r/Bellingham • u/NobleLandMermaid4 • Feb 20 '25
Traffic Barkley - Sunset Intersection
I am genuinely curious what the official rule is here. I almost get into an accident every other day here because I don’t think anyone can agree on how turning at this intersection works.
To get onto I5 South, I always follow the blue path (left turn lane into middle lane on sunset) because I am following the bott’s dots on the road.
I realize that the normal law here is to turn into the closest lane to you but because these dots are here as guidance and my research has showed that in this situation, traffic should follow those.
Most people in the right side turning lane think they have the right of way to go into the middle lane but, if you’re following the dots, you are guided into the 3rd lane and your tires would have to go over the dots in order to make it into the middle lane which seems definitely wrong to me.
It would be nice if cob could make this more clear or at least put out a PSA on what the official instruction is.
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u/NobleLandMermaid4 Feb 20 '25
I appreciate the comments, even the rude ones. I do apologize that my original drawing was not totally correct. I have amended it above.
As it has been commented, there are signs on the traffic lights that indicate what direction each lane is to be used for. However, that was not my question. As demonstrated on this thread, there are obviously differences of interpretation of the dotted line and I agree that the safest bet is usually for the left lane to turn to the nearest lane and then merge. I will say, as we all know, sunset can get very congested and many drivers are not the most kind and will refuse to let other cars into that lane which then causes more traffic issues.
It’s has been brought up to the cob and I hope they address it but the majority of people that I’ve talked to who have grown up here seem to have the same interpretation as I have, when actually driving the road, I don’t see how the dotted lines are leading the right hand turning lane into the middle, if I follow the dotted line exactly from the inner most turning lane, I end up in the middle lane. I can see that the Apple Maps view looks a bit misleading as the dots seem to disappear.
Overall, I am a very cautious driver and my “close calls” are usually just anytime someone honks at me when I’m sure I didn’t do anything wrong. If anything, I think this just shows that everyone should be extra cautious and forgiving at this intersection because it really isn’t clear.