The Wise Drive

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.