On roads without a raised centre median, sometimes there’s a centre turning lane that lets cars in both directions make left turns, depending on the painted lines and arrows on the pavement. Am I ever allowed to get onto that centre lane early? I often see drivers slipping into it at least 50 or 100 metres before the painted lines so they can jump ahead of slow-moving traffic that’s in the lane for going straight. – Stuart, Toronto
A screen grab from Google Maps shows the centre turning lane on Steeles Ave. W between Yonge St. and Bathurst St. It is illegal and dangerous to enter the lane early.Supplied
When it comes to centre turning lanes, you’re supposed to wait your turn.
“That lane is clearly marked to be used for turning left,” said Sean Shapiro, a road safety consultant and former Toronto traffic cop. “It’s for traffic in either direction, so you can’t be driving in it for a kilometre before your turn.”
In Ontario, a centre left-turn lane is designated by a painted yellow line and white arrow on the pavement. It’s against the law to be in that lane before that yellow line, Shapiro said. If you’re caught getting into that lane early, you could face three demerit points and an $85 fine.
While you might be able to get into the centre lane a couple of metres ahead of the line without interfering with other traffic, you shouldn’t be getting into that lane long before your turn.
“What people do is they’ll enter that multi-use lane and coast through it for like 500 metres to skip to the front of the line,” he said. “They may be passing places where drivers coming from the other direction will be getting into that same lane to turn left … that’s when [head-on] collisions happen.”
Driver ‘entitlement?’
While it’s always illegal to be in the centre lane early, police won’t usually charge you unless you get in a crash, Shapiro said.
After a crash, you could also be charged with careless driving, which comes with a minimum $400 fine and six demerit points.
“It’s absolutely careless driving because the average person sees that this is not appropriate,” he said. “The guy who’s racing in front of the 50 cars patiently waiting in line is doing that to make sure that they don’t have to wait…. I think it’s entitlement.”
While the exact rules vary by province, they’re generally similar.
“Not only is it illegal, but it risks a head-on collision [and] confuses an oncoming driver who otherwise might be legally authorized to enter their turning lane,” Corporal Troy Savinkoff, an Alberta RCMP spokesman, said in an e-mail.
If there’s snow on the road and you can’t see the lines, “use common sense and caution,” Savinkoff said.
Centre wrong?
Even if you get into the lane exactly when you’re supposed to, it’s a good idea to watch for oncoming drivers who might be getting into the lane early.
“You want to be looking for someone who’s got their left turn signal on and then make eye-to- eye contact,” said Angelo DiCicco, chief executive officer of the Ontario Safety League, a Mississauga-based non-profit focusing on driver education. “That’s happened to me quite a few times and you figure out when to [get into the lane] so that you’re not interfering with each other.”
If you’re the driver getting into that lane before you’re supposed to, you should be watching out for cars that have a right to be there – and be moving slowly enough that you can avoid a crash.
“I had a situation where I was trying to turn left into a Tim Hortons and I was in a standoff with a [driver] directly opposite me who had decided to enter her turn lane like 100 metres early,” Shapiro said. “We sat there staring at each other until she was able to get out of the way.”
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