Road Rules – Page 20 – The Wise Drive

July 15, 2021July 18, 2024

Can You Leave Your Engine Running on an Electric Car?

Q: I have Chevy Bolt EV and during the recent heat wave I left the vehicle “on” while parking in order to leave the air conditioning running. The car is designed so that it can turn itself “on” in order to cool the battery, so turning it “off” doesn’t mean it’ll necessarily stay “off”. Making the vehicle move when it’s “on” still requires that you have the fob, have your foot on the brake, your thumb on the shifter button while shifting out of park, after taking off the parking brake. So, in my opinion with all these interlocks, it’s perfectly safe. But is it legal in Washington?

A: Back in 1965 (and probably even earlier, but that’s far enough back for the purposes of this article) we had a law in Washington that stated, “No person driving or in charge of a motor vehicle shall permit it to stand unattended without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, removing the key and effectively setting the brake . . .” Fifty-five years later, our current law on unattended vehicles starts with the exact same sentence.

July 8, 2021July 18, 2024

Motorcycles: Passing is not Lane Sharing

Q: Can a motorcycle pass another motorcycle on the right if the riders are not lane sharing?

A: My favorite motorcycle movie has to be Hot Rod; a film in which stunt man Rob Kimble tries to earn his step-dad’s respect by attempting (and failing) numerous motorcycle jumps. It’s probably the least capable motorcycle rider doing the dumbest riding ever put on the big screen. At the other extreme, there’s The Terminator, who races helmetless through Los Angeles traffic, smashing through chain link gates, jumping his Harley into an aqueduct and outmaneuvering a villain in a truck to rescue the young John Connor.

The common denominator is that both riders take extreme risks on their motorcycles, and both survive. The Terminator survives because he’s an indestructible robot from the future; Rod Kimble survives because the hero never dies in a fictional comedy.

July 1, 2021July 18, 2024

Putting Up A Sign Doesn’t Make It Official

Q: I live in a rural town and my neighbors have been harassing us lately to slow down on a road that by law is 25 mph. They have today now posted a “slow down: speed limit 10 mph” sign they bought off the internet. Does this sign have any legal standing?

A: Can you imagine if you really could just decide what you wanted the speed limit to be in front of your house and then put up a sign? What happens if I think the speed on my street should be 20 mph, but my neighbor three doors down prefers 50 mph? With enough opinions, we could be changing speed limits at each property line, and maybe even have different speed limits on each side of the street. Of course, this is all nonsense, as it’s not up to the individual residents on a street to decide the speed limit.

June 24, 2021July 18, 2024

What Kind Of Parent Lets Their Teenager Go On A Road Trip?

Q: My daughter just graduated from high school, and now she and her friends are planning a multi-day road trip to celebrate. I’m not sure how smart or safe it is to let four teenagers drive together for several days. I’m trying to figure out if letting her go makes me a good parent or a bad parent.

A: I am reasonably qualified to answer a question about traffic safety. I’m certainly not qualified to determine if you’re a good or bad parent, so I can’t help you there. However, the fact that you’re asking the question has me leaning toward the former.

I can imagine the questions you’re asking yourself, because several years ago I was asking myself the same ones as my son departed on a road trip with some recently graduated friends. Based on that statement, you might think I’m going to recommend that you let your daughter go on the trip. But I’m smarter than that; I’m not going to tell another parent what’s right for their kid.

June 17, 2021July 18, 2024

The Dance: Opposing Turns In An Intersection

Q: I’m new to Washington State and I’m curious about left turns at lights with no protected signal. When turning right onto a multi-lane road, I know that I must enter the lane closest to me. When turning left on a green light, I must also pull into the lane nearest me. So when two cars are turning onto the same multi-lane street from opposite directions, we both have the right of way into our own lane, correct?

