So you're in line, 4-5 maybe six cars or more back at a red light. Then somebody pulls off the road, and cuts through a parking lot rather than wait for a green light, or their turn to turn right.  This picture shows (with red lines) what you're supposed to do, vs what people often do, to illustrate the practice (corner of Canal and Edison Kennewick).

  Chelan County passes new traffic law

The Chelan County Sheriff's Office (Wenatchee) announced a new county-wide traffic law will ding you $139 if you use any parking lot, or other driveable area, to avoid the intersection.

Most commonly, the practice is done to avoid having to wait to turn right at a red light.

According to the CCSO:

"it is now illegal for any person operating a motor vehicle on any county road or city street in Chelan County to leave the traveled portion of the road and momentarily enter a parking lot, vacant land, or other private or public property to avoid an intersection or traffic control device."

It applies to any city or county road--period.

One of the most notorious locations in the Tri-Cities is the intersection of Canal and Edison, where two of the four corners have convenience stores on them.  If you drive this area often, you've seen people cut through the Circle K parking lot (heading east) and then turn south onto Edison. Or people heading south on Edison cut through the other convenience store so they can go west on Canal faster.

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Maybe more metro areas need to adopt this policy.

See the Must-Drive Roads in Every State

Gallery Credit: Sarah Jones

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