This occurred in the city of Los Angeles, California, on the corner of Highland and Sunset, going south on Highland and making a right turn to go West on Sunset.
This was the violation:
V C Section 22100 a cvc
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc22100.htm
Here is the view from Highland going South - you can see an SUV preparing to turn right:
highland and sunset los angeles - Google Maps
Here is the view from Sunset going West:
highland and sunset los angeles - Google Maps
On December 17th, 2009, I was pulled over at 2:05am after having driven away from a nightclub parking lot. I do not drink or do drugs. I was sober. A police car started following me immediately upon turning out of the lot. My roommate was in the car with me, he was also sober.
2 blocks from the club, after having made a right and left turn (with appropriate signals), I made a right-turn at a stop light from a 3-lane each way road to a 3-lane each way road. However, the far right lane is only used as a lane during rush hour and is used for parking at all other times. In the above google street view photo, you can see a car parked in the right lane.
The bottom line question is:
Is there an exception to the right-turn law when the far right lane isn't technically the first available lane because it serves as a parking lane?
The only thing I've found is that the law says:
At this particular intersection, nobody, and I mean NOBODY, makes a right turn into the far right lane. And I mean ever. You can go stand out there at any time of day and watch for hours (I did). You will never see a car turn into that lane, even when parking is not allowed during rush hour. In fact, if you click on the google street view map and watch the SUV (that big truck is somewhat blocking the view, but you can look through the truck's windows), you can see that he drove right into the middle lane. I stood out there for a few hours one day and I even saw two police cars pull directly into the middle lane from that turn at a far more obtuse angle than I took.
However, I'm pretty sure that "everyone does it" doesn't qualify as a defense.
When I made my right-turn, the light was red for me, I used my signal, turned partially into the parking lane, but moved quickly out of it to the left not only because I know this intersection well and it generally has cars parked there at that hour, but I also needed to make a left turn at the next light, about 400 feet down the road. I used my left turn signal immediately as I made my way to the far left lane, but I did not turn into the left lane, I turned partially into the right lane and then made my way to the middle lane. I was fully in the middle lane somewhere in the middle of the red parking zone of the above street view picture. I came to a stop at the next light which had turned yellow as I approached. I waited for the full red cycle, and when the light turned green, the officer turned his lights on. At first, I thought he was trying to get by me, because I honestly didn't think I had done anything wrong and the timing of his pulling me over was strange, but when he stayed behind me, I knew he was pulling me over.
His entire line of questioning was whether or not I was drunk, which I wasn't. I was extremely respectful throughout our interaction. Upon realizing that I was not drunk, he became agitated and went back to his car. My roommate asked me "Why was he so mad when you said you don't drink?" The only conclusion I had was that he realized he had wasted his time pulling me over because he was hoping for a DUI since he had followed us out of the club parking lot.
I wasn't even aware of what he was accusing me of until he had written the ticket and come back to my car. At that point, he asked me if I knew why he pulled me over, to which I said no, and he had already written me the ticket and explained that it was because I was improperly positioned in my right-turn and that's why he thought I was drunk. I didn't say anything, I just signed the ticket, which he told me I could go to traffic school for, and he told me to drive safe and I drove off.
This was the violation:
V C Section 22100 a cvc
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc22100.htm
Here is the view from Highland going South - you can see an SUV preparing to turn right:
highland and sunset los angeles - Google Maps
Here is the view from Sunset going West:
highland and sunset los angeles - Google Maps
On December 17th, 2009, I was pulled over at 2:05am after having driven away from a nightclub parking lot. I do not drink or do drugs. I was sober. A police car started following me immediately upon turning out of the lot. My roommate was in the car with me, he was also sober.
2 blocks from the club, after having made a right and left turn (with appropriate signals), I made a right-turn at a stop light from a 3-lane each way road to a 3-lane each way road. However, the far right lane is only used as a lane during rush hour and is used for parking at all other times. In the above google street view photo, you can see a car parked in the right lane.
The bottom line question is:
Is there an exception to the right-turn law when the far right lane isn't technically the first available lane because it serves as a parking lane?
The only thing I've found is that the law says:
"As close as practicable" is the only "exception" I've been able to find. When the far-right lane serves as a parking lane, one could argue that it's not practicable to pull into it when making a right turn.
At this particular intersection, nobody, and I mean NOBODY, makes a right turn into the far right lane. And I mean ever. You can go stand out there at any time of day and watch for hours (I did). You will never see a car turn into that lane, even when parking is not allowed during rush hour. In fact, if you click on the google street view map and watch the SUV (that big truck is somewhat blocking the view, but you can look through the truck's windows), you can see that he drove right into the middle lane. I stood out there for a few hours one day and I even saw two police cars pull directly into the middle lane from that turn at a far more obtuse angle than I took.
However, I'm pretty sure that "everyone does it" doesn't qualify as a defense.
When I made my right-turn, the light was red for me, I used my signal, turned partially into the parking lane, but moved quickly out of it to the left not only because I know this intersection well and it generally has cars parked there at that hour, but I also needed to make a left turn at the next light, about 400 feet down the road. I used my left turn signal immediately as I made my way to the far left lane, but I did not turn into the left lane, I turned partially into the right lane and then made my way to the middle lane. I was fully in the middle lane somewhere in the middle of the red parking zone of the above street view picture. I came to a stop at the next light which had turned yellow as I approached. I waited for the full red cycle, and when the light turned green, the officer turned his lights on. At first, I thought he was trying to get by me, because I honestly didn't think I had done anything wrong and the timing of his pulling me over was strange, but when he stayed behind me, I knew he was pulling me over.
His entire line of questioning was whether or not I was drunk, which I wasn't. I was extremely respectful throughout our interaction. Upon realizing that I was not drunk, he became agitated and went back to his car. My roommate asked me "Why was he so mad when you said you don't drink?" The only conclusion I had was that he realized he had wasted his time pulling me over because he was hoping for a DUI since he had followed us out of the club parking lot.
I wasn't even aware of what he was accusing me of until he had written the ticket and come back to my car. At that point, he asked me if I knew why he pulled me over, to which I said no, and he had already written me the ticket and explained that it was because I was improperly positioned in my right-turn and that's why he thought I was drunk. I didn't say anything, I just signed the ticket, which he told me I could go to traffic school for, and he told me to drive safe and I drove off.
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