Two Cars Turning onto the Same Street

Q: I have never found the answer to this – even in the Washington Driver Guide. If two cars coming from opposite directions on the same street want to turn onto the same side street, and there aren’t stop signs on the main street, who has the right-of-way to make that turn first?

A: If you’re looking for a rule for that exact scenario, you’re right, you won’t find it in the Washington Driver Guide or in Washington’s traffic laws. That’s not because there isn’t a rule about it; it’s just that your question is too specific. Something I’ve been guilty of as well.

Years ago, as a student in a criminal justice class, I recall the instructor getting annoyed by a series of, “But what if…” questions from us students that got progressively more detailed, to the point of being ridiculously improbable. He finally said something like, “What if a troop of purple aliens carrying laser blasters beamed down from a spacecraft?”

His point was that we often want the perfect answer; the one that so completely aligns with every detail in our situation that its application is indisputable. That is a fantasy. But while each situation is unique, there are still similarities. In traffic law, we have a set of rules that are written broadly enough to address those similar situations and narrow enough to be meaningful. Or, at least, that gets us 99 percent of the way there (I’m making up that percentage). The remaining questions become a matter of case law.  

Most of the time, if you can’t find a law that addresses a specific question, the solution is to step back and look for a broader law that applies to your situation. There isn’t a law called, “What to do when vehicles approaching each other on a road both want to turn onto the same road,” but we do have a law called, “Vehicle turning left.”

In your scenario, one driver will be making a right turn, and one will be making a left turn. The law states that the driver turning left “shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle approaching from the opposite direction” in the intersection or close enough to be a hazard.

The law puts the responsibility to yield on the left-turning driver. It doesn’t concern itself as to whether the other driver is going to turn right or continue down the road. And that makes sense. The left-turning driver, in order to complete their turn, has to cross the oncoming lane. That’s where the potential for a crash is located. The other driver, going straight or turning right, doesn’t have a lane to yield to.

I have a guess as to what might have prompted this question. At a four-way stop, we have the “first one there is the first one to go” rule. Maybe it feels to you like that rule should apply here too. But “first there goes first” isn’t what’s written in the law; it’s just a heuristic we use to keep things simple. The law actually says that after stopping at a stop sign, drivers shall yield to any vehicle in the intersection or approaching on another road close enough to be a hazard.

You probably see the similarity in those two laws; Don’t enter a space when another vehicle is already there or rapidly approaching. It’s like the advice I got about how to avoid getting punched in the face: don’t be there. Really, that’s good advice for all drivers. Even if you think the other driver should yield, to avoid a crash, don’t be there.