As wildflowers bloom along NC highways, resist the urge to stop your car. Here’s why.
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We’ve written about the best places to walk or hike in the Triangle to see beautiful wildflowers in bloom this spring and summer. But driving along North Carolina highways in the spring and summer can also be a beautiful experience, thanks to the N.C. Department of Transportation’s highway wildflower program.
Through the program, which began in 1985, NCDOT installs and maintains beds of wildflowers along roadsides in each of the state’s 14 highway divisions. The flowers are a mix of annuals, perennials and wildflowers that are native to North Carolina — an eye-catching assortment that adds lots of color to drives, whether you’re going a few miles away or across the entire state.
The flowers are so pretty, in fact, that you may be tempted to pull over near the flowerbeds and maybe even get out of your car to get a closer look.
But is that allowed?
The NCDOT and the N.C. State Highway Patrol urge drivers not to do that — both for safety and legal reasons.
We’ve broken down the major reasons why the agencies say you should observe the flowers from afar.
NCDOT: Stopping to look at highway wildflowers is unsafe
Perhaps the most obvious reason you should avoid pulling over to look at wildflowers along North Carolina highways is that it’s unsafe and could put you in harm’s way.
The flowers are often planted along roads where the speed limits are high, or where there isn’t a designated place to pull off and view the flowers. Stopping on roads with such high rates of speed, and where there isn’t a safe place to stand, poses a risk to your safety and others’.
“The wildflower beds are in areas that were never designed to provide for the traveling public to stop and view the flowers,” NCDOT information and communications specialist Bridgette Barthe told The News & Observer by email.
“Cars should only stop on the highway if there is an emergency for their safety and the safety of others on the road. While we know the flowers are beautiful and hard to resist, we ask everyone to not stop for their own protection.”
NCDOT also urges drivers not to stop and pick the flowers for the same reasons — and, if you were to do that, you’d be taking away other drivers’ chances to see the roadside beauties. (If you like the flowers NCDOT plants, check out the department’s “Wildflowers of North Carolina Roadsides” booklet, which includes instructions for planting your own wildflowers: ncdot.gov/initiatives-policies/environmental/wildflower/Documents/ncdot-wildflower-booklet.pdf.)
Stopping to look at wildflowers could be against the law
If your own safety and that of other drivers isn’t enough to keep you from stopping to look at the wildflowers, perhaps consider whether doing so is even legal.
North Carolina law says it is illegal to “park or leave standing” any attended or unattended vehicle on highways “unless the vehicle is disabled to such an extent that it is impossible to avoid stopping and temporarily leaving the vehicle upon the paved or main-traveled portion of the highway or highway bridge.”
In 2018, now-Sgt. Brandon Baker with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol told Greensboro news station WFMY that the “only three reasons under the law” for stopping your vehicle on a North Carolina highway are:
▪ In the event of an emergency situation;
▪ If a driver is directed by law enforcement to stop, such as during a traffic stop; or
▪ If there is a designated parking area.
“My best advice is to appreciate it as you go by and get to where you are going safely,” Baker told WFMY at the time.
Highway Patrol Sgt. Marcus Bethea told The N&O in an email last week that he agrees with Sgt. Baker’s previous assessment of the state law and it still applies now.
Learn more about NCDOT highway wildflower program
More information about the highway wildflower program is available on the NCDOT website: ncdot.gov/initiatives-policies/environmental/wildflower/Pages/default.aspx.
The Wildflowers of North Carolina Roadsides booklet, which includes photos and information about the flowers planted through the highway wildflower program, is available to download at ncdot.gov/initiatives-policies/environmental/wildflower/Documents/ncdot-wildflower-booklet.pdf.
This story was originally published March 20, 2023 at 8:00 AM with the headline "As wildflowers bloom along NC highways, resist the urge to stop your car. Here’s why.."
