Ferry line-cutters beware | In Our Opinion | March 26
Published 1:35 pm Friday, March 26, 2010
You might want to change your ways if, when headed for Seattle on a summer Sunday afternoon, you occasionally avoid the ferry line stretching a mile or two north by turning off Winslow Way (an easy right when traveling eastbound or a left across traffic when westbound) onto Olympic Drive and the ferry ticket terminals. That is, if there isn’t a barrier or a sign warning you not to.
Beginning Sunday, however, people will be encouraged to report the driver of a vehicle making such a maneuver as a line-cutter, leading to a letter and brochure being dispatched. A second violation would lead to WSP involvement, and possibly a $124 ticket.
A Washington State Ferry public affairs officer says this variation of WSDOT’s HERO program, which asks drivers to report violators of highway HOV (commuter) lanes, is being established system-wide, in part, so WSF terminal employees aren’t placed in the role of judge and jury .
“At some terminals (primarily Kingston, Edmonds and Mukilteo), it’s gotten to the point where it’s a he-said-she-said situation on whether the driver should be sent to the end of the line,” she said. “It’s a difficult position for our employees.”
Islanders aren’t so bad, she said, and often visitors here don’t know any better. Nonetheless, despite there often being no signs warning against such turns as described above, anonymous calls will be encouraged (by HERO signs placed at the SR-305-Winslow Way intersection) for anyone witnessing such an act.
Get your cellphones at the ready position. Has it come to this?
No question that someone should nail the reckless drivers, such as the ones who make right turns from the inside lane of eastbound SR-305 onto Winslow Way, followed by a quick U-ey and a right turn into Olympic Drive. But those actions are rare.
While it may be justified at a few sites, this additional use of “tattletales” throughout the ferry system seems a little unnecessary. Especially on Bainbridge, where “no turn” signs and the occasional placing of a barrier should take care of the problem.