A: Welcome to Washington! I might be biased, but I think it’s pretty amazing here. Lots of other people, possibly including you, agree with me, which sometimes leads to folks who have recently moved here questioning traffic rules they thought they knew. This is just a guess: Either you come from a state where the rules are as you described in your question and when you encountered this scenario here it didn’t play out as expected, or you came from a state where the rules were different and now you’re trying to figure out how to apply the new rules.

June 10, 2021July 18, 2024

Slow Vehicles – Part Two

Q: My question is regarding the Washington rule of the road about pulling over when there is a lineup of five or more vehicles behind you. Most of the time I am going the speed limit and I still get a pile-up of cars. Although pulling over would get them off my back for about three minutes, the pile-up of cars is constant so pulling over will not alleviate the problem, it feels dangerous to get back on the road, and I would have to pull over constantly. Am I still required to pull over when I am going the speed limit and everyone else is speeding?

A: After last week’s article about slow-moving vehicles pulling over, many of you responded with questions like this one. And I get it; if you’re going the speed limit and slowing down the cars behind you, it just doesn’t feel right, at a gut level, to have to pull over to make it easier for the cars behind you to speed. It’s like rewarding bad behavior. But how you feel doesn’t always correlate to what’s written in the Revised Code of Washington. That’s where things get tricky.

June 3, 2021July 18, 2024

Got Cars Lined Up Behind You? Here’s When To Pull Over.

Q: I know you’re supposed to pull over if you have five vehicles following you, but once that fifth car gets there, how much time do I have to pull over? When I’m towing our RV I want to be courteous to other drivers, but sometimes it’s a long stretch between good places to pull off, especially going over the passes.

A: When the sun comes out in Washington we roll down the windows, turn up the radio and sing like nobody’s listening. We also load up the camper to squeeze in as many camping days as we can before it starts to rain again. And that leads to questions about traveling with campers. Before we get to your question, thank you for your desire to be a courteous driver. Yes, driving laws are important, and right up there with following the law is being a decent human.

May 27, 2021July 18, 2024

Bicycles – Sometimes Vehicles, Sometimes Pedestrians

A: Are bicyclists who use crosswalks when crossing a road considered vehicles (which must yield to road traffic) or are they considered pedestrians (to which cars must yield) because they are in a crosswalk? In our community this is an issue where paved recreation trails cross busy roads. There are no signals at these crossings.

Q: Bicycles – the chameleons of traffic law. Sometimes they follow the rules for cars; sometimes they follow the rules for pedestrians. So here’s a simple guideline to figure out which rules generally apply. Treat bikes on the road like vehicles and bikes on a sidewalk or crosswalk like pedestrians.

May 20, 2021July 18, 2024

How Far Right Do I Have To Go to Keep Right?

Q: My question is about driving on limited-access freeways such as I-5. I try to drive as consistently as possible. On a three lane freeway, my understanding is the left lane is for passing, and the other two lanes are general purpose, which I’ve always understood to mean one lane isn’t supposed to be faster than the other. Typically I’ll drive in the center lane. The right lane usually goes slower but not always. Is there a legal requirement that says if I’m in the center lane with others passing me on the right, I must move to the right? If not, is it a courtesy I’m not aware of?

A: First off, I appreciate your intention to both do the law-abiding thing and the courteous thing. I think sometimes we overlook how driving courtesy can make the world a better place. And I can understand how you’ve reached the conclusion that the left lane is for passing and the other lanes are “general purpose”, despite that not actually being correct.

May 13, 2021July 18, 2024

Yielding at Uncontrolled Intersections

Q: I’d like to know who has the right-of-way at an intersection with no stop signs. In this case, it’s an urban collector street that crosses a short local street with cul-de-sacs at each end. I have argued that the urban collector street has the right-of-way because it crosses a street with dead ends, so it doesn’t matter about the person to the right having the right-of-way.

A: Sometimes what feels right in your gut doesn’t align with what’s actually in the law. I think you know where this is going. Before we get to the answer though, you mentioned that one road is an urban collector. Maybe we should be clear about what that means.