Questions and Answers About Your Commute : Drivers Now Guided by the Dotted Line

Dear Traffic Talk:

For some time now I’ve noticed that the lane markings on the freeways are hard to make out. This is particularly true on the 134 from Pasadena through Glendale, Toluca Lake and on the 101 through Encino.

At night this is dangerous and in the rain it’s almost impossible to make out the lanes. Shouldn’t they be re-marking them now?

Terry Alber

Encino

Dear Reader:

As a general rule, California Department of Transportation crews no longer repaint traffic lanes. Don’t worry, though. Drivers aren’t being made to fend for themselves on the roads.

Faded lines are being steadily replaced with rows of Botts Dots, round white disks half an inch high and four inches in diameter.

Invented in the 1950s by Elbert D. Botts, they have been used since 1965 and are considered more visible and durable than paint. The dots cost $2 to $5 each to purchase and install, and about 1,760 of them are used in a milelong stretch of a four-lane freeway.

Caltrans crews have been instructed to check the freeway locations you mention to see if they are in need of the dots.

Dear Traffic Talk:

I find one of the most annoying and dangerous driving faults occurs when careless drivers waiting to make a left-hand turn against traffic insist on bulging their front wheels over the line. This forces oncoming drivers in that narrowed lane to swerve into the adjoining lane, thus endangering oncoming motorists as well as themselves.

Is the Department of Motor Vehicles warning against this? Is it included as something not to do in its training instructions? Is it illegal? It ought to be!

Another dangerous fault, often by this same kind of driver, is when a person times his or her left-hand turn to an absolute nanosecond as you pass, missing you by inches.

Raymond Goldstone

Tarzana

Dear Reader:

Both of the habits you mention are dangerous, but only the first is actually illegal.

Drivers who allow the vehicle’s wheels to creep into another lane when preparing to turn are infringing upon the right of way of other drivers. They can be cited for the violation, whether they broadside another car or are just a few inches over the traffic lines.

“If they make the person going straight swerve to avoid them or brake or otherwise change direction, then they are guilty,” said LAPD Officer Tom Souza.

The DMV warns about the problem in its 1995 California Driver Handbook. The manual tells drivers to avoid slipping across pavement lines, or “cutting corners,” while making left-hand turns.

As for the drivers who nearly scrape your car’s back end in their rush to make a turn, they haven’t violated any traffic laws so it’s not an illegal practice.

Just a stupid one.

Traffic Talk appears Fridays in The Times Valley Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic in the Valley. Please write to Traffic Talk, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted. To record your comments, call (818) 772-3303. Send fax letters to (818) 772-3385.