Conference back40::soapbox

    From the Mass.RMV online Drivers' Manual, Chapter 5 (Driving Emergencies):
    
    
    
    Breakdowns
    
         Move your vehicle off the pavement to the side of
         the road. Never park on a hill or on a curve where others
         are unable to see you. If you can't get the vehicle
         off the pavement, safely get all passengers out of the car
         and off the road. 
    
         On a highway with a breakdown lane or shoulder,
         move your vehicle as far away from the travel lane as
         possible. Do NOT stand anywhere near the travel lane. 

    
    	Keep in mind that this manual is a set of guidelines more than
    	anything, and doesn't necessarily coincide with the actual MA
    	rulebook [Chapter 90 of MA General Laws].
    

    <<< Note 832.144 by MPGS::WOOLNER "Your dinner is in the supermarket" >>>

>    From the Mass.RMV online Drivers' Manual, Chapter 5 (Driving Emergencies):
    
 	No mention of "right" side?

Jim

    
    	RE: .144
    
    	I read .144 3-4 times and still can't find the word "right".
    
    	You could try a SEARCH command to make sure, though.
    

    No mention of "Right" because "right" is sometimes wrong.  If you are
    on a busy multilane divided highway, and your car breaks down in the
    left lane, your proper action is to move it left instead of trying to
    get it to the right side across two or three other lanes of traffic.

    You guys having trouble understanding "travel lane" or the phrase
    "as far away from the travel lane as possible"?

    
    	Which travel lane ... 1, 2 or 3?
    
    	The left or right side of the road would be just as correct.
    

    <<< Note 832.149 by MPGS::WOOLNER "Your dinner is in the supermarket" >>>

>    You guys having trouble understanding "travel lane" or the phrase
>    "as far away from the travel lane as possible"?

	I only asked because a review of some of the entries in this topic
	blame the victim because he pulled off to the left.

Jim

    
    	But if you want to get extremely picky here, the "travel lane"
    	is the right lane and the passing lanes are the n-1 left lanes.
    
    	So to get as far away from the "travel lane" as possible you'd
    	have to pull the car off of the left side of the road.
    

    Arrghh!!  Or you could pull back on the yoke and go for 3000 feet!
    
    No, it doesn't say "right" or "right lane" or "passing lane" or "lane
    next to the median".  My interpretation is that the driver should get
    away from the (left, fastest, passing, travel, median-hugging) freakin'
    lane closest to oncoming traffic and get as far off the road as
    possible.  :-PPPP  :-)
    
    Leslie

    
    	Leslie, maybe the next time you drudge up a law to support your
    	side of an argument, you should make sure that it does in fact
    	do same.
    
    	8^)
    

I mentioned before, a friend, who blew an engine in the left lane of a 3 lane
(each way) interstate and pulled off to the left, was told to move it to
the right side by the (NY) state police when they found the car was still
self-mobile.  The left side at that point had a wide median.

One time I broke down on a highway which had maybe a foot between the white
line and the guardrail.  I probably should have headed for the left side while
I had momentum but didn't.  I still wonder why that highway was built with
no shoulder whatsoever (it was built in the 80s)

    
    	If the policeman had told your friend to do cartwheels in the mid-
    	dle of the road and click his heels together twice on every rotat-
    	ion, would he have done that too?