This is a not uncommon experience for me when I’m riding my bike. I arrive at a 4-way stop at the same time another car does from my right. Or perhaps the car gets there a bit sooner from either left or right. The car has the right-of-way, but the driver doesn’t take it. Instead, they try to wave me through, although frequently I can’t see their wave, since it’s inside the car and reflections of light off the windows hides it.
My usual reaction to this is to wait them out. Yes, they’re trying to be nice to me (one guy even complained to that effect), but I don’t want nice, I want compliance with the rules of the road. Traffic flows better when people follows the rules.
Anyway, my question is: Can a driver legally give up their right-of-way in that manner? If I were to take that right-of-way and then the driver were to suddenly go anyway (say, they’re malicious rather than nice), would I be at fault if they hit me?
You’d probably be at fault; I also don’t know of any legally-binding way for the driver to relinquish the right-of-way short of getting out of his car. My rule of thumb is, if they don’t go when they should, they might go when they shouldn’t.
Were I on a bike and somebody tried to wave me through like that, I’d ride over to the side, get off the bike, and walk across in front of them.
Absolutely a driver can relinquish the right of way. Think about when you’re trying to merge in heavy traffic and someone falls back so you can get over. They have every right to occupy their lane as through traffic but they allow you to come over.
You’re smart to be skeptical and super cautious on your bicycle because you’re exposed and you won’t fare well if you’re hit by a car. Worrying about how right of way would look after the fact is a lot like being held at gunpoint and wondering if the shooter could claim self defense. Yeah, it’ll be a big deal to someone, but it doesn’t change anything for you if you’re dead.
The driver in the instance you’re describing is probably trying to be courteous and do a good thing. Or he could be digging around under his seat trying to find a cigarette lighter and he’s going to floor it at any second and kill anything in his way. Try to make eye contact and always proceed with caution.
don’t want to high jack but When you are merging the car in the lead, you have the right away. The car coming from the on ramp does not have to slow down and let the car on the freeway that is behind then pass. When people do this it slows down the freeways.
Certainly not generally true. Here is the California Driver handbook , for example,
“Enter the freeway at or near the speed of traffic. (Remember that the maximum speed allowed is 65 mph on most freeways.) Do not stop before merging into freeway traffic, unless it is absolutely necessary. Freeway traffic has the right-of-way.” [Emphasis added.]
Here is the Oregon law, " A person commits the offense of failure of a merging driver to yield the right of way if the person is operating a vehicle that is entering a freeway or other arterial highway where an acceleration or merging lane is provided for the operators use and the operator does not look out for and give right of way to vehicles on the freeway or other arterial highway."
In fact I strongly suspect that what you state is not the law in any U.S. state.
I’ve had the same problem when I’m driving. A pedestrian is actually in the crosswalk…and still tries to wave me through. As if! Any policeman who saw me do that would have every right to ticket me. Now, yeah, I’d go in front of a judge and explain the details, and probably get off…but what a pain! On more than one occasion, I’ve changed lanes and gone in a different direction entirely; I can’t legally or safely take away the pedestrian’s priority right-of-way, especially when he’s actually in the crosswalk.
I don’t cycle anymore for various reasons but this behaviour used to piss me off as it is far easier for a car driver to press down the accelerator than it is for a cyclist to get going from a standstill.
I agree wholeheartedly. Thanks, other driver, for trying to be polite but your kindness is misguided. If it is your right of way, then take it!
One pet peeve of mine (and not to hijack), is when bicyclists are riding in a crosswalk and think they have right of way because they’re in said crosswalk (California driver here). Sorry, guy, but pedestrians have the right of way in the crosswalk, not bicycle riders. If you want right-of-way protection then get off your bike and walk it - and that makes you a pedestrian and, therefore, “protected.”
a bicyclist has the right of way over a car if they arrive first or simultaneously. auto drivers might wave you through if they arrive slightly later because some of them are nice.
i too will often wave through a car when on bike or foot. they can clear the intersection much quicker and you are more sure of being safe. with many lighting and windshield situations you can’t be sure if you are seen, so waiting is safer (you might have to wave more than once). with the high level of distracted drivers these days you can’t be sure that you are noticed if they have their head pointed towards you for a long time.
shrug Legal or not, it’s pretty standard behavior here. As a pedestrian, I will wave cars on (primarily because nobody here stops for people in crosswalks, anyway, so just to see a car slow down and be aware of my presence is a minor miracle), and I am very often waved on by pedestrians (who are quite often jaywalking, too, but nobody gives a damn about jaywalking here.) It would confuse the flow of things if I insisted they take/give up their right of way, as that’s just how traffic flows here.
I bicycle commuted for years. This used to drive me nuts. I do not want to be in front of a car with a driver confused as to whether they should go or not.
Most drivers have only ever used a bike recreationally. They don’t understand the concept of a cyclist as another vehicle. I also see a lot of people that honestly do not understand traffic rules in the first place. People (mostly women really) with the right of way at a four way stop regularly try to wave me through. It is just as annoying in my truck but at least it isnt potentially life threatening.
I always found it very easy to accelerate on a bike and could usually clear an intersection faster than a car. If my bike was hard to get going from a standstill I would ditch the department store bike and go get a real one.
Way down in the South West of Uk (Cornwall and Devon) its is very common practice to wave your own right of way. I was told by a driving instructor that it was ok to wait but not ok to wave them through as that left you open to liability should they have an accident. We still all do it though. Many of our roads are one car wide, so give and take is part of our culture of the road, something tourists often have difficulty with.
It’s virtually unheard-of in Seattle for a cyclist to obey traffic lights, stop signs, to stay in a single lane instead of riding between lanes, or to ride on pedestrian ways without getting off their bikes and walking, or to stop for pedestrians.
At the same time, every cyclist I’ve spoken to claims that they follow all the rules of the road, and it’s the other cyclists who peeve me (and them) off. Hmm.
I call these the “Annoying Samaritans”. I find it helpful to be very obviously not looking at any car that may be on my right. Stop, off the saddle, foot on ground, looking slightly away from them, watching with my peripheral vision.
Far worse than the yield-at-4-way-to-the-bicycle-on-left moron is the stop-even-though-I-don’t-have-a-stopsign-and-the-bicycle-does idiot. These are both worse than the slow-down-when-I-see-bicycle-waiting-at-a-side-street-thus-causing-the-three-holes-that-the-bike-could-have-gone-through-to-close twit, who makes up for it in numbers.
By far the worst offender is the one who stops on the busy street to allow the cyclist to cross, ignoring the fact that the five other lanes are not stopping, and all the while slowing and stacking up traffic, so it takes longer to clear so the cyclist can actually cross. I have seen this exact thing no less than 5 times. Laughing out loud at them seems to be taken as rude for some reason.
There is just a certain class of motor vehicle operator (I shant call them drivers) whose brain turns to liquid and flows out their ears the moment they spy a cyclist.
AIUI, at a four-way stop, you have to yield to traffic that has already entered the intersection. So in this case, at least, if they wait and you enter the intersection, they can’t re-take the right-of-way they once had by claiming that they “should\ have” got to go first.
So you’ll have that thought to comfort you as they load you on the stretcher…
ETA: I think people who wave you on when it’s their turn aren’t being polite at all. I think they’re on a power trip. Fuck 'em all.