The Coast Road Is Not a Freeway

The coast highways look like an easy drive and behave like a busy main street with a view. Traffic is mixed in a way that no freeway is: through-traffic doing the speed limit, tourists slowing for a photograph, cyclists in numbers, pedestrians crossing to the sand, and a continuous line of parallel-parked cars whose doors open without warning.

The specific hazards

• Car doors. Parked cars along the coast are full of people getting out with surfboards, coolers and children. A door opening into the traffic lane is the classic coastal collision. California requires that a door not be opened on the traffic side unless it's reasonably safe — but you're the one who has to leave room for the driver who forgets.
• Cyclists in numbers. The coast is a cycling route, and the shoulder is often narrow or missing. Passing requires a genuine lane change on many stretches.
• Sudden stops for views. A car braking hard for a turnout it just spotted is a permanent feature of these roads.
• Pedestrians crossing mid-block between parking and the beach, often carrying things and not looking.
• Cross traffic from lots and driveways with poor sight lines, especially where parked cars block the view.

Passing a cyclist properly

California's Three Feet for Safety Act, Vehicle Code section 21760, requires a minimum of three feet of clearance when passing a bicycle in the same direction, and when three feet isn't possible you must slow to a reasonable speed and pass only when it can be done without danger. On a two-lane coast road with oncoming traffic, that frequently means waiting. Waiting is the answer. The alternative — squeezing past inside the lane — is both a violation and the way cyclists get hurt.

Change lanes to pass, or wait. There is no third option that's both legal and safe on a narrow coast road.

Parking and turning

Backing out of a coastal lot into a through lane is one of the higher-risk routine maneuvers you'll do. Where you have the choice, park so you can pull forward out. Left turns across the highway into a lot deserve real patience — the gap that looks adequate closes fast when the oncoming car is doing more than you assumed.

What the marine environment does to a car

Salt air is corrosive, and cars kept near the coast show it: brake and fuel line corrosion, rust at panel seams, seized fittings underneath. Sand blown against paint acts like a mild abrasive. None of this is an insured loss — corrosion and wear are excluded by policies as maintenance issues. What helps is rinsing the underside occasionally, particularly if you park on sand or drive on beach-adjacent lots. Salt spray and fine sand also get into door seals and window channels; a small amount of maintenance goes a long way.

Break-ins in beach lots

Beach parking is a target-rich environment for smash-and-grab, because visitors leave bags in cars while they're at the water and the lots empty out. Theft of items from your car and the damage from breaking in are comprehensive-coverage matters for the vehicle damage — but your personal belongings inside the car are generally not covered by an auto policy at all; that's typically a homeowners or renters question. The reliable answer is not to leave anything visible, and to move things to the trunk before you arrive rather than in the lot where you're watched doing it.

If you keep a car at the coast and want to know what your policy actually covers, send it over — we'll be straight with you about what it does and doesn't reach.