I didn’t say I have trouble. But plenty of people do. I drove less than a mile to the Park & Ride today, and two drivers blundered out into traffic right in front of me, and I could see their heads jerk and the whites of their rolling eyes when they realized how close I was to them. Plenty of people are terrible at judging speed and distance.
You shouldn’t be passing through intersections either. The traffic on the crossing road is prone to being in the blind spot created by your windscreen pillar. Of course you know that because you are a good driver, and every single time you approach an intersection you always move your head periodically to clear that blind spot, you never get a little bit slack or tired and skimp on your lookout for other traffic.
I pass through intersections like this one posted earlier, yes. I was under the impression that dashed lines indicate a passing zone but I guess I was wrong. I suppose it’s because I’m such a bad driver. Somebody should probably alert the road crews since they appear to have done this improperly across the entire state of Texas and, judging by the roads in the link, parts of Minnesota as well.
So it’s settled. Stoplights or stop signs at every intersection.
Erm, I’ve never heard of this before; have a cite?
Uhhh…don’t they have that sorta thing already ? Beside personal driveways that is.
I thought passing at intersections was prohibited everywhere. It is in Iowa.
Driving in the left lane (passing) is prohibited:
- When approaching within one hundred feet of any narrow bridge, viaduct, or tunnel, when so signposted, or when approaching within one hundred feet of or traversing any intersection or railroad grade crossing.
Not where I drive. It’s rural. I commute over one absolutely straight stretch of road that covers 18 miles. I have 4 stop signs along that way, as that stretch of road is crossed by even more rural roads at approximately 1 mile intervals. None of those intersections have 4-way stop. Only two-way, for whichever road the county considers ‘less traveled’.
I have 18 stop signs on my 55 mile commute. Only one is a 4-way stop sign. I have no stoplights.
About 1/3 of my commute is on roads that don’t even have lines painted on them.
snarky reply removed.
In Texas it’s ok to pass through a rural intersection unless it’s specifically marked as a no passing area.
Bolding mine.
I kept expecting children of the corn to rise up out of the fields and come after me with pitchforks, in which case the farmer’s turn is probably not a bad idea.
Yeah, that makes more sense. I was just thinking of all the lawbreakers passing illegally on MN-23 and MN-25 - it would have to be the least enforced traffic law on the books.
That movie was utter crap.
It’s the children of the soybeans you really have to worry about - they’re smaller, quieter, and take you out at the ankles. Nasty little buggers.
A cite for what? I didn’t say it’s illegal, I don’t know the law in your state or country, but it’s not a good idea regardless, traffic on the crossing road can be in your blind spot and that traffic probably won’t even bother looking in your direction before turning out on to the road.
Me neither. If there’s no traffic coming in the opposite direction, then the person behind you can pull out and overtake without having to slow down. Just put your indicator on in good time, maybe tap the brake briefly to let them know you’re going to be slowing down, and everyone’s happy. If I saw somebody pull the manoeuvre the OP describes, I’d be wary of passing them as I would think they are likely to do something else odd. It simply wouldn’t be clear to me what their intentions were.
(I live in the UK, and rural roads are common round here, FWIW).
Traffic on the crossing road would be stopped at a stop sign (or the end of a driveway).
Actually, the “simplest” maneuver in this whole scenario is performed by the dude behind you. And, yet, people feel the need to circumvent the rules in order to save him from having to…wait for it…decelerate. Talk about a basic skill set!
Right on.
AND, as I pointed out up thread, if HE WASNT RIDING YOUR ASS in the first place, which he has no good reason to do in the boonies, he wouldnt even have to decelerate !
Not if the intersection was controlled by Give Way (Yield) signs on the minor road only and the crossing traffic was approaching the intersection, looking to his left, no worries, no traffic, turns right onto the road, and hey WTF BANG! He hits the car overtaking through the intersection coming from the right, a direction from which he wasn’t expecting to see traffic on his side of the road.
If you don’t understand how the windscreen pillars can create significant blind spots, have a read of this study (PDF.)
Not true, though. A driver at a safe distance behind will still have to decelerate for the person turning. Application of the 3 second rule, along with basic physics, demonstrates this to be so.
The basic laws of physics also explain why a head-on collision is far worse than a rear-end collision. Ergo, you should stay in your own lane until you can safely turn left. You should also not turn your steering wheel to the left in anticipation of a left-hand turn (while you are stopped and waiting for traffic to clear). Because if some dude does hit you from the rear, you want to be projected in a straight line so that you stay in your own lane vs. into oncoming traffic.