Center Lane - Left Turn Only

Sometime after World War II, traffic engineers had a great idea. Their traffic control innovation was adding a center lane on two or four lane streets for drivers going either direction to make left turns. The extra lane permitted other traffic to continue without stopping for left-turning traffic and did not require the concrete protected left-turn bays. A distinctive center lane marking scheme of solid lines flanked by inner broken lines on each side was called a "flush median", meaning that, except when used for left turns, the center lane would serve to separate opposing traffic flows. Special signage was devised consisting of "Center Lane - Left Turn Only" or, for the literally challenged, "Center Lane (with a graphic of two opposing arrows and the word) Only".

The Center Left Turn Only Lane sounds so simple and normally works so well. What could possibly have gone wrong with this brilliant idea? Traffic engineers did not anticipate current day drivers, who given an inch will always take the next foot, or yard, or mile. For example, modern day drivers have turned the permissible right-turn-on-red-after-a-stop rule into a new driving convention of turning right on red with or without caution and without the thought of a stop. Likewise, the Center Lane - Left Turn Only device has become a merge lane in the minds of today's drivers who make up their own rules of the road. When entering, from a side street or drive, a street with heavy traffic from both directions after turning left across the nearest lane, our extemporaneous driver uses its Center Left Turn Only Lane as a temporary haven, while waiting to merge into the traffic of the farthest lane. This method of entering a major street seems to work fine, that is, until a driver from either direction of the opposing traffic flow attempts to use the center lane for its intended purpose, namely, a left turn from the major street onto a minor street or drive entrance. Then, the fun begins. The driver who makes up his or her own rules finds that, in some cases, he or she cannot reach the center left turn lane, because another driver is maneuvering his vehicle into the center lane, leaving our lane poacher, driving towards on-coming traffic. If the lane poacher makes it into the center lane first, then he or she will find his or her vision of the traffic he or she is trying to merge into obscured by the left-turning vehicle that wascut off in the left-turn lane.

I wish the police would cite drivers who use center left-turn only lanes to merge, rather than for their intended purpose. I am skeptical whether some of our young police officers even recognize this misuse of a left-turn lane as a traffic rule violation, especially so after being told by a young officer that Cinco de Mayo was a national holiday. I hope that the next time I approach the street entrance into the subdivision where I live and I try to use the available center left-turn only lane that I don't encounter a driver trying to merge into the traffic lane I just left and that I am able to avoid side-swiping or rear-ending the idiot who makes up his own traffic rules. Remember, a center left turn only lane is for just that, left turns and it is not a merge lane.

(Note: This post was edited on Friday, February 10, 2005.)