Early Merging vs. Washington Traffic Law

Q: At a freeway on-ramp, is it illegal to merge early by driving across the white lines before the lanes merge, or is it just discouraged? If it’s illegal, what law would you be breaking?

A: You won’t find any law in the Revised Code of Washington called, “Driving across the white lines to make an early merge.” However, that doesn’t make it legal. That’s not my opinion; it’s the opinion of the judges in the Washington Court of Appeals, Division III. Here’s the story of the State of Washington v. Jena Brooks.

While merging onto the freeway, Jena drove across the “neutral area”. That’s the area marked by wide white lines that form a long triangle, separating the freeway through lanes from the onramp. Unlucky for her, a state trooper was approaching on the freeway. He watched her drive across the neutral area and pulled her over.

An officer needs a reason rooted in law to pull over a driver, so what law did this trooper rely on? The one called “Driving with wheels off roadway.” Jena (or her attorney) didn’t think she drove off the roadway, and maybe you agree. If it’s paved, it’s part of the roadway, right? Well, no, actually. In the law, the roadway is defined (in part) as “that portion of a highway improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel.” It’s the part you’re supposed to drive on. For example, the shoulders of many highways are paved, but they’re not legally part of the roadway. The law has an exception for pulling off the road to stop, and for creating areas for slow-moving vehicles, but you generally can’t drive along the shoulder.

The appeals court concluded that a neutral area is not designed for vehicle travel. It’s actually the opposite; the neutral area is a buffer to separate slower merging vehicles from those on the freeway, giving the merging driver time to reach an appropriate speed. Not all pavement is for driving on, and the neutral area is not part of the roadway.

The judges all agreed that Jena broke the law, but one of the judges opined that the better law to justify the traffic stop was the one that requires drivers to obey traffic control devices. In case you’re wondering what devices were involved in this violation, traffic devices include markings on pavement. In this case, it’s the wide white lines making the neutral area triangle.

I started by saying there’s no law in the RCW saying, “don’t drive across solid white lines,” and here’s where it might get a little confusing. There’s a document called the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). It lays out how signs, signals, and markings should be used to manage traffic. Washington (and all the other states) have adopted this manual (or created an equivalent state version), so the rules in the MUTCD become the laws of Washington.

The MUTCD states that a solid single line “discourages or prohibits crossing (depending on the specific application).” It also clarifies that the width of the line “indicates the degree of emphasis.” Or as the judge wrote, “Crossing a wide solid line is prohibited.”

This isn’t just about the rules, though. Nearly a fifth of all freeway crashes occur at interchanges, even though those areas make up less than five percent of total freeway mileage. Onramps provide a driver with time and space to accelerate to an appropriate speed while choosing a gap to merge. Do all that where other drivers don’t expect it, and you increase your odds of a crash.