A shoulder to cry on, but not to drive on

There’s no mistaking that sound. It raises the hair on the back of your neck. Your shoulders tighten. You suck in a hiss of air through your teeth.

Maybe you close your eyes, or can’t tear away from the rear-view mirror.

ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

This Toyota Echo is about to be Wreck-oed.

It’s the kind of scene state troopers have seen at clogged freeway exits, where drivers line up on the shoulder to wait their turn.

So it made sense in last week’s Street Smarts when State Patrol troopers cited a state law barring drivers from the shoulder of the freeway, even when an exit is backed up.

Readers demanded more explanation.

“The Street Smarts column raises an interesting dilemma,” Jack Sjolseth of Arlington wrote.

“You quoted Christine Fox of the Washington State Patrol stating that it is not legal to use the shoulder of the road as an extension of the offramp. What does one do when the offramp is full? Stop on the freeway?

“It doesn’t sound smart, but there appears to be no legal recourse other than to continue driving north to an offramp that isn’t full, cross over the freeway and return southbound hoping that those offramps aren’t also filled, adding possibly 20 miles to the trip!”

He wasn’t alone.

“I wish you had taken this one step further and told us what the correct procedure is in this case,” Erik Robins wrote. “Do we block the traffic lane? Do we miss our exit?”

Drivers appear to have three options:

1. Swerve over to the shoulder and get in line, tempting a high-speed rear-end accident;

2. Speed past the line and take the exit anyway, risking a crash during the merge farther down the line; or

3. Skip the exit, take the next and loop back. (At these gas prices?)

Trooper Kirk Rudeen said that offramp traffic to the Tulalip Casino and outlet malls create a problem on I-5 at exits 200 and 202.

He had advice for Robins and Sjolseth.

“Technically, they should drive to the next exit instead of trying to duck on the shoulder behind everybody else,” Rudeen said. “It’s the safest thing.”

Traffic is booming, and the freeway ramps have yet to catch up, he said. Using the shoulder for an exit lane is hazardous, Rudeen said. The shoulder is for emergency break-downs, not travel, he said.

“Stay on the main line and go to the next exit if you have to. It’s better to be safe than sorry. It may take you a few extra minutes, but it’s the difference between making it home safely and being involved in a collision.”

Drivers using the shoulder could face a $101 ticket for either driving on the shoulder or for improper lane travel, he said.

“We can ticket, but a lot of times we’ll use it as an educational tool,” Rudeen said. “A lot of people aren’t aware there’s anything wrong with driving on the shoulder at an exit.

“Instead of giving a ticket, we would tell the driver they are not supposed to be driving on the shoulder and need to stay in the lane of travel.”

At today’s gas prices, I can get about 1,147 miles for the price of that $101 ticket. Is the detour worth my time, though?

Decisions, decisions.

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