When the Light is Red, Two Rights Don’t Make a Wrong

Dear Street Smart:

Is it legal to make a right turn on red from the outer (or left) lane of a two-lane right-turn area? On my way to work, I go through two intersections with double right-turn lanes: Bolsa Chica Street and Warner Avenue, and Warner and Pacific Coast Highway, both in Huntington Beach.

I dutifully get into the inner (or

right) of the two lanes and make my

turn against the red light from there.

But others routinely make their right turns against red from the outer (left) lane.

I looked this up in the vehicle code, which stated only that a right turn against a red light must be made from the lane closest to the curb.

I interpret this to mean that right turns against red from the outer lane are illegal. Yet my fellow drivers make such turns all the time. What’s right?

Laurie Hoyt

Huntington Beach

You may be surprised to learn that you didn’t read far enough into the vehicle code.

It does, indeed, state that a right turn should be made from a position “as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway.”

The code goes on, however, to state several exceptions, including this one: “Upon a highway having an additional lane or lanes marked for a right turn . . . the driver of a vehicle may turn right from any lane designated and marked for that turning movement.”

Don’t feel bad, though: Two law enforcement officials made exactly the same mistake when the question was first posed to them. Spokesmen for both the California Highway Patrol and the Huntington Beach Police Department immediately responded that right turns against red lights must be made from the far-right lane. Both later called back to say that, upon further investigation, they were wrong.

“You can turn from either lane as long as it’s safe to do so and you turn into the corresponding lane,” said Gary Brooks, a spokesman for the Huntington Beach Police Department.

*

Dear Street Smart:

In your column last week, you addressed most of the new laws in effect for drivers except for the “Yield to Right” law . . .

Is there any fine associated with this new law? As you can probably tell, I live in a heavily traveled area in Laguna Beach where this is continually a problem.

Pamela Horton

Laguna Beach

For a long time, the vehicle code has required drivers to pull to the right to get out of the way of faster drivers who honk. But a law effective Jan. 1 also requires slower drivers to pull to the right in deference to faster drivers who flash their lights.

The purpose of the new law, according to Steve Kohler, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, is safety.

“For reasons of safety,” he said, “it makes sense for you to move over and get out of their way. It’s not your job to impede them or cite them [for speeding]; that’s the job of law enforcement.”

But the new law applies only to two-lane streets, he said, not to freeways on which cars are allowed to pass on the right.

Failing to pull over on a two-lane road can get you a ticket, Kohler said, the amount of which would be determined by the local court. The vehicle code does not specify a fine.

*

Dear Street Smart:

I’m glad they’ve finally gotten the Fairhaven bridge over the Costa Mesa Freeway open again. But why, after all this widening work, is there only one eastbound lane on Fairhaven Avenue?

Michael Evans

Santa Ana

Stay tuned. Caltrans’ widening of the Fairhaven bridge was only phase one of the project. Phase two is likely to begin in late March, when county workers start adding a lane to the admittedly narrow one-lane highway just east of the bridge from Ethelbee Way to Fairmont Way. Currently, the county is negotiating with an adjacent property owner for right of way, spokesman Jack Frabl said. Once underway, he said, the project should take about a month to complete.

Street Smart appears Mondays in The Times Orange County Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic, commuting and what makes it difficult to get around in Orange County. Include simple sketches if helpful. Letters may be published in upcoming columns. Please write to David Haldane, c/o Street Smart, The Times Orange County Edition, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, send faxes to (714) 966-7711 or e-mail him at David.H[email protected] Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted.