Question: What are the rules regarding license plates on the front of vehicles? I regularly see people with a plate lying flat on their dashboard instead of attached to the bumper area. Law enforcement and traffic cameras obviously cannot read the plate.
Jason Banker, Everett
Answer: Front-mounted license plates are indeed required on most vehicles in Washington state and there are legal requirements on where they are to be attached.
If the state provides two license plates for your vehicle, they must be attached conspicuously at the front and rear of the vehicle. State law also requires license plates to be hung in a horizontal position at a distance of not more than four feet from the ground. A license plate sitting on the dashboard of a car or truck fails to meet these requirements.
Some vehicles, like motorcycles, trailers and collector vehicles are only issued a single plate and state law requires the vehicle owner to mount it on the rear of the vehicle.
Brad Benfield, spokesman, state Department of Licensing
Turn signal is for safety
Question: Can a free left turn be added on 128th Street SE as it turns onto Elgin Way? There is often no one coming and I just sit there waiting for the green left turn arrow. I’ve watched several people run the red light.
Also, there are two lanes of traffic when traveling south on Elgin Way as it intersects with 128th Street. Can the right turn lane be reserved for right-turning traffic? Currently, traffic turning right gets caught behind traffic that’s going straight across to Dumas Road. It makes more sense to combine left turning traffic with straight through traffic since they both go under the same green light.
Bill Carper, Everett
Answer: We regularly see heavy traffic moving at high speeds on this section of 128th Street SE. At intersections like this one, fast-moving, heavy traffic can make it hard for drivers to find adequate gaps in oncoming traffic to safely make turns. To keep drivers safe, we only allow left-turning drivers to turn when they have a green arrow. In addition, at this location westbound 128th Street traffic is moving down a hill as it approaches the Elgin Way intersection, which makes it even harder for eastbound left-turning drivers to judge whether a gap is big enough to safely make the turn.
Because of these safety concerns, we will continue restricting left turns to green arrows only at this intersection.
We cannot change the lane assignments on Elgin Way at the intersection with 128th Street SE because of the layout of the existing lanes. Currently, drivers have the choice of a left-turn lane and a shared through or right-turn lane. The right lane lines up with the southbound through lane on the opposite side of the intersection. If we made the left lane a shared left-turn and through lane, the through lane would line up with the northbound left-turn lane on Dumas Road on the opposite side of the intersection. Drivers would have to change their path as they crossed the intersection, increasing the risk of safety problems.
Mike Swires, DOT traffic engineer for Snohomish County
Ask us about traffic
Have a question about traffic or street rules around Snohomish and Island counties? We can help find an answer. E-mail Street Smarts at stsmarts@heraldnet.com.
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