This is against the law, but we will allow it because its “safer”
Published January 23rd, 2006 in Local Issues, TransportationI know I am guilty of this. When a busy road has a center turn lane, I tend to pull out into the center turn lane and accelerate with traffic instead of trying to pull directly into traffic.
This is technically against the law, but police in Huntsville encourage people to do it anyway. I can’t disagree with them, but I disagree with the law. It is a safe thing to use the center turn lane as a sort of acceleration lane, just as long as no one is in the way.
The only problem that would arise from using it that way is that drivers on the main road may want to use that same stretch of turn lane. Since those drivers have the right of way, they would have first priority to use the turn lane.
Oh well, we should just solve everything and call it a “center turn/acceleration lane.”
The laws are there to enforce the safety of traffic. If it is safer to use the center lane as a means of acceleration, then by all means, use it that way.