This burns my ass daily, and I’m wondering if I’m the only one. Seems like every time I’m driving, some asshole has to scoot up to my right even when there’s NO LANE there, because he doesn’t want to wait to turn right. It can be a bike lane, a narrow shoulder, a scrap of dust, mud, whatever. I do not understand. Even when it’s a 4-way stop. Now how you expect a 4-way stop to work if some jerkoff has scooted up next to one of the cars? I will often anticipate this stupid behavior and angle my car so I’m blocking the way. Bike lanes are NOT right-turn lanes and if you have to wait an extra 30 seconds to turn right then TOO BAD. Any police officers out there want to enlighten me- is this okay, acceptable, legal? I just know one of these days one of these cell-phone talkin’, tank-like SUV drivin’ dickwads are going to misjudge the space and scrape up against me and then I will have to get out the car and show my ass.
I seem to be full of questions tonight.
Show your ass? 
trublmakr ,you’re not the only one. I get kind of pissed to especially when they might have to wait 30-40 seconds. It seems that everyone is in such a damn hurry. I’ve seen some pretty piss poor drivers in vehicles other than SUV’s too.
I’m curious as well about “showing your ass”.
“Show my ass” is a Southern way of saying “make an ass of myself” which I would be doing because I’m fed up with it and I’d pitch a big ol’ fit and people would stare.
Oddly enough, I happen to have a copy of the California Driver’s Handbook 2003 right next to me (don’t ask). Let’s see what it has to say about bike lanes:
Pg 24: “Don’t drive in a bike lane unless you are within 200 feet of making a right turn at a corner or you are preparing to enter or leave the roadway.”
So, it pretty much is a right turn lane. In California, anyway. Sorry.
What chaps my ass is when they pull up on the right shoulder like they’re going to make a right hand turn, and then when the light turns, they pass me, in the intersection. On the right. In a non-existant lane. Wha? How? Wha? I just do not understand how anybody can think this is acceptable on any level.
If the bike lane is the right turn lane, then where do the cyclists go?
It works perectly well at a four way stop. When it is that direction’s turn to go one goes straight through, and one turns right. Twice the efficiency for no cost. It’s really stupid to not double up the lane. As those 30 seconds for each extra car add up, and soon everybody is wasting 5 minutes.
I did this once. In my defense, I had just gotten back from a week in Brazil, and that’s how everyone drives down there, so it seemed perfectly normal.
I think it’s a Yankee thing. When I was driving in the armpit, I noticed it too. It happened rather frequently. Down here, I think you see it only in cities like Charlotte or Atlanta where there are lots of carpetbaggers.
Oh, that pisses me off, too. I think they just assume you might be turning left, and like everyone else (present company excepted), aren’t bothering to use your turn signal.
I’m not sure that means one is allowed to use the bike line to create an extra lane just so they can make a right turn if there’s a car going straight ahead of them and they don’t wish to wait. I think that just means you don’t have to make a wide right turn just because there is a bike lane.
Mauvaise: I used to live and bicycle in Madison, WI, where there were a lot of bike lanes. These (or the “bus lanes”) would become right-turn lanes as well when you were near a corner. If people were allowed to turn right from a car lane which is not the rightmost lane, that would lead to situations like a right-turning car suddenly cutting off a straight-going bicycle or bus, which would be nasty.
The 27th Evil: When bike lanes became right-hand lanes as well at a corner, the bicycles stayed in their lane and waited their turn as needed, proceeding when they got to the intersection. Cars and bicycles just kind of alternated depending on where they were when a car moved over into that lane.
They must stop behind the vehicle that is waiting to make a right turn. Why do bicyclists think the rules of the road do not apply to them? How many times have you seen a bicyclist blow through a stop sign or red light just because they don’t want to break their stride and put their foot down?
That’s creative interpretation, one that I disagree with. I use the bike lane to turn right everyday, and so long as I don’t endanger any bikers, I don’t apologize for it in the least. If they are inconvenienced, tuff titty; driving (or biking) in traffic is a challenge, if you are not up to it, stay home.
Southern Arizona? 
I was hoping for the disrobing of a shapley young woman. Guess I’ll drive nicer then, since no naked butts are in the offing. 
