Category: Road Rules

Q: As someone who recently moved to Washington, I was surprised that there are no safety inspections. Wouldn’t we all be safer if all the cars on the road had properly operating lights and regulation equipment? Why are there no safety inspections as in other states?

A: Yes, vehicle inspections increase safety, but we can’t tell you how much. That was the conclusion of a study by the US Government Accountability Office. It’s hard to know if we should or shouldn’t do something when we don’t know how much it helps.

I can’t say for sure why Washington doesn’t have safety inspections, but I can explain why more states used to have them than do now. Money. The federal government used to withhold a percentage of highway funds from states without vehicle inspections. At the peak, 31 states had vehicle safety inspections. Washington was not one of them. In 1976 that rule changed, and now there are 16 states with annual or biannual inspections. States that still have inspections point out that they make their roads safer. States that have eliminated them say that the cost doesn’t justify the small (or possibly non-existent) increase in safety. States without inspections don’t seem to have more fatal crashes than those that do. Washington has a lower traffic fatality rate than ten of the 16 states with safety inspections.

Continue reading “Are Vehicle Safety Inspections Worth It?”

Q: I often see trucks parked in the center turn lane and unloading cargo. I also see truck trailers parked in the center turn lane in rural areas after unloading heavy equipment. What are the rules? Can just anyone park in a center turn lane and conduct business or unload items?

A: A thought popped into my head when I read the last part of your question. Imagine if this went beyond deliveries, and guerrilla food trucks started conducting business in center turn lanes, with pedestrians darting across the road for their burger or burrito. Or maybe the cook tosses your food to you from across the lane, like the Pike Place Market fishmongers.

Continue reading “Parking in the Center Turn Lane”

Q: When coming up behind someone who is signaling to turn left (into a driveway or at an uncontrolled intersection) and stopped waiting for cross traffic to clear, I turn on my left turn signal as well, even though I won’t be turning. When the other car turns, I turn off my signal and go on my way. My husband thinks this is crazy. I think it helps alert people behind me to what is happening ahead of us. I thought I was taught to do this when I learned to drive. Did I just make this up?

A: This is a first. I’ve had so many conversations about people turning and not using their turn signal. I’ve never had someone ask about using their turn signal and then not turning.

Continue reading “Signaling for Other Drivers”

Q: What is the enforcement protocol for aftermarket lights installed on cars and trucks? Where I live there are numerous vehicles that have swapped out stock headlights with bulbs that are blazingly blinding to oncoming traffic. In European countries, these cars would never last a day on the roads as they take vehicle safety more seriously.

A: Many of us in America have a deep-rooted urge to use our cars as a form of self-expression. I recall watching an episode of a British car enthusiast show, where the host (and this guy is car-obsessed) was genuinely confused about the American predisposition for over-the-top car modifications. I’ve been guilty of it myself. Eighteen-year-old me drove a 1963 Chevy Nova SS with a borderline ridiculous paint job and extra-wide fender flares in back to fit the beefy tires on my custom-painted Cragar five-spoke wheels. Why would you paint your Cragars? I thought it was cool, and I regret selling that car.

Continue reading “Making Headlights Too Bright”

Q: When I drive with a certain person in the passenger seat, they’re always telling me to watch out for brake lights, check my speed, back off from the car in front of me, and so on. I think I’m a good driver and they’re overreacting, but I don’t want to start a fight. How should I deal with a backseat driver (or passenger seat driver)?

A: Do you know who the worst backseat drivers are? Fifteen-year-olds. They’re at the age where they think they might be smart enough to challenge a grown-up, and their driver’s ed classes are fresh in their minds. What makes them the worst isn’t how they correct you, or that you’re used to being the one in charge. It’s that they’re right.

Continue reading “What to do About Backseat Drivers”

Q: Here’s the situation: I’m parallel parking on a two-lane road with a double centerline, so no passing, right? Is it legal for a car to pass me as I’m parallel parking, or do they have to wait until I’m out of the lane?

A: Let’s start with what we know. Two yellow lines down the center of the roadway are, in the words of the law “appropriate signs or markings” letting us know we’re in a no-passing zone. Even though we call it a no-passing zone, a more accurate term would be, “no driving on the left side of the pavement stripe zone.” That’s because violating the law doesn’t require you to actually pass another vehicle. If you cross over to the left side of the stripe, you broke the law.

Continue reading “Passing Parking Cars”

Q: Wasn’t it like ten years ago that Elon Musk promised we’d have fully autonomous cars in five years? When am I going to get a car that can drive me around?

A: It’s easy to poke fun at Elon Musk, since he’s the loudest person to be wrong about autonomous cars, but he’s not alone. Along with Tesla, carmakers including Mercedes, Volvo, Nissan, Toyota, GM, Honda, Hyundai, and Google all predicted that we’d have full self-driving cars by 2020. In 2016 Anthony Foxx, US Transportation Secretary at the time, predicted that by 2021 we’d no longer need a driver license because we’d just summon an automated car service. Musk went bigger (of course), saying in 2019 that “It’s financially insane to buy anything other than a Tesla,” and following up by saying that “next year for sure” there would be over a million fully self-driving Teslas on the road.

Continue reading “Where’s My Robot Car?”

Q: Traffic on the freeway has increased over the years and now exiting traffic sometimes comes to a stop in the traffic lanes of the freeway. It’s really scary to have to come to a stop and see traffic piling up behind me. I almost feel like staying in the left lane and taking the next exit. What are your suggestions when encountering this situation?

A: One of the drawbacks of living in a place where lots of people want to be is that we end up with lots of people. Long-time Washington residents can remember when rush hour was really only an hour and you almost had to leave the state to find a legitimate traffic jam. But we couldn’t keep it to ourselves and now the infrastructure can’t maintain pace with the popularity of Washington.

Continue reading “Navigating Backed Up Off-Ramps”

Q: There is a commercial on TV featuring a deaf driver. Are deaf people allowed to drive, or are they restricted because of their hearing loss?

A: Perhaps you saw the car commercial featuring Kris Martin, a six-time National Kart Champion, NASCAR, and Le Mans professional race car driver who is deaf. If so, I hope you found him as inspirational as I did. But being an inspiration isn’t one of the qualifications for a driver license. That’s okay for Kris though, and for many other deaf people, because being deaf isn’t a disqualifier.

Continue reading “The Myth of the Dangerous Deaf Driver”