Florida Yield Laws

On my drive in to school this morning my passenger and I came upon this intersection as usual.
Pretend we’re traveling along the red dots.
A car across the intersection (this would be the blue dots) is turning on solid green.
A person ahead of us stops at the yield sign to let the blue dot person, who has an opening and is in the process of making a turn on green, go by.
My passenger remarks that the person who yielded at the yield sign was a fool because they had the right of way since the other person was turning at the light.
This made no sense to me as the only law I can remember is that you are to yield at a yield sign to traffic in the road, which this car was as soon as it turned.
He was adamant that you only had to yield to the traffic coming straight through the light.
You see, he’s an expert on this because he used to work on computer equipment in a drivers license office. Note: not actually for the office, just repairing equipment. :rolleyes:

I did a little Googling which turned up The 2000 Florida Driver Handbook which only states the following about yield signs:

So what’s the deal?
Are there extenuating circumstances that just aren’t described in the handbook or is he talking out his ass again?

Thanks. :slight_smile:

Well, it seems clear that the other car is “crossing your path” and should have the right of way as mentioned in your excerpt from the manual.

I was taught that a Yield sign is like a Stop sign, but you only have to stop or slow if there’s another vehicle coming along.

Statute:

http://www.flsenate.gov/Statutes/index.cfm?mode=View%20Statutes&SubMenu=1&App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=CH0316/Sec123.HTM

You don’t have to stop, but you have to slow down. And if it is required for safety then you have to stop. And if there is an accident, you will have to prove it wasn’t your fault.

Seems like your friend got it wrong.

Just as I thought.
I mean the person coming out of the yield would have been freaking cutting the other person off, for the love of Pete!

And thanks oodles for the link.
I need to email someone, now. :slight_smile:

Copy me with it. I could use the laugh.
:wink:

Oooh, that would get me in trouble. :smiley:

Could you animate the gif to see the timing of all of this?

Probably, but it’s pretty much a smallish intersection close to the yield, the person was already at mid-turn and within 10-15 ft of the person who stopped at the yield sign.
I guess my friend might’ve thought that the turner should’ve yielded to the yielder?
I dunno…it just really stuck in my craw about how he should know better because he’s did some work in the drivers license office.

I like the part of the FL handbook about “Who had the right of way?”
Nobody! :slight_smile:

Sorry, that should’ve been “Who has the right of way?”

Your friend is an idiot and I hope he does not drive. I make such a left turn every day as I leave work and turn onto the Interstate on ramp (from an unsignalized intersection). I sometimes have to cross my fingers and hope that the car approaching its YIELD sign is going to obey the law and yield to me. Some do not, as I beat them to the intersection, and I’m sure they say “WTF?”

The purpose of such an installation is so that the traffic making the left turn does not have to stop and have any vehicles that are behind it be in danger of being stopped and then hit by someone coming fromlthe right on the road they are turning off of. At that location, they would normally (in most states) have to yield while making the left turn to oncoming traffic (from the right.)

The YIELD sign as located **can ** cause confusion to some folks who may think that because they are entering the intersection from the right that they should have the right of way if they get there at the same time as the other vehicle. If the sign were not ther, then they would have the r/o/w and the left turning vehicles would have to yield/stop for all of them, queueing back into the other intersection.

Clear enough? Any other questions?

You mean they’d think they’d have right of way, right? Because looking at the picture, it’s not a right-hand turn. It’s a merge from the right to the left into traffic. With or without a yield sign, the merging traffic must yield right of way.

The friend is an idiot.

I don’t know the Florida code, but I’ll let you see if it’s the same as in Michigan. In Michigan, once a car has already been making a left turn, then that car has right of way. It also must be safe to make the left turn (you can’t just cut people off). I saved a friend an at-fault (insurance price increase) and got him out of the ticket by finding the relevant code once. The point is, it sounds like the left turner was already in the turn.

Hey harmless:

Just out of curiosity, what intersection in town is that?

Your neighbor,
poonther

We have clarification…sorta. :stuck_out_tongue:
For some reason he was thinking that the green light still applied to that lane.
Basically he was thinking of right on green, which does have the right of way over someone making a left from the opposite direction.
Without having to resort to the lovely cite (thanks again, Gfactor :slight_smile: ), we got it straightened out.
As for the lame ass argument earlier, I think he’s just tired of me being right all the time. He should Dope more. :wink:

Howdy, Poonther! :slight_smile: That would be the intersection by TCC: Appleyard and 20/Pensecola.

As for the idiot comments…everyone has one of those days.
He’s still a good person.
Just keep off the streets. :smiley: