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Out of the office
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: April 23, 2015

Hey, there are road rules to follow

Most guys won't admit this, but here it goes:

I'm not an excellent driver.

I've had a license for about 30 years, and I've been in three wrecks and a near collision with a motorcycle. I guess that isn't bad, but I know people who have been driving for even longer and have spotless records. (By the way, I've only received two speeding tickets during that time.)

When I was in high school, I pulled in front of a motorcyclist at an intersection in a residential area. The cyclist swerved and laid his bike down to avoid the collision. He wasn't hurt, thankfully.

A few years later, when I was about 20, I struck the back of a large parked car doing about 40 mph in a little Volkswagen Rabbit. I smashed up my car and my jaw. I still have the scars from that one.

The other two wrecks were on ice. One was in high school with a friend's car. The other was in 1997 on a bridge in Newton.

These days, my kids joke about my apparent inability to park in a parking stall without touching the lines.

Anyway, I'm thinking about this because of the recent traffic disruption in Valley Center.

The downtown reconstruction project has forced drivers to the residential areas around Meridian to get around. I feel sorry for the residents east of Meridian and south of Main Street. Sometimes, the traffic is very heavy.

Anyway, to get to the post office, I use First and Abilene to detour around Main and Meridian.

First and Abilene, like many residential intersections in Valley Center, has no stop signs. I can't tell you how many times it appears that drivers forget the rules of the road when they approach these intersections.

It happens so often to me, that I thought I was wrong about the procedures for uncontrolled intersections. I called the police department to find out.

The rule for an uncontrolled intersection is simply this: If two cars approach the intersection about the same time, the vehicle on the left yields the right-of-way to the vehicle on the right. If two vehicles are coming from opposite directions and one wants to turn left, that vehicle yields to the second vehicle.

People seem to make up their own rules.

Officer Michael Gordon told me that one driver said the dip rule applies to some Valley Center intersections. Apparently, the vehicle that has to drive through the deepest drainage dip has to yield right-of-way to the oncoming vehicle.

That's funny.

Despite the proper way to handle uncontrolled intersections, it's not a bad idea to be a defensive driver anyway. I always assume that drivers aren't paying attention.

Gordon said being a cautious driver isn't a sign of weakness.

"It's a matter of making it to your destination," he said.

I agree.

Still, it makes me mad sometimes when drivers act like they own the road and the rules don't apply to them.

We could all be better drivers.

Chris Strunk is publisher of The Ark Valley News. Reach him at 755-0821, news@arkvalleynews.com or on Facebook.




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