Q: Sometimes while driving on a freeway with three or more lanes I’ll see another driver change two or more lanes at once. I was under the impression that you’re only supposed to change one lane at a time. Is it legal to do a multi-lane change?
A: I don’t really want to answer this question, because I’m concerned about how some drivers might alter their driving habits for the worse. However, if you’re reading a column on traffic safety I’m going to trust that you’re not who we need to worry about.
When learning how to make multiple lane changes on the freeway, your driving instructor probably taught you something similar to the following:
- Activate your turn signal
- Check your mirrors
- Check your blind spots
- Move into the lane
- Turn off your signal
- Repeat the process for each additional lane
I want to tell everyone that the law requires you to do it as described, but that’s not the case. However, I’m willing to argue that even though this isn’t made plain in the law, most of the time it’s going to be required to meet the safety elements of the law.
There isn’t a single law titled, “How to make a lane change.” Instead, there are a couple laws that apply when changing lanes. In the law “Driving on roadways laned for traffic” it prohibits lane changes “until the driver has first ascertained that such movement can be made with safety.” The law on turn signals prohibits lane changes unless it “can be made with reasonable safety” and requires “giving an appropriate signal” at least 100 feet before turning.
If you signal first, yield to traffic in the lane you want to move into, and then move safely into that lane you’ve complied with the law. I couldn’t find any law limiting you to only moving one lane (and let me tell you, I searched.)
For those of you who think that my comment about yielding adds an additional requirement not present in the law, allow me to explain. While the law doesn’t explicitly state that the person making the lane change must yield to vehicles in the lane they want to move to, it does put the responsibility for safety on the person making the lane change. Sounds like yielding to me.
Does this mean we can all start making multi-lane changes? Nope. Okay, in limited situations you could do it while being within the law; like it’s 3:00 am, you’re on I-5 headed south toward Seattle and you found the five minute window when there’s no traffic. You want to move to the far-left lane to take the express lanes. You safely make multiple lane changes, discover that the express lanes are closed at 3:00 am, and move back to the right lane, glad there was no one else on the road to witness that.
In almost any other scenario, the best option is to make lane changes one at a time. The Washington Driver Guide recommends, “If you want to move over several lanes, take them one at a time. Like going up or down stairs one step at a time, it’s safest and easiest to merge one lane at a time.” Notably, that’s in the section on safe driving tips, not rules of the road. Realistically though, any time there’s traffic, changing multiple lanes without pausing at each step to make sure the next lane is clear is likely an unsafe maneuver. Since safety is the threshold, it would be a violation, even if the law doesn’t spell out that multiple lane changes are prohibited.