Road Warrior

The in basket: Walt Elliott of North Kitsap said in a Jan. 18 e-mail, “Driving down Miller Road, we had a backup behind a school bus of 20 cars that I could count and more that I couldn’t.

“Is there any requirement for vehicles to pull over to let a line of traffic pass as there is on the state highways?”

The out basket: Walt apparently was referring to the law making it illegal to delay more than five cars behind you, which is enforceable on county roads as well as state highways.

It reads, “On a two-lane highway where passing is unsafe because of traffic in the opposite direction or other conditions, a slow moving vehicle, behind which five or more vehicles are formed in a line, shall turn off the roadway wherever sufficient area for a safe turn-out exists, in order to permit the vehicles following to proceed. A slow moving vehicle is one which is proceeding at a rate of speed less than the normal flow of traffic at the particular time and place.” The law doesn’t exempt vehicles traveling the speed limit.

Trooper Russ Winger of the state patrol here said, “I am not aware of an RCW that exempts school buses from the law. However, school buses operating on rural roadways make many stops and starts during morning and afternoon runs.

As the large and awkward buses travel the narrow rural roadways there are not frequent suitable or safe places to pull over and let traffic pass. Backups with that many vehicles (20 or more) most probably occur in relatively slow speed areas with stops fairly close together.

“Most veteran drivers know that if they find themselves behind a school bus full of kids at certain locations and times – well, hurry up and wait, because you drew the short stick that day.”

“I know bus drivers do watch out for this and do pull over when safe to do so, because I’ve seen them do it numerous times. I don’t think the safety of school children should take a back seat to impatient drivers, however. The actual time that it will take to get the kids picked up and dropped off safely during the runs is not really that long.”

Kat Peterson of North Kitsap Schools says the caveat “wherever sufficient area for a safe turn-out exists” serves to exempt their buses.

“Our stipulation for a bus over 26,000 pounds is you have to have a safe place to turn of,” she said.

“If we can’t pull over and get completely off the roadway, it’s not safe,” she said.

She could think of only a couple of places on Miller Bay Road going one way and only one going the other direction wide enough for a bus to get completely out of the road.

The in basket: As a South Kitsap school bus turned right while I sat at the Woods Road stop signal on Mile Hill Drive, I noticed a large white X on a black background on its side.

I’d never noticed it before and it seemed vaguely ominous. I subsequently saw other letters of the same kind on other SK buses, and one in Bremerton.

I asked their meaning.

The out basket: Here’s another measure of how far removed from my school days I am at age 68. Jay Rosepepe, transportation director for SK schools, said letters have been on the sides of their buses for about four years, supplementing the numbers that differentiated the buses when I was in school.

They are magnetic and can be moved from bus to bus. It eliminates confusion among the students when a bus has to be pulled out of regular service for maintenance or to carry students out of district, such as for athletics.

Something like it began 15 years ago in the district, when cardboard placards that serve the same purpose were displayed in the bus window or windshield. They got the idea for the magnetized metal ones from Bremerton School District, he said.

They’re used only on the district’s 48 large buses. They already need two letters on about half the buses to avoid duplication, and adding the smaller buses would require three-letter sets. Besides, the close relationship between the drivers and the often-disabled youngsters who ride the small buses reduces possible confusion by itself.

They still use bus numbers, but that’s usually for administrative purposes or in radio communications with the vehicles, he said.

The in basket: One of the things alarming about reaching the age of 67 is not so much the things I can’t remember but the things I remember clearly that never happened.

Bear with me while I tap your collective memories to check out one such very clear memory.

I am convinced that when I was in grade school at the old East Port Orchard Elementary our ride home on the school bus included a misadventure one afternoon that would make the TV new these days.

In this memory, our bus lost a wheel while westbound on Mullenix Road and ran off the road to the right, where a stand of fairly scrawny alders kept it from rolling over. I don’t think any of us was injured.

In those days, Mullenix didn’t go any farther east than Van Decar Road, from which our bus had just turned to head downhill on Mullenix.

The out basket: My mother has no recollection of this, which would be unusual if it happened. Does anyone in the Kitsap Sun readership or on the Web recall it? Maybe one of my fellow passengers?

It was a little early in my life to have been a vivid dream.

The in basket: I just came across an e-mail exchange between Jim Mills and myself from way back last fall, and decided it would be worth using as a column.

Jim wrote, “The biggest traffic problem in Kitsap County is just simply poor driving habits.  If we could somehow institute a massive driver re-education program, maybe we could make some progress when it comes to traffic congestion..

