In an emergency, always pull over to the right, then stop

Q

Could you please write a column about rules when an emergency vehicle is coming up behind you, such as on El Camino Real in Palo Alto?

Most cars do not even slow down. I could not pull over to the right because cars were whizzing by me. … I was on Vasco Road when an ambulance came up from behind. I slowed down but he gave me a long, angry blast of his horn. What did I do wrong? — Ginny LaRiviere, Mary Pena and

many others

A

You didn’t stop.

The vehicle code requires each driver to pull to the right edge of the roadway and STOP.

So your idea of just “slowing” as the emergency vehicle passes does not meet the legal requirements.

On a narrow road, you might consider turning on your blinkers to indicate to the emergency vehicle your intent to yield, then pull as far to the right as practical and slow to a stop until it passes.

However, never stop in an intersection. If you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection and then drive to the right edge of the road and stop until the emergency vehicle has passed.

Q

There is a gap of 100 feet between the end of the bike lane on the right and its resumption on the left at Foothill Expressway to Interstate 280.

All of that is past the point where the right vehicle lane becomes a designated right turn lane.

By the time drivers are in that lane, they start moving farther to the right because they are no longer thinking about crossing or merging traffic.

They can see that they are going to have to move right as they look down the road, so they start early.

This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the last 100 feet of the right bike lane are separated by a dashed line, a clear sign to drivers that it is OK to move into the bike lanes.

It is not identified as a bike lane by anything else. Since all of this is a few hundred feet from the intersection, a car will often be going at “killing speed” when it enters the completely unmarked zone where bikes must move left as cars move right. — Jonathan Blum, Sunnyvale

A

There is a project to add an auxiliary lane on Foothill between San Antonio and El Monte to make this area safer for everyone.

The county has made some changes and will meet with bicyclists later this month to get their input.