been driving based on his poor vision. Why don’t we require older drivers to take a driver test to keep their license?

A: I’m willing to go one further: Why don’t we require everyone to periodically take a driver test to keep their license? I know, it’s a great idea, but in our current transportation culture it has some problems. I’ll get to those in a minute.

There’s no debate that as we get older we lose our youthful abilities. My reaction time is slower than when I was 18, and it’ll continue to gradually decline. And like many other people who have lived at least several decades, I need corrective lenses to see clearly. But if we presume that we drive worse as our bodies incrementally let us down, why are young drivers involved in fatal crashes at double the rate of the rest of us?

Continue reading “We Should All Retake our Driver Exam”