June 2021 – The Wise Drive

June 24, 2021July 6, 2021

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, 2021June 21, 2021

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, 2021June 9, 2021

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, 2021June 2, 2021

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.