The in basket: Two readers have spotted what they think are
deviations from the rules when it comes to disabled parking.
Pete Demerick said he sees cars on the road with the
disabled placard on the rear view mirror despite instructions on
the
placard to remove it to drive and wonders if that is illegal.
And William T. Paxson asked about a sign on a handicapped parking
space at the
Olive Garden restaurant in Silverdale that indicated that the
space
was for “vans only.”
Monthly Archives: February 2006
Highway or Freeway? What’s the Difference
The in basket: Alan Paulson wonders if highways 3 and 16 are
highways or freeways, and if there is a difference. The signs at
on-ramps say “Freeway entrance,” but the word “freeway” is rarely
used on maps or other signs.
While he was on the line, he related the story of an accident he’d
been involved in in which a driver coming down the arcing on-ramp
at the Wollochet interchange on Highway 16 near Gig Harbor on Oct.
23 was going too fast to make the curve and wound up bouncing out
into the mainline and totaling Alan’s car and his own. Alan
wondered if that interchange or that design is more accident prone
that others.
Law says bicyclists must yield to pedestrians on sidewalks
The in basket: The Feb. 8 Road Warrior about some odd wording on
a Bainbridge Island bike lane sign jogged Jim Fairbank’s
recollection of an incident with a bike on the island.
“I had to step off the sidewalk, into the marked bicycle lane to
let an adult and child ride by on the sidewalk (in Winslow),”
he said. “Is there a requirement to use the lanes? Seems to be
a waste of time, effort and money, not to mention
downright dangerous if nobody uses the lanes.”
Help on Way for Highway Markers
The in basket: Mark Miller writes, “I was wondering what it
would take to have some type of reflector buttons put down on the
road lines on the highway from Gorst to Port Orchard? When you
drive that section of road at night, especially in the rain, it is
very dark and hard to see. There are no street lights
and the painted lines are so faded that when oncoming cars are
coming at
you, you can barely see to stay on the road. I just think that it
would
be a lot safer for all of us that travel that stretch of highway
daily.
Slow Answer to Speed Limit Query
The in basket: I recently happened upon a 2 1/2-year-old e-mail
I’d misplaced, in which Dick McDonald said, “I’m wondering how
speed limits are set on county roads.
“There is one stretch of road that I know of that seems to have a
speed limit that is lower than it should be,” Dick said. “The road
between Holly and Dewatto has a speed limit of 25 mph for the
entire length in Kitsap County and that seems unusually low. I can
see why the speed limit is 25 mph for the first half mile from
Holly towards Dewatto (there are homes along that stretch), but the
rest of the road looks like it should have a 40 mph speed limit (no
homes and reasonable visibility).
Are Vehicle Odometers Accurate?
The in basket: Bruce Landram of Belfair e-mailed an intriguing
notion. “An automotive engineer friend of mine who works for GM in
Detroit,” Bruce said, “explained to me that the law allows a
speedometer to be +/- 10 percent from exact speed. The odometer is
pegged to the speedometer.
“He explained that car companies intentionally set the speedometers
10 percent faster than the car is actually traveling. This way, the
care gets to its warranty expiration mileage 10 percent sooner than
if it were dead on accurate.
State Allows Drivers to Keep Plate Number
The in basket: A couple of people wrote in after reading the
Feb. 1 Road Warrior about having to replace one’s license plates
when they get to be seven years old to remind me of something that
I had forgotten.
You can’t keep the old plates but there is a way you can get new
plates with the same numbers, for a price.
That Shiny Glare of New Pavement
The in basket: Jo Clark wrote in November to say Kitsap County’s
“great improvement of Newberry Hill has been well worth
all the inconvenience. Now it is wider, better marked, and
therefore much safer.”
But she did find that the new blacktop in heavy rain “reflected
oncoming and overhead lights so much that it made it difficult to
navigate. I checked other roads in the rain, and haven’t seen
that kind of glare.”
Odd Bike Lane Sign on Wyatt Way
The in basket: Doug Hatfield inquired about a sign on West Wyatt
Way on Bainbridge Island that reads ““Shared Lane Ends, Yield to
Bicycles.”
“It comes down a hill to a sharp corner, even though the bike lane
continues around the corner,” he said. “It is a two-lane road, with
bike path, plus gravel shoulder. The bike lane continues around the
corner, and then it ends. Bikes like to go down that hill full
bore, What is the state law on that?”
Why don’t buses pull off the road?
Dick Taylor and Gerry Austin ask about the law governing transit
buses stopping in the middle of a traffic lane on a two-lane road
to discharge and board passengers.
Dick says he’s noticed this quite frequently on Jackson between
Sedgwick and Mile Hill in South Kitsap. The Road Warrior saw the
same thing one recent after just noth of Salmonberry Road.
The Road Warrior has gotten the official line on why this is from
Kitsap Transit, but I haven’t heard from any bus drivers who live
with it day to day. Can anyone shed some light on why some prefer
to stop in the traffic lanes?
