If you drive an SUV, van, minivan, or other tall vehicle and you are planning to turn left onto a busy street AND if there is room to your right for another vehicle to turn right, could you please stay far enough back from the intersection so that the person turning right can see past the front of your vehicle and turn right safely without needing to wait for traffic to clear in both directions?
Thank you.
Be glad to. Make sure you install sight line indicators when you approach any intersection, shouldn’t take more than a few minutes per.
<parsing out all those clauses> Ooohhh…I get it…I think. But any car could do that, if the angle is right.
It would help, I think, if SUV rear windows were not so darkly tinted as to allow the person behind them to see in front of them, as you can with a normal human-sized car. <rim shot>
Nice, we haven’t seen an SUV hating thread in a few weeks. Not that this is one, but I have a hunch it will soon devolve into one soon enough.
Nah, we had one last night but Tubadiva killed it.
If there is anything I learned from nineteenth-century authors it is how to maximize the clauses and minimize the sentences in a paragraph!
As for “any car could do that,” yes, if they pulled far enough into the intersection, they could, but, by the point where they have gone so far that I can no longer see over their hood they have blocked the intersection and I can turn safely. My problem is with tall hoods (SUVs, pickups) or short hoods and tall doors (vans) I cannot see over.
I wouldn’t like that. For one thing, it would make me, owner of a minivan in addition to the sedan I usually drive, seem hypocritical. The thread is only a request for consideration by the drivers of taller vehicles for those of us whose eyes are only four feet off the ground.
Now that you’ve added pickup trucks, you might want to factor in larger trucks/semis as well.
I’m not sure how these taller vehicles affect your perceived need to wait for traffic to clear in both directions before turning right.
And when the situation applies, it is to be hoped that a right turn on red is legal in your locality.
The situation is at a stop with traffic on the cross street that doesn’t have to stop, like a Tee or a plain two-way stop. The drivers of large trucks and semis avoid making left turns at such places because they could be delayed for a long time before they can turn their long and slow vehicles. Making a safe right turn requires a clear view to the left, unblocked by the vehicle turning left. If he can see to the left the amount of traffic going in the other direction is of little concern. However, if the vehicle on the left is blocking the view to the left the driver turning right must wait for him to turn so the view clears.
IIRC, right turn on red is federally mandated, meaning states have to allow it except where it would be unsafe or else they don’t get their highway funds, like the 21-year-old drinking age or the 55 MPH speed limit.
I’ll take this as welcome advice to be careful about not pulling up too far at stoplights, regardless of what I’m driving.