“The average driver in western Washington,” Jim asserted, “speeds up for red lights, but slows down for green lights.  They have no idea what turn signals are used for. They will not turn right on a red light unless there’s a sign which says ‘no turn on red’.  Driving at a constant speed must be a lost skill as well.

“They merge onto the freeway at 35 miles an hour,” he said, “then immediately move out to the passing lane where they drive 5 mph under the speed limit.  Is there some unwritten rule which states we must always drive 5 mph under the posted speed limit?  They exit the freeway in the same manner they enter.  They slow down to off-ramp speed a mile short of the desired exit.”

The out basket: My reply:

“Well, Jim, I don’t share your view of the ‘average Western Washington driver.’

“The only place I find drivers doing 5 under too often is on Highway 166 between Port Orchard and Gorst. Many of your complaints result from the first car in a long line doing what you see and everyone else being stuck behind the first driver, for example, not turning on red, driving under the speed limit and merging too slowly on an on-ramp.

“It’s funny you didn’t include drivers who won’t get out of the passing lane, which I see more often than any of your complaints, though I also don’t have much trouble getting around them.

“If I could personally instruct all other drivers,” I said, “I would make sure they know that:

- Stopping at a traffic signal in the right lane traps would-be right turners on red behind them

- Leaving more than three seconds gap between them and the car ahead at a green light can cause the light to change to red right after they get through.

- They don’t have to stop for a school bus heading in the other direction if there is a lane between them.

- Traffic moves faster if they fill both lanes equally where one lane is about to end, rather than moving over early.

- Driving 3-8 miles per hour over the speed limit (depending on the location and definitely not in school zones) reduces conflict on the road.

“But, all in all,” I concluded, “I find driving to be fairly easy around here.”

If you wish to disagree with Jim or me, that’s what the comment function on this blog is for.

The out basket: The Road Warrior has been able to help two of my readers who were incorrectly ticketed by city police for infractions where the officer didn’t know the law. 

Both men had read in this column that they could legally do what they did, only to have officers unaware of the applicable law cite them. 

First came Nicholas Sveslosky, who was ticketed last spring by an officer in Lynnwood in Snohomish County for driving past a school bus that was facing in the opposite direction with its sign out and red lights flashing, with a turn lane between his car and the bus. 

Though even the state public instruction office issues literature saying no stop is required in that situation, he not only was stopped and cited, but convicted in municipal court. He e-mailed to ask me what I thought. 

Then Doug Lemon relied on my description of an odd law that permits a left turn against a red light if turning onto a one-way street, providing a full stop is made and no other traffic is imperiled. 

A Port Orchard officer ticketed him for running a red light after he did just that at the Sedgwick Road on-ramp to northbound Highway 16  on Oct. 22. 

Like Nicholas, Doug asked me where he’d gone wrong.

The out basket: I advised Nicholas to appeal to superior court, as the municipal judge’s ruling, that the middle turning lane was not a traffic lane because it is not a regular driving lane where cars move in a single file, was clearly in error.

“The prosecuting attorney for the city called me the week of the case to let me know that I was right, and that they were dropping their case,” Nicholas wrote me on Oct. 3.

‘The judge at the superior court court looked surprised that the city dropped the case,” he said. “Great vindication! I did not pay any of the $400 fine, and I received a full refund of my $240 appeal filing fee.”

It didn’t take Doug nearly as long. Port Orchard Police Commander Geoff Marti, when I asked him about the case, invited Doug to call him, and he personally arranged for dismissal of the ticket. 

Still, Doug said, ”I’m not sure if I have the confidence to practice this left turn on red again.” Which may be the sad lesson from these two cases. Even when a person is right and the officer is wrong, it can be quite a hassle and take months to prevail. 

Having a copy in one’s car of RCW 46.61.055, the red light law, and RCW 46.61.370, the school bus law, probably would be a good idea for those willing to do it.

The in basket: I came across a year-old inquiry from Ward Starring of Chico Way recently on the subject of school buses and whether they have to comply with the state law requiring vehicles delaying more than five others on a two-lane highway to pull over and let them pass.

He had been stuck behind Central Kitsap school bus No. 66 on Chico Way on April 30 last year, he wrote at the time, and he could see in his rear-view mirror that he was among at least two dozen drivers crawling behind the bus as it stopped and boarded children.

“That bus never once pulled to the shoulder to let traffic pass,” he said. It traveled all the way to the Newberry/Chico Way intersection, where it waited to turn. 

Previously, he’d often seen buses there pull over to let traffic go past, he said.

