michael hussar

I say this because Hussar e-mailed me with a question about the exact situation I come across while turning left onto Massachusetts Avenue from Garfield Avenue in Cambridge. For all I know, Hussar's the guy in front of me.

Garfield is a side road that ends at a stop sign at Mass. Ave. - a "T" intersection.

Wanting to turn left, I wait for traffic to pass, then creep out. Without fail, a driver on the opposite side of Mass. Ave. will stop cold to turn left onto Garfield as I'm about to pull out. His stopped car blocks my path, so I wait for him to make his left turn before I make mine.

Hussar runs into the same problem, wondering which driver has the legal right-of-way.

"Does the other car have the right to stop directly in front of my car, preventing my left turn until after they turn?" he asked.

Time to address a few more of your letters. Let's start with Left vs. Left.

Who goes first?

Does the car on Massachusetts Avenue have the right of way? Do I?

The car traveling on Mass. Ave. has the right of way, for two reasons.

According to Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 89, Section 8, "When two vehicles approach or enter an intersection . . . at approximately the same instant, the operator of the vehicle on the left shall yield the right-of-way to the vehicle on the right."

Were Garfield and Mass. Ave. to meet at a four-way intersection, there would be no question which car would be to the right. The same logic applies at a T intersection.

The driver on Mass. Ave. also has the right of way because he doesn't have a stop sign to contend with, according to the same section of Chapter 89.

Sergeant Michael Maffei, with the Cambridge Police Department's traffic unit, said the situation is a confusing one, though, because of the double left. "Drivers should let courtesy and common sense" prevail, as opposed to regulations, he advised.

Trucks in middle lane

Reader Kelley McCormick of Dedham travels all over Boston as a sales representative.

His pet peeve? Big rigs that inhabit the left lanes of highways, even though the law states those lanes are for passing only.

"By law, the middle lane, for big rigs, is for passing ONLY, not for general driving," he wrote, referring to three-lane highways. Slower moving trucks need to go "back to the right travel lane where they belong."

Sergeant Tom Fitzgerald, a veteran of the State Police's commercial vehicle enforcement section, confirmed that the law does require 18-wheelers to stay out of the left-most lanes.

But truckers have legitimate reasons for traveling in a middle lane, he said.

"The reason truckers stay in the second lane is to avoid ramp traffic - people cutting over to get to the ramp or accelerating to come off a ramp," Fitzgerald said. "It's a pretty prudent safety operation for them not to operate in the first lane. The front of a truck has a blind spot, so drivers don't want to spend their whole day with people cutting in front of them."

Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 89, Section 4C, says that heavy vehicles must stay in the right-hand lane unless passing.

It also states that trucks can use other lanes "in an emergency."

According to Fitzgerald, the density of traffic on roadways, cars entering and exiting from the highway, and the difficulties that big rigs face in braking or changing lanes quickly, when viewed together, can amount to emergency-like conditions for truckers.

"The law has to be applied to contemporary circumstances," he said. "We don't have a problem with trucks driving in that middle lane."