Target Zero Manager Doug Dahl answers a question about navigating a center turn lane
Doug Dahl
The Wise Drive
Q: When there is a street with a turn lane in the center, I see many drivers come from a side street and pull into the center turn lane to then merge into the right lane when there is an opening. My understanding is the center turn lane is only for left turns, so using it to merge right would not fit that law. I am confused! Please help straighten out myself and many others!
A: It’s called a two-way left turn lane, so I get why you’d conclude that it’s only for left turns. And you’re right about that. But here’s where you got off track – how the word “turn” is used in the law.
Let’s say you’re traveling north. You come to an intersection and change your direction to the east. That’s a turn. For the sake of this example, we’ll say the road you turned onto has two lanes in each direction. If you were to change from one lane to the other, the law would call that a move.
You can see this most clearly in the law about when signals are required. It states, “No person shall turn a vehicle or move right or left upon a roadway” unless it can be done safely and the driver signals their intention to turn or move right or left. The law also has separate sections that address how to move a vehicle from one lane to another, and how to make a left or right turn at an intersection. To summarize, if you change directions it’s a turn; if you change lanes it’s a move.
You probably see where this is going. In case you’re still not convinced, the law specifically gives permission to make a left turn into the center lane, stating that two-way left turn lanes are for “vehicles making left turns in either direction from or into the roadway.”
If we didn’t allow people entering the roadway to first turn into the center lane, and then move into the primary travel lane, we’d give up a big part of why these lanes get installed in the first place.
Two-way left turn lanes can improve both safety and travel efficiency. The obvious benefit is for the driver on the main road wanting to make a left turn. Moving to the center lane while waiting for a gap in oncoming traffic allows the rest of traffic to keep moving, and it gets them out of the way of a potential rear-end crash while they wait.
Two-way left turn lanes are also good for drivers turning from a side street onto the main road. By first turning into the center lane, the driver initially only has to find a gap in traffic approaching from the left. That’s safer for them, because they’re only navigating one direction of traffic at a time. Plus, on a busy road it might be close to impossible to find a gap in both directions simultaneously, but by doing it in stages a driver can make the first part of their turn sooner. That also works out better for the drivers behind them wanting to turn right, who don’t have to wait for eternity (or an extra couple minutes, which feels like eternity when you’re stuck at an intersection.)
On roads with two-way center turn lanes, injury crashes drop by about 20 percent. Some locations have seen crash reductions as high as 47 percent. They’re often a great tool for reducing crashes and improving traffic flow. So go ahead and make that left turn into the two-way left turn lane.
The Wise Drive is hosted by Doug Dahl, a Target Zero manager for the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.
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