Pinched in Cedar Park

[aggie06]

I distinctly remember the driver's ed instructor telling us you could pull to the center turn lane and stop, but not accelerate in the center lane. I guess you learn something new every day.

[sjfcontrol]

I distinctly remember the driver's ed instructor telling us you could pull to the center turn lane and stop, but not accelerate in the center lane. I guess you learn something new every day.

Interesting... If you're stopped in the center lane, how do you get out of it without accelerating? An interesting trick, to be sure!

[Fangs]

Hit reverse?

Hehe, I know, that's still accelerating, but I bet I could convince a jury it wasn't.

[texasag93]

Acceleration has to do with increasing speed with no reguards to vector.

My best ticket ever was for going -2 MPH (illegal backing but it was coded as unsafe movement, no accident though). I was going 2 MPH, not -2 MPH. It was on my 17th birthday. The cop never turned it in.:)

[LarryH]

Acceleration has to do with increasing speed with no regards to vector.

Obviously, not a physics major.

Signed, a physics major

[texasag93]

Acceleration has to do with increasing speed with no regards to vector.

Obviously, not a physics major.

Signed, a physics major

NOPE!

The last time I took physics was as a freshman. 20 years ago.

I appologize to smarter physicist of the board.

[Cobra Medic]

You can accelerate without changing speed. Picture driving in a circle at a constant speed.

[Justin Franklin]

but my favorite is 545.060(b), which basically says you can't pull into a Center lane on a road from a side street/driveway to merge into traffic to the right.
I see people doing it alllll day every day ;)

That little tidbit was almost the only useful piece of information from our last defensive driving course.

I got that from my DD class too (League City). I have shared that with almost everyone I know and no one knew it was illegal.

[LarryH]

but my favorite is 545.060(b), which basically says you can't pull into a Center lane on a road from a side street/driveway to merge into traffic to the right.
I see people doing it alllll day every day ;)

That little tidbit was almost the only useful piece of information from our last defensive driving course.

I got that from my DD class too (League City). I have shared that with almost everyone I know and no one knew it was illegal.

I've seen police cars doing the same thing. Either they don't know or don't care.

Our class was also in League City, at the Mexican restaurant on 518 west of the freeway.

[Justin Franklin]

I've seen police cars doing the same thing. Either they don't know or don't care.

Our class was also in League City, at the Mexican restaurant on 518 west of the freeway.

Me too! I forget the instructor's name, but it was a great class! He bashed LEO's the whole class, but funny thing is….he is an LEO. I send people his way any chance I get.

[Oldgringo]

According to Texas law, there are only 3 circumstances in which you can enter a center lane.
1) To pass (But only if you aren't crossing a solid yellow line to do so, that would be a violation of the sections above (and yes, there are center lanes out there with dashed lines on both sides)).
2) To turn left
3) As directed by signs/cones/etc for traffic control.

Merging right, accelerating, pulling out to stop and wait for an opening, etc is nowhere mentioned in there, so it is not permitted

What if you're waiting for an opening to turn left?

What if you're waiting for an opening to turn left from a side street or driveway?

Okay. here's a diagram



A&B Are Allowed, C&D Are not. I tried to illustrate why I believed this was the case, but regardless, this is the law.

Here's what I think the reasoning was behind the law. This is pure conjecture on my part.

A is allowed because any other cars (the green arrow) Should see your turn signal before you actually enter the lane, therefore not pulling into the lane at the same time, theoretically preventing any accidents.

B is allowed because you are simply crossing the middle lane, never 'occupying' it. You are also long gone out of the middle lane area before any other car can even come close to hitting you.

C is NOT allowed because, well, you're DRIVING/Accelerating in the middle lane. Anyone who wants to turn left from the green arrow's point of view will either hit you, or you would hit them if they tried to turn left, etc.

D (pulling out and stopping) is NOT allowed because any other vehicles (green arrow) wanting to turn left will not be expecting you to pull out and stop in front of them from their right, also, you will not be able to see their turn signal from your perspective before you pull out in front of their potential left turn. It's a right of way issue. You, as a vehicle coming in from a side street have to yield ROW to any vehicle already on the main street, whether they're driving straight, or making turns. By pulling in front of them and stopping, which you would be doing if they were planning on going left, you are violating their right of way.

How do I know so much about this you ask? Because I'm currently involved in a court case (going on 18 months now) that resulted from an accident where this exact section of law comes into play. Not going to go into details, but I've researched this very much, and talked with my lawyer and a few other lawyers on this as well. This is the law, plain and simple. A lot of police officers don't even know this, as it's a fairly mundane thing, until it causes an accident.

I hate to repeat this entire post BUT look at the diagram. It's only common sense why A&B are legal and C&D are not. Put yourself behind the wheel in each situation and try to guess what the other driver is thinking.

Got it yet?

[gigag04]

You can accelerate without changing speed. Picture driving in a circle at a constant speed.

You're velocity is still changing.

velocity /= speed

Acceleration has to do with increasing speed with no regards to vector.

Obviously, not a physics major.

Signed, a physics major

My thoughts exactly. Vector /= direction.

Signed, and engr major.



Now you guys feel my pain when laws get discussed on this site.

[Oldgringo]

[quote="Signed, a physics major

Signed, and engr major. [/quote]

Do English majors not have CH licenses or is English no longer a requirement in collegiate Engineering and Sciences curriculae?

[CompVest]

KEEP IT NICE!

[Hoosier Daddy]

You can accelerate without changing speed. Picture driving in a circle at a constant speed.

You're velocity is still changing.

So is the time.