I don’t think anybody here said that a U-Turn is ALWAYS the best way to get somewhere. Since you conceded that they are sometimes the best way to get somewhere, I still don’t understand your bone of contention.
You make a U-Turn when it’s the best thing to do, and you don’t when it isn’t. What’s your point?
Jesus Fucking Christ!!! How many people do you think you slowed down by going around the whole goddamned block just to avoid a fucking U-Turn? Now you’re just being ridiculous.
I have just returned from a holiday in Victoria. Down there people do U-turns where they like and some traffic lights have U-turn lights. Because of this thread I asked my friends what the rules are in Victoria. From Driving In Victoria Rules and Responsibilities they found:
When making a U-turn
You must give way to all pedestrians as well as vehicles when making a U-turn.
Simple eh?
My friends thought that unless signposted otherwise you can do a U-turn anywhere. We got the proof of this when we went for a trip along the south coast of the mainland. We headed west on the Great Ocean Road which is, in parts, like Highway 1 in California - single lane each way, halfway up a cliff with a blind corner every 30 metres and with “no U-turn” signs. You wouldn’t attempt one for a bet anyway.
Um, dear.
That little vein on your forehead is popping out again.
I’ve been driving for 30 years and have never been involved in any type of accident. I have no problem paying attention.
My ‘bone’ of contention is that IMHO U-turns do screw up the flow of traffic, and can usually be avoided if people would take 10 seconds and think about possible alternatives.
And, as far as paying attention, many U-turns are performed by people that have missed a previous turn. Those are the folks that aren’t paying attention.
Umm, how do you know? You a mind-reader or just jumping to conclusions? Last I checked, nobody announces with a bullhorn or sign language why they’re making a U-turn. Or any other turn for that matter.
If you’re speaking from personal experience, speak for yourself.
Actually, it already burst. My nonsense buffer can only handle so much input before it overflows.
If there are no other entrances/driveways to the street between the lights, what else could they be doing? And since, at least where I live, it’s almost always easier, shorter to get to your destination directly (except for a few circumstances). After all, when you make a U-trurn, you cover distance you already traveled.
I think I’m done beating this dead horse. I can see we won’t ever agree. Drive safe everyone.
I’ve been driving five years longer than you have. Yeah, on the average a U-turn might take a fraction of a second longer than a left, not all of which happens in the intersection. However in my neck of the woods the people who feel they need to leave three car lengths before they turn left are a much bigger slowdown, and the ones who turn left then stop suddenly to pull into a driveway are far scarier. I don’t remember ever missing a turn light due to U-turners.
Like I said, not around here it isn’t. There are cases where traffic is heavy, and you can’t make it across. In that situation, I travel to the next intersection marked for a U-Turn and make it there. It is still safer and more efficient than driving through the shopping center - where I’d have to cross more lanes of traffic on a busier street to make my left.
Maybe one percent of the U-Turns I make come from missing a turn or getting messed up. Almost all are within a few blocks of my house. From the lack of befuddlement on the faces of other drivers making U-Turns (I can read minds too.) and the fact they pop into driveways of shopping centers after making the turn, I don’t think their confused either. It’s nice that the roads you drive have no dividers, and that you can always turn left into any driveway with no problems, but not all areas are like that.
I hate to break it to you, but most of the driving population isn’t meticulously trying to avoid making U-turns due to some irrational aversion to them, so the reason they make them isn’t so much “missing a turn” as much as the fact that it’s occasonally natural to do so.
Nobody’s kicking themselves thinking, “aw, dang, in order to get to that mini mall, I have to make a dreaded U-turn, which is going to anger the driving gods.” While you contend that there’s no reason to make a U-turn, the rational world contends that there’s no reason to avoid them, either.
Maybe you should come to California and drive around the South Bay Area for a while. There are A LOT of streets like the one I drew, and in some cases this odd reluctance you have for U-turns can take you literally miles out of your way. In other words, what applies in your area doesn’t apply everywhere, so get over yourself already.
Yeah, much better to make 3 left turns or 3 right turns and go all the way around the block (even assuming that all streets are laid out in perfect grids with no one-way streets or dead-ends, which isn’t the case), than to cover that 1/2 a block that you already travelled. :rolleyes:
Oh wait, NOW I get it. You have one of those flying cars that can fly over medians and one-way streets so that you can always take the shortest distance between 2 points.
So, unless I am mistaken, what we can deduce from this thread is that in the US at least, EITHER the U-turner must yield to the right-turner on his left because his maneuver is less common and he is showing a deceptive left turn signal, OR the right-turner must yield to the U-turner instead. One or the other, depending on…whichever one I am at the time.
Apparently to avoid slowing down anyone else hoping to make a left before the light turns red, rather than a making U-turn it is better simply to go around the world and come at one’s target from the other side. In case I don’t have time for that, the logic that still seems to speak louder to me is the one suggesting that the right turner is stopped, either at a light or a stop sign, AND he or she is attempting a turn onto a road that the U-turner is already on. These items seem to give the green light to the U-turner, and the right-turner has to yield. Both of them better be paying attention instead of dialing their cell phone while lighting a cigarette, disciplining their rugrats and picking up their baby’s pacifier off the floor, though.
If I’m not mistaken, Columbus, Ohio shuts up this whole debate by making U-turns illegal citywide. Not that U-turns would generally be necessary in most of Columbus.
Also, I just wanted to say that I have seen zillions of intersections like what Ellis Dee described (post #162, above). I must admit that I’ve never really considered U-turners. Perhaps they are illegal at such intersections.
I’m curious how it is you know for a fact that the two perpendicular directions both have green arrows at the same time. And if you have studied the intersection carefully enough to know that, how do you not know if U-Turns are allowed?
Well, it’s not in the Columbus City Codes. I hope it’s not illegal as the last time I was there, I was looking for a tobacco store downtown and found it on the other side of the street. I promptly made a U-turn at the next light. I don’t remember seeing a sign prohibiting it either.
Hmmm…looks like I made a wrong turn somewhere. Not the thread I was aiming for.
Apologies.
Buh bye.
Somehow, I completely missed my thread growing to FOUR PAGES. Wow!
Just to clarify the OP - I was making a left U-turn at an intersection where I had a green left turn arrow. The subjects of my ire were waiting at a red light and making right turns on red, ignoring the right-of-way afforded to me by my green turn arrow.
It doesn’t require much study- I can see a green right-turn arrow at the same time that people from the perpendicular direction(s) are making left turns, and left turns only (i.e., no one is going straight across). And I’ve been through one example of this kind of intersection enough times (from different directions) to be certain that this is the case. As for whether U-turns are legal or not, I don’t know how the laws work. I was just wondering if it’s one of those things that you’re supposed to know but that is not posted. The only thing I could easily find in Ohio law was something saying that with a green arrow, you are supposed to begin moving into your turn, but yield to any pedestrians or other traffic legally in the intersection. Ordinarily there would not be any other traffic or pedestrians legally in the intersection, but with the two green arrows together it would have to mean that the right-turner and the U-turner must yield to each other. So that’s not helpful. I have no idea what the actual rules are.
I could be totally wrong about that. I’m mainly just remembering what someone told me, though I do vaguely recall a “no U-turns citywide” type of sign somewhere. Maybe I’m thinking of a different place.
I know of at least two intersections like this as well. While I turn right with my right-turn green arrow I can glance over my shoulder and see a left-turn green arrow for the other traffic as well.
As to whether a U-turn is allowed at these intersections, it’s unclear. I can say that there are no signs specifically prohibiting them. I also know of an intersection in the same city that does have a No U-Turn sign, so that would seem to indicate U-turns are generally allowed.