The Five Car Rule: Pulling Over & Driving The Speed Limit

Some questions can never be solved with a simple answer, as it leads to more questions. This is the exact case of a driver who asked if it was unlawful to overtake other drivers while obeying the official speed limit on the road.

“I’ve always wondered about the five car rule when you are driving the speed limit,” he wrote. “I pull over as I don’t like being in front of aggressive drivers, but is that illegal, too, when you aren’t technically a slow-moving vehicle?”

Doug Dahl explains “the five car rule”

Doug Dahl, a manager with the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, took time out to explain the five car rule and its application to the question asked. “The five car rule says that on a two-lane highway where passing is unsafe, a slow-moving vehicle shall turn off the roadway at a safe location if there are five or more vehicles in a line behind them,” he detailed.

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He also revealed that according to traffic laws, a slow-moving vehicle is any automobile moving at a pace lesser than the recommended one at a given location and time.

Doug Dahl provides an answer to the question

The road traffic specialist further stated that even though the law is silent about speed limits, many drivers could interpret a “slow-moving vehicle” to justify their actions. “This particular law doesn’t mention anything about speed limits, so one interpretation could be that if you’re driving 50 mph on a 50-mph highway, and there are five cars behind you anxious to drive 60 mph at their first opportunity, you’re a slow-moving vehicle,” he said. “I don’t like that interpretation because it seems to implicitly endorse speeding.”

He tackled the question by revealing that according to the law, a driver is only supposed to pull over for drivers moving at the “normal flow of traffic” and not for those driving beyond the limit. Dahl shares that the ideas behind the “normal flow of traffic” do not directly refer to the speed limit but rather reflect the attitudes of the drivers.

“Recall our 50-mph highway,” he explained. “A driver who is traveling at 60 mph but delaying five vehicles that would rather drive 65 mph could theoretically be issued traffic infractions for both speeding and being a slow-moving vehicle. I can’t imagine an officer ever writing those two tickets together, but if it did happen, I’d want to be in the courtroom when the driver contests at least one of those tickets.”

Doug Dahl sounds a note of warning to road users

Dahl also warned that although pulling over might be a fantastic choice, a driver should not make such a decision under intense pressure as there are things to watch out for so as to avoid accidents.

“A safe pull-out needs to be long enough for you to get fully off the highway without braking so hard that you create a chain reaction in the vehicles behind you,” he said. “It also needs enough room to let you get back up to speed without creating a hazard, and in a location that provides drivers on the road enough visibility to see you pulling back onto the road.”