This intersection is in North Carolina. The four lane divided highway is heavily traveled for most of the day at highway speeds, but at rush hour, it’s stop-and-go. There’s a great deal of distance in this section between traffic lights and there are left turn lanes cut into the median for access to side streets and businesses. Due to the distance between traffic signals, these lanes are often used for u-turns (which is not marked as prohibited). The side street on the left goes into the business park my spouse works in and has a stop sign at this intersection.
My question is with regard to right-of-way between a vehicle making a right turn onto the divided highway and one making a u-turn from the left-turn lane. What frequently occurs is that there will be a few cars waiting to turn right at the same time as there are cars in the left turn lane and it’s imperative to go quickly between the gaps because the through traffic is traveling at such high rates of speed. But it’s impossible to tell who’s turning left (in which case right-turners can proceed as well) and who’s making a u-turn, in which case only one car at a time can proceed.
I don’t think this is a typical intersection (no light), so I believe right-turns have the right of way. In order to give right-of-way to u-turners you have to wait for them to commit to the u-turn, in which case, if they turn left instead, you’ve often forfeited your chance to proceed during the gap because you waited too long.
I can’t find my answer in the NC traffic statutes, so I come to you Dopers. What say you?
Your convenience is not an exception to the laws. Entering the highway before the traffic has cleared (including potential cross traffic) is a convenience, a technically illegal act which is tolerated because it usually works out OK.
The vehicle code is very clear. Stop signs yield to uncontrolled traffic, always: Sec. 20-158(b)(1).
WAG.
You have traffic within the main road desiring to make a u-turn, while traffic desires to enter the main road from a secondary road by making a right turn. Seems to me that main road traffic (u-turn) controlled by oncoming traffic has the right of way over secondary road traffic (right turn) controlled by a stop sign.
Aw, you’re right, Nametag and Duckster. I hadn’t thought about looking for the stop sign rule. I was looking for rules pertaining to u-turns. I guess that’s what happens when you start from an assumption. Thank you.
It does make going through this intersection worse from an access standpoint, but at least safer knowing who has right-of-way.
I don’t quite follow. The U-turners should turn into the left lane. The right turners should turn into the right lane. How is there any cross-traffic? Since when is it legal to cross over lanes while performing a u-turn?
I have never driven a car capable of making a U-turn into the left lane; indeed, most cars seem to require three lanes to perform that maneuver. The turning radius of most vehicles is simply too large.
Yeah I think if you look at the sat image I linked, you should be able to see that cars making a u-turn from that left turn lane would cut right into the path of a right-turning car from the side street turning into the right lane. So, really only one car can go at a time.