“Whether that was just a polite move or required by law, it reduced frustration from drivers who then had to contend with the almost impossible task of merging into traffic at the Newberry Hill/ Chico Way intersection,” he said.

The out basket: School buses are not exempted from that law, which reads “On a two-lane highway where passing is unsafe because of traffic in the opposite direction or other conditions, a slow moving vehicle, behind which five or more vehicles are formed in a line, shall turn off the roadway wherever sufficient area for a safe turn-out exists, in order to permit the vehicles following to proceed.”

It defines a slow vehicle as “one which is proceeding at a rate of speed less than the normal flow of traffic at the particular time and place.” Doing the speed limit isn’t a defense.

It’s a hard law to enforce, though the State Patrol lately has kicked off the vacation season with news releases reminding motorists, presumably motor home drivers mostly, of the law. There also is a discussion of it as regards traffic on newly busy, two-lane Highway 101 on Josh Farley’s Kitsap Crime and Justice blog on this Web site and printed in Tuesday’s Kitsap Sun.

Trooper Krista Hedstrom of the local State Patrol office says, “Although school buses are required by law to pull off and let traffic by, they also need to do so safely, especially considering they are transporting children. Drivers are reminded to please be patient when behind a school bus.  They may not always have a safe location to pull over.”  

The pull-off place must not only be safe, it has to be wide enough for the bus (or motor home or whatever) to get all its wheels outside the edge line. Parking with wheels over the edge line is an infraction, as is traveling slowly partly or fully on the shoulder.

There seem to be lots of places along Chico Way wide enough for a bus to pull over. This long after the fact, it may not be possible to determine who was driving the bus that day, but David Beil of CK schools’ community affairs office said he’ll pass the complaint on to the district’s transportation department.

The in basket: Fred Oliver of Seabeck and Dave Spoelstra of Kingston are curious as to why school buses are exempt from the seat belt law.

Fred put it this way: “Why is that special car seats are required for little kiddies and when they arrive at school age, there are no seat belts in school buses.”

The out basket: I went to Glen Tyrrell, the retired state trooper who is director of transportation in Bainbridge Island schools. He gave me some answers and referred me to Allan Jones, director of pupil transportation in the state school superintendent’s office. 

I expected to be told that the difficulty of unbuckling dozens of children in an emergency that requires haste, and the possible use of the belt as a weapon by bullies played a role, but Glen says that’s old thinking. The prospects that the driver would have to take the time to buckle the students IN was a more persuasive concern, he said.

He said people his age and mine who haven’t been on a school bus for a while probably think those tubular steel seat backs that were excellent in chipping teeth still exist. They don’t, he said. In the 1970s, regulations passed to require higher, padded seat backs. 

“If there is a crash, the dynamics cause the student to go forward to the seat ahead of them, and the seats offer adequate protection,” he said.

Allan told me their is growing support for seat belts in school buses, and some states – New York, New Jersey, Texas, Florida and California – require them.

But underlying all the logistical concerns, he said, is a philosophical one. 

It’s generally accepted that a child riding to school belted into a car is at a greater risky of being hurt in an accident than one riding in a school bus without belts, he said. 

Until recently, shoulder/lap belt designs have cut the capacity of a school bus by a third. There is progress in producing seat belts that can allow students to sit three across, rather than just two. 

But then, cost enters in, he said. Adding belts to a 72-passenger bus can add more than $25,000 to its price. Reduced capacity and higher costs can mean fewer students on buses, for an overall drop in student safety. 

Belts are required on smaller buses, those that carry 10 or fewer students, he said. He knows of no public school district in the state that has taken it upon itself to add belts. 

State Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe of King County has introduced bills to put seat belts on school buses for several years running, but they haven’t passed. This year, she told me, she doesn’t see the kind of momentum nationally that might bode success, so she won’t submit the bill in 2009.

The in basket: Sharon O’Hara, a frequent commenter on the Road Warrior blog at kitsapsun.com, used the comment form to ask a question.

“Why do school buses stop at the railroad crossing on Provost Road in Central Kitsap?

“There is no stop sign there but yesterday I followed three school buses and each in turn, came to a full and complete stop at the crossing.”

The out basket: Another blog commenter who goes by Smoking Mouse leaped in with an answer:

“The buses stop because it is required by law,” he said, even including the text of RCW 46.61.350
“The driver of any motor vehicle carrying passengers for hire, other than a passenger car, or of any school bus or private carrier bus carrying any school child or other passenger, or of any vehicle carrying explosive substances or flammable liquids as a cargo or part of a cargo, before crossing at grade any track or tracks of a railroad, shall stop such vehicle within fifty feet but not less than fifteen feet from the nearest rail of such railroad and while so stopped shall listen and look in both directions along such track for any approaching train, and for signals indicating the approach of a train and shall not proceed until he can do so safely. 

