Q: Are semi trucks allowed to travel in any lane on the freeway, or are they restricted to the right lanes?
A: On the freeway, commercial vehicles cannot travel in the left lane when there are three or more lanes. They are not required to be in the far right lane and can legally use the right two lanes.
Troopers do see semi trucks traveling in the left lane and we do pull them over. The majority of infractions we give to commercial vehicles are for weight violations and semis account for only a small percentage of highway collisions.
Passenger vehicles are also prohibited from traveling in the left lane, except for passing. In Pierce and Thurston counties, that message is clearly posted on the left side of the freeway.
The left lane is designed to facilitate good traffic flow, so get out of the far left lane, unless you’re passing another car.
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Trooper Guy Gill is the Washington State Patrol recruiter and spokesman for District 1, covering Pierce and Thurston counties. Follow him at @wspd1pio on Twitter.
People wake up, it isn't enforceable because it doesn't make sense. It is one of the "stupid people" laws they only right when they are mad at someone and have nothing else to get them for (and no I have never gotten a ticket it). People just "know" when a rule or law doesn't make sense and this law is wrong for anyone in a big city. The statistics quoted above are from ALL highway statistics and do not take into account high traffic in large cities, especially during rush hour. Trying to have a universal law like this, that just makes no sense to the majority of people who drive to work 5 days a week with hundreds of thousands other cars on the road hear a law like this and laugh because it just doesn't compute. Seriously I would love to see the state troopers give out tickets to every person I saw driving in the left lane of I5 today on my way to work. It was stop and go traffic for over 5 miles....so how many tickets do you suppose that would be...enough to get the state out of debt ...hmmmm
The keep right except to pass law makes a lot of sense. Many drivers do not know what this means, as drivers in the PNW seem to lack this kind of common sense. I would agree that keeping right except to pass during rush hour on the 405 is stupid to say the least. But given better traffic flow than the normal parking lot, keeping right is an important driving habit to make. Like I said, many drivers in the PNW have never felt the importance to learn this habit. Keeping right allows for faster vehicles (those who actually do 70 in a 70mph zone) to maintain their velocity. Allowing for these faster moving vehicles via slow vehicles keeping right actually has the effect to improve the overall traffic flow, as there are less vehicles braking from 70 to 55 for the granny in her Prius camping in the left lane. This reduces the amount of lane changes required on a daily drive, which also reduces unnecessary braking resulting in faster travel times. It is a basic convention that is followed in Eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, and even parts of Oregon, not to mention the entire middle of the country. Of course many emergency vehicles would benefit from having a lane easily accessible in the event an emergency occurs. Do you want to depend on an ambulance trying to get through 405 rush hour traffic? Does everybody instinctively move right? No way...
Is it street-legal for the tires of vehicles to extend past their fender wells?
You can't ticket people who can't go faster than the people in front of them, but you CAN ticket the person CAUSING everyone to go so slow. If people weren't driving so slowly, for whatever reason, then it wouldn't be a problem. Sounds like you're one of the people who thinks they're entitled to drive in the left lane, no matter how fast you're going. If your car can't get up to freeway speed or you're uncomfortable driving in the weather, stay off the freeway! If you don't NEED to be somewhere during rush hour, don't drive during rush hour. If you're not keeping up with the flow of traffic or are content to go the same speed as people in the right lane, move into the right lane to let everyone else pass. Problem solved.
I want to see legislation that mandates trucks pay their fair share or stay off the road. This would have a multitude of benefits for society including: 1) freeing up lanes for cars, 2) reducing accidents and deaths, 3) lowering the price of fuel for there would be less demand, 4) putting long-haul shipments back onto trains where they belong, since trains move freight MUCH LESS EXPENSIVELY than do trucks 5) With more freight on rails, the train companies would get more business and traditionally and historically the freight divisions of RRs subsidized passenger travel for the PR value of it, therefore we could eliminate ScamTrak saving the taxpayers money and 6) greatly reduce air pollution. Small box trucks could handle the local deliveries to grocery stores etc. If such legislation were passed there would seldom be semis in the left, center or right lanes. The trucking lobby has abused the taxpayers for too long and I think its subsidy needs to end. PS: I do not work for any RR and never have.
Really transportation and infrastructure should be #2 on the government's funding obligations. #1 Education. The average citizen should not see their taxes go up to pay for the most essential duties of government. Our government is over-expanded, bloated, and incapable of managing itself as it is today. More $$ will not change this fact. The best government is the leanest government.
And no, for the record, I'm not "one of those people" who toodles along in the left lane all the time. More often than not I'm in the center lane, going as fast as everyone else, whether that's 15 mph or 70 mph.
I think the question would be WHY is everyone driving 15 mph? What is holding up the first person in the line that is causing traffic to be completely backed up? What can be done about that? Surely something has to be the cause. I mainly drive 512, rather than I-5 and 512 is only 2 lanes, so it gets VERY frustrating. I-5 has 3+ lanes in most places, but it IS a very busy area. If only everyone paid more attention to their surroundings and the cars around them, this wouldn't be so much of a problem. If you were in the left lane going exactly 60 mph in a 60 mph zone and someone came up on you and obviously wanted to drive faster but couldn't pass because of a few horribly placed slow drivers, or a line of cars going slower, and there was no one in front of you, what would you do? Would you move over to let the person pass, speed up, or keep going at the same speed? This is the problem! And why are people going so slowly in the right lanes, causing other people to need to drive in the left lanes? So because a few people can't follow the rules of the road, traffic gets held up causing delays and accidents. People just need to pay attention and be courteous! Obviously the police know when to enforce the law as well, due to timing/rush hour and the amount of cars on the road, it's not feasible to enforce this during rush hour, as they would probably prefer to keep traffic moving.. I'm not trying to say don't drive in the left lane ever, just use wisely! :)
There are parts of the country where this law is taken more seriously, and you would get a ticket driving in the left land without passing.
So what exactly were you planning to do after you 'passed' the semi going the maximum legal speed of 70? (Since you did not pass on the right -legal-, I assume that there was a lot of traffic.) Is there some law that gives you the right to 'speed'? I really just don't understand the process in your head. Can you explain why you can break the speed limit?