Trailer drivers need to stay in their lane – Orange County Registry
Q. Hitting my horn, I was driving north on Highway 57, at midday, in the fast lane at about 70 mph. I looked in my rearview mirror and the two 18-wheelers behind me were flashing their lights. I always thought that 18-wheelers were not allowed in the left lane. Has the law changed?
– Gary McDaniel, San Clemente
ONE. Is not.
Vehicles with three or more axles – including any car or truck towing anything – must stay in the rightmost lane on the freeway when three lanes are traveling in the same direction.
The one exception is when passing: A car or truck may then slip into the middle lane, explain Ian Hoey, an officer and spokesman for the California Highway Patrol at its headquarters in Sacramento.
On highways with four or more lanes in one direction, three-axle roads must always stay in the rightmost two lanes.
When truckers and others towing a trailer count the lanes, to see how far they can go, they cannot include the carpool lane in their count.
Now, if a motorcyclist maneuvering three or more axles is approaching an intersection where it is coming, officers will likely allow the driver to slack off, even letting him slide over there. maybe a mile.
After all, no one wants a sluggish tractor-trailer, or a guy running headlong into a river, pulling his Jet Ski behind his pickup truck, forced to change lanes in a hurry.
A fun fact from Hoey Police: “A motorcycle towing a trailer will be subject to the same lane limits.”
Q. The headlights on many newer cars don’t seem to be pointing down and to the side like they used to. Is it because the LED headlights can’t focus in a certain direction? Today’s new headlights are a real danger!
– Dave Walters, Cypress
ONE. To unravel this mystery, Honk reached out to Jeffrey Spring, a spokesman for the Southern California Automobile Club. Please ask Megan McKernan, head of its Automotive Research Center, and Dave Skaien, who manage its Approved Auto Repair program, for their expertise.
Neither of them had heard of such specifications for the vehicles. Directing the headline downwards, even for a small photo, will reduce visibility down the road.
But, Dave, they say over the last few decades there have been headlight changes that might match what you’re seeing:
- Now, more vehicles, with the rise of SUVs and trucks, have a higher position than sedans. Spring told Honk in an email: “The headlight’s center point is higher and closer to the line of sight for motorists who are sitting in a ‘normal’ height passenger car.
- Some newer cars carry headlight bulbs that are hotter and “feel much brighter to your eyes because the color of the light is whiter than with (other) headlights,” says Spring. “The advantage is that they give the driver a better view of the road ahead.”
- In the 1990s, some vehicles with top drawers started using high-intensity discharge headlights that could change the shape of the beam based on what was ahead, such as fog and brighter.
- After-sale bulbs and headlights, some of which are illegal, appear to be brighter.
To ask Honk questions, contact him at honk@ocregister.com. He only responds to those who have been published. To watch Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk
https://www.ocregister.com/2022/01/14/motorists-towing-trailers-need-to-stay-in-their-lanes/ Trailer drivers need to stay in their lane – Orange County Registry
