What is so Hard About Shoulder vs Roadway?

I apologize up front, but this is rant that I can contain no longer.  I absolutely love Texas.  Love almost everything about Texas EXCEPT…. about a decade or so ago, the Texas legislature passed a bill to take drivers education out of the public schools and put the training of student of drivers in the hands of their parents.  Their parents!!!!  OMG!  I hate that they could not see the danger in that decision.

That being the situation, last night I had two separate calls with people running out of gas (don’t even get me started on that one) on a major road in my county and they are in a panic when I ask them “is the car out of the roadway?” they always say ‘no’!  What do you mean it is IN the roadway?  Could you not drive to the shoulder before it quit all together?  One driver even bailed out of the car and was standing in the middle of a pasture because he was so afraid another vehicle was going to come along and strike his disabled black passenger car with the hazard lights on but in the middle of the lane of travel.

 Car parked on shoulder.  NOT in roadway!

This is what my deputy found (not this particular vehicle but one parked just like it).  A car parked to the right of the solid white line.  On the friggen’ shoulder of the roadway.  I am so frustrated with millennials mostly or just those who have no idea of what the damn roadway means or what the shoulder means.  No wonder people have such a hard time traveling in one lane of traffic (they keep bobbing onto and straddling the solid white line).  They think it is part of their “roadway”.

 Black car parked IN roadway.

In case any millennials or other confused drivers are reading this post, the black Lincoln Town car on the right is parked IN the roadway and the green Ford on the left is parked ON THE SHOULDER.

I guess I’m so frustrated because these completely oblivious drivers have absolutely no idea what they are saying.  What saying a car is in the lane of travel disabled means to a dispatcher and then subsequently to the officer.  The officer who will then drive lights and sirens to get to the location before someone runs into the back end of the vehicle in the roadway.  Arrives only to find the vehicle legally parked on the shoulder.  smh

I have been doing this work a lot of years and I just don’t know how else to ask the question of where the vehicle is parked:  Is the vehicle out of the roadway?  Is the vehicle on the shoulder?  Is the vehicle on the shoulder or in the roadway?  Are you in the lane of travel?  Any suggestions or ideas would be sincerely appreciated.


One Frustrated Dispatcher


4 thoughts on “What is so Hard About Shoulder vs Roadway?”

  1. First and foremost people that are just learning to drive or seasoned drivers…period, should ALWAYS check their gas gage and make sure they have enough gas to get where they have to go, or at least get to the nearest gas station and tank up.

    I have never run out of gas and could never understand how anyone can run out. When you see you are low, get some gas! I know it happens, it does, especially if you’re in the middle of nowhere, but still…

    Now I HAVE had to pull out of traffic because of a flat tire and I couldn’t pull over quick enough! Then immediately put my emergency lights/blinkers on to let other cars see you are in distress.

    1. I don’t understand either how people run out of gas. So you pulled over with your flat… did you know you were “out of the roadway”? Did you understand the shoulder was built for just such an event? How can grown adults who have seen a shoulder not know they are off the road? Ugh!

      1. Oh yes, I know exactly what the shoulder is and I pull to the very edge of it every time! How people can stop in the middle of a highway/road/street….is beyond me! Anyone can plow right into you if you don’t know better!

  2. @serenitytx In Michigan, the police are starting to ticket people who use the right lane as the cruise lane instead of passing only. I know what you mean about leaving the instructing to the parents my hope is when the kids are tested to receive their license it will be a heads up to the parents.

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