You’re merging onto the interstate. Traffic is fairly heavy, so your senses are on point. There! A gap! You cross some white lines and take it before someone else can grab it … except you should have waited.
What’s the point?
It’s a gore point. And you shouldn’t cross it.
A gore point is a triangular-shaped zone painted with several white lines. It’s designed to help safely manage traffic merging onto and off a roadway.
The “gore” term is borrowed from sewing circles. But this isn’t about bliauts or pourpoints. (Pourquoi?)
It’s more the matador-like risks the Washington State Patrol is aiming to combat. (Olé.)
So choose either definition of “gore” and you’ll be all set for this Back to Driving School lesson.
“People cutting gore points will always be a problem, especially in high traffic volume areas,” Sgt. Mark Francis said.
In Snohomish County last year troopers stopped more than 5,000 drivers for unsafe lane travel or change and for crossing a physical barrier. The figure includes different types of violations, but many of them involved crossing a gore point.
The trooper cited three problem spots in Snohomish County where drivers often illegally cross gore points. Those include southbound I-5 to southbound I-405, Highway 527 (Bothell-Everett Highway) to southbound I-405, and the area of U.S. 2 and Marine View Drive at northbound I-5.
Some areas have two bands of gore points to manage multiple points of merging traffic.
Longer gore points are used where the angle between the ramp and the freeway is sharp, and in areas with heavy traffic, according to a state traffic engineer who spoke to former Herald reporter Katya Yefimova in 2010 about this issue. Cars merging onto a freeway need time to get up to speed with the rest of the traffic.
Crossing a gore point can land you a $136 ticket, at minimum.
“People committing this infraction are typically also speeding, failing to use turn signal, following too close… When you combine all these unsafe driving behaviors, the potential for collisions increases; therefore, the seriousness of the fines/enforcement (negligent driving and possible reckless driving) increase as well,” Francis said.
If you cross a gore point and cause a crash, there are bigger fines — $423 for crossing a physical or divided barrier, $550 for negligent driving. Reckless driving is a misdemeanor.
“It is unsafe and extremely inconsiderate,” Francis said.
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