Don’t Cross the Solid White Lines
My wife and I were previously traveling on our way home on LBJ Freeway’s HOV lane in Dallas. We enjoy ride sharing because the HOV lane cuts the trip’s duration almost in half. Since there’s no traffic, we get to move at 50-70mph when everyone else is stopped on the four lane parking lot. The lane is protected with double solid white lines and those lines occasionally change to an unprotected single dashed line where everyone slows down to allow people to change in and out of the HOV lane.
About a year ago we were in an accident when another person traveling at about 0mph, breaking the law, crossed those lines. We were hurt and our car was pretty mangled.
It happened again. This time though, I did not hit the other person. Fortunately, no one was hurt. However, my tires were flat-spotted from the hard-braking action. I buy good tires, Yamaha YK420, and have always appreciated their road worthiness. I buy the free replacement filters as way of protecting those tires. Since the tires are destroyed, I have to replace them. The certificate doesn’t help because it’s not considered a road hazard. How frustrating! Last time the insurance took care of the tires. This time, there’s no insurance involved. That one person’s foolishness cost $190USD this time. Thankfully, I had some cash saved in my freedom savings account that helped with that.
Here’s some advice. If you do it to me again, get out of your car with a wad of cash. It would be better to at very minimum, have the courtesy of looking in the lane and not pulling in front of someone. Rather though, please wait for the single dashed line where other courteous driver’s have slowed down and given you freedom to safely enter or exit the HOV lane. This is where you’re not breaking the law and endangering your life or someone else’s.
Trackback URI : TrackBack http://www.wealthtodayblog.com/dont-cross-the-solid-white-lines/trackback
May 3rd, 2006 at 7:09 am
Dear Sir,
I like your blog . Keep updating. Please visit my similar blog. -
http://indiamf.blogspot.com
regards
Aditya
July 30th, 2006 at 9:56 am
I had a few near misses of similiar drivers who didn’t follow the rules as well.
There really isn’t anything you can do about it. I mean the best you can do while flying in the carpool lane while the regular lanes are moving at 5mph is to just slow down and instead of moving at 65-70mph, go at 30-50mph which still sometimes can make it hard to stop on a dime if need be but thats what I’ve been doing driving here in so cal.
July 21st, 2008 at 7:51 am
What is also crappy is when you are on either the Dallas North Tollway or the George Bush Turnpike and people cross over the single solid lines at the last minute to get over to the “pay with cash/make change” area. They refuse to cross over to the correct lane before the solid lines. Even after two previous warnings by big green signs. I don’t know how many times I almost get hit. Oh and I hate it on service roads when someone behind you crosses the double white line when you’re trying to wait for the dashed lines and he cuts you off. Dallas drivers can be rude and careless.