I’m pretty much in line with that George Carlin gag about people driving faster than him are idots and anyone slower than him are assholes.
Yeah, sometimes I get pissed at people when I’m driving, sometimes I probably take too many liberties with the law and good manners. I would wager we all fall into those catagories from time to time.
However, one thing I’ve been forced to admit it that some people are just asshole drivers period. Even some of my family and friends are in this catagory. It appalls me. I’ve even brought it to their attention, sometimes calmly, sometimes with indignation. “You know, Bob, every now and then, people are going to have to turn left. Are you going to tell you’ve never turned left before?” or “GOD DAMN IT! I’d like to live to my kids again, you fucked up freak!” Neither approach seems to work, because they are so sure of the rightness of their actions/attitude.
Heh. You should see the area I grew up in. The cyclists and the drivers have a hate-despise relationship. The drivers are under the impression that it is perfectly easy and safe to hug the curb tightly and god forbid you try to get around the parked cars because cyclists should be on the sidewalk (despite the fact that most cycling injuries happen while riding on the sidewalk). The cyclists (the amateurs and young teens, at least) have no respect for the rules of the road and are forever blowing past red light, stop signs, etc.
It gives us conscientious cyclists a bad name, really. I follow the rules of the road. Don’t be flipping me off and crowding me to the very edge of the road with your considerably more deadly vehicle because you’re mad at the juvenile delinquent on the BMX five blocks back.
Wish I could have seen that kind of order, Ferret Herder.
In California, the Bike lane is almost ALWAYS a dashed line near an intersection. Why? So people can pull out of the lane of traffic, and prepare for a right turn without impeding the progress of others and basically, refrain from being an ass.
The bicyclists MUST stop behind the vehicle, as they are vehicles too, and must obey traffic laws just the same(it’s not like they ever do though). Why they think they deserve special rules just for them is beyond me. In my area, cyclists pick and choose which laws they wish to follow(like actually fucking stopping at a 4-way stop), and will not hesitate to harass someone in a car who is following the rules of the road.
Sorry OP’er! The shoulder IS a right turn lane in lots of places.
Sam
Yeah, things must be different in California, because using a bike lane, or the far right to make a right turn is standard here, and legal. Trust me, I’ve seen many cops not only fail to ticket anyone for doing it, but do it themselves.
Why do you think it’s legal to make a right turn on a red? If you weren’t supposed to go to the far right to turn, turning right on a red wouldn’t be legal. There’s a light in an intersection close to my home where it’s red if you want to go straight, but a green arrow to turn right. These are lit at the same time. Tell me how you’re supposed to turn right on that green arrow if you’re not allowed to come up alongside the right of those waiting to go straight? You’d have to wait in the line of cars waiting to proceed on the green. Not to mention the fact that most bike lanes here end up being dotted lines as you approach the intersection.
It’s called logic. You should look into it.
And by the way: blocking the right with your car so others can’t turn is the height of assholeness. Looks like your ass is already showing.
I never cease to be amazed at the traffic down there. Folks do all kinds of crazy stuff, but the expected state of total chaos never materializes. Even if you do something totally buttheaded like driving down a one-way street the wrong way, folks simply make room for you and adjust. I don’t get the feeling that there is much road rage there.
Oh yes… Back to the OP.
I got my first ticket in Jersey for doing precisely what you are describing. There was a long line of traffic at a light, I eased up the shoulder to make my right turn, and watched in dismay as a cop standing on the sidewalk motioned me into a parking lot for a discussion. Along with the ticket, I received a proper lecture on how many accidents happened per day at that intersection because of bozos such as myself.
That was fifteen years ago and I still am being a good boy 
I can see if there’s an actual lane to turn right- even people using the bike lanes wouldn’t be so bad, but when there is literally NO lane, no, I don’t think people should go “off-road” because they don’t want to wait to turn right. You can call me an asshole, if you like, you can even say I’m ignorant of traffic laws. In my opinion, a 4-way stop is a 4-way stop, not a 5, 6, or 8 way stop. At the nearest light to my house, it seems like there’s a tiny bit of room where one could scoot up into and turn right; however, a couple feet from the street a curb juts out, obliterating that “lane”- I laugh every time some idiot gets stuck right there and has turn make his way back into traffic. HAHAHA!!!