Special turn lanes explained

QUESTION: I don’t understand something about the markings on our streets. I don’t want to get killed finding out. What can you legally do in those center lanes with yellow lines and turn arrows? They sometimes go on for several blocks. What are the rules?

ANSWER: Well, talk about pressure. We surely don’t want to lure you into a head-on crash with a shoddy explanation.

Such a thing is possible, by the way. In some states and cities, these extended turning lanes are actually called “suicide lanes.”

Yes, we’ll provide the official guideline on how to handle driving and turning in these lanes, but above all: Be careful!

Our expert to help steer us today is Tim Martin, director of Coeur d’Alene streets and engineering.

“Those middle lanes are actually called ‘turning bays,’” Martin said. “Their original purpose was to allow drivers to make left turns into businesses and other driveways.

“The idea is that if you had to slow down or actually stop to make that turn into a fast-food place, for instance, without that ‘turn bay’ in the middle it would cause a traffic problem.”

Martin said drivers are not supposed to continue on driving in “turn bay” lanes, but admitted it does happen when drivers aren’t sure where to turn and wind up driving slowly down that middle lane until they spot their destination.

The one big surprise in all of this, however, is that if you’re thinking of turning left on to a busy street and there’s no signal to help you, then YES, it is legal to use those middle “turn bays” as merging lanes.

“That’s fine,” Martin said. “Getting from a secondary street out into the traffic on a major artery like Government Way is difficult.

“It’s OK to pull out into that middle lane, move with the traffic for a short time and then merge as soon as there’s an opening — as you would on the interstate.

“But when you’re doing that, it’s always possible that someone is turning into the same lane, but going the other way — so be really alert to make sure it’s clear.”

Ah, so that’s why you find the name “suicide lane” in some places.

“That might be the case,” Martin said, “but to my knowledge we haven’t had any really serious accidents here by using those lanes.”

Conclusion: Local drivers know the territory and are very, very careful when turning into middle lanes.

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If you have a question for “I Wonder,” just send it via email to Steve Cameron at: scameron@cdapress.com. We’ll certainly try to answer it.