It also says the bus can’t change gears while crossing the tracks. 

Laura Nowland, acting transportation director for Central Kitsap schools, says that law is expanded upon by the Washington Administrative Code, which repeats much of the law and also requires that noise on the school bus be kept down while the driver checks for approaching trains . 

There are exceptions which would allow the CK buses to not stop at some of the district’s RR crossings, but Laura said it is district policy that its school bus drivers stop and look at all railroad crossings except two where traffic signals control the crossing – on Newberry Hill and on Tresher Avenue on the Bangor base.

The in basket: Just about a year ago, a teacher at David Wolfle Elementary in Kingston on Highland Road wrote to say, “At the end of each school day, I make the dangerous left turn onto (Highway 104). I use the word dangerous because of the 50 mph speed limit that is allowed, the amount of traffic coming from both directions, and the fact that there isn’t a traffic signal, only a stop sign.

“It is nearly impossible to make a left turn when the Kingston ferry has just unloaded or when school is out at the end of the day. The cars of parents who pick up their children followed by the seven buses filled with our kids stack up on Highland Road in an endless stream. I’ve seen many close calls and wonder if there’s any way to have a light installed there.

“It is highly important to keep our kids and parents of our community safe as well as the Wolfle staff,” she wrote. “I’m mainly concerned about having a traffic light operate regularly between the hours of 8:45-9:15 a.m. and 3:30-4:30 p.m.

The out basket: Steve Bennett, traffic operations engineer for the state’s Olympic Region says that site doesn’t compete well with “about 50 intersections in the … region that do meet at least one warrant for a signal, but because of funding restraints, are still waiting for a traffic signal.”

“Warrants” is traffic engineer-speak for the criteria they use in evaluating an intersection for a traffic signal. At Highway 104 and Highland, they used two of eight possible warrants and it didn’t meet either one, Steve said. 

They used the “eight-hour warrant” that measures traffic during the highest eight hours of the day, plus accident history. They used the eight-hour warrant rather than the peak one-hour warrant because “there are still dozens of intersections meeting the eight-hour warrant (that have much worse delay or collision histories than intersections meeting the one-hour warrant) that remain unfunded.  We want to use the limited funding we have to address the worst locations first, and there are dozens of locations worse than this one.”

As I often do when addressing a site where I rarely drive, I tested this one a couple of times one school day afternoon. By 4 p.m., the traffic from the existing signal at Miller Bay Road had backed up nearly to the Highland intersection, and it was a long wait to get out both times, with mine the only car waiting. I can imagine how long it takes with seven school buses and many private cars in line. 

Nonetheless, red sequences at the signals at Miller Bay and back where Bond Road turns into Highway 104 ultimately provided a break in traffic that allowed me (and would have allowed several others) to turn.

The in basket: After the Road Warrior’s most recent discussion of when drivers must  stop for a school bus with its red lights flashing and stop sign extended, Don Payne wrote, “The

Washington Driver’s Guide says ‘You must stop for a school

bus that is stopped with its red lights flashing whether it is on your

side of the road, the opposite side of the road or at an intersection you are approaching.’

“The business of the three marked lanes is pretty clear and been gone over a lot,” he said. “I have never heard a discussion or seen an explanation of the third clause -’or at an intersection you are approaching.’

“I’ve looked in the RCWs and can find no mention or discussion of this clause,” Don wrote. ” Maybe you can add some light.”

The out basket: I have concluded that stopping for a school bus unloading children is unavoidable, even though the law permits a driver going in the opposite direction to proceed if there is a lane, even a left turn lane, between the car and the bus. Twice more since that column appeared, I have seen a cautious driver stop even though he or she didn’t have to, stopping everyone behind the car. 

The phrase Don uncovered puzzled me, since a North Kitsap school transportation official I talked with in preparing the last column went out of her way to say a driver going the opposite direction can complete a turn as long as the car doesn’t pass the extended paddle stop sign on the side of the bus. 

It turns out, says Brad Benfield of the state Department of Licensing, which publishes the driver’s guide, that that third clause refers to traffic on a street CROSSING the one the bus is on. No turn toward the bus that takes the car beyond the bus is legal. Turns away from the bus are OK.

It’s kind of an excess of caution, as the  “lane-in-between” exception also applies to a turner, but the wording makes it clear that a driver on the cross street must abide by the same rules as those on the street the bus is on.