Street Smarts: Plenty of gas left in carpool lane debate

We’re still getting responses to the issue of how slow is too slow to drive in the carpool lane.

I’m going to give my own take on this issue, we’ll hear from Washington State Patrol trooper Keith Leary again and we’ll put it to bed, once and for all. We’ll get back to the Q&A next week.

Leary’s response that he “probably” would not ticket a driver for holding up traffic while driving the speed limit in the carpool lane wasn’t definitive enough for some people, who don’t believe anyone should ever be ticketed while driving the speed limit.

One reader even wrote, “I get great pleasure setting the autopilot on the speed limit while in the carpool lane.”

While this guy is technically within his rights, he’s adding to the problem by anointing himself the policeman. It’s not for him to decide whether the guy behind him should be driving the speed limit; it’s for the Legislature and the State Patrol to decide.

If someone is speeding, let that person go by. Either move over or let the driver go around you, and trust that he or she will get a ticket.

If you don’t want to be tailgated, drive in a lane where your speed matches that of the other drivers.

Speed isn’t the issue here — there are other laws to address that. It’s the relationship between the vehicles and the flow of traffic that counts.

Our job on the road is not to worry about or try to control how fast other drivers are traveling. Our job is to pay attention to our relationship with other drivers and avoid any conflict.

There’s a lot more to safety than speed, or lack thereof. It’s also paying attention to what’s going on around you and not causing problems either by driving too fast or by getting in other people’s way.

That’s why the “keep right except to pass” rule is a good one: it actually requires drivers to notice what they’re doing, rather than just drifting along, oblivious to what is going on around them. What a concept! Take a trip to Europe, or even Los Angeles, rent a car and you’ll see how well it works.

The flow-of-traffic issue is also why the law in our state allows for any driver to be cited for holding up traffic, period. It doesn’t specify a speed limit.

It also allows drivers to be cited for tailgating. These are judgment calls — not to be made by you, but for state troopers to decide. Call 911 if you want to report a reckless driver.

Yes, the carpool lane is different from the left lane. The “keep right except to pass” law does not apply to the carpool lane. It’s trickier for a driver to move over from the carpool lane into the left lane to let tailgaters go through than it is to move right from other lanes — especially if the carpooler is traveling slower than the left lane traffic.

Still, as trooper Leary advised, slower drivers in the carpool lane might want to consider getting out of the way when circumstances allow. As he explained in a previous column, slower drivers holding up faster drivers often leads to road rage. No sense in asking for it, unless you have anger issues — in which case, please work them out somewhere other than I-5.

The reader who asked the original question about backing up traffic in the carpool lane said, “I feel it should be OK to stay in that lane even if I am holding back 100 cars.”

Well, that’s just as illegal and unsafe as speeding.

To remove any doubt, we’ll rerun part of trooper Leary’s statement on the original subject of slow drivers in the passing lane:

“The carpool lane is not considered ‘a primary traffic lane.’ Drivers will not be cited for keeping right except to pass if they are going slower in this lane, although, the impeding law could come into effect if a driver is backing up five vehicles or more.

“Drivers need to use their common sense. If they are not passing traffic and they want to go slower, we want them to move to the right lanes of the freeway. A driver also will not be cited if they change lanes from the carpool lane to the left lane then back to the carpool lane to pass traffic as long as it is done safely.”

E-mail Street Smarts at stsmarts@heraldnet.com.