Actually, I never said anything about who is performing…wait for it… the “simplest” maneuver. It’s true!
My point was, as it has been all along, that a farmer’s turn requires you to make the exact same visual checks and the exact same calculations of other driver’s speeds as a left turn or passing another car. If you can do the one safely then you can do the other safely. If one is inherently unsafe, then so is the other.
Keep in mind that I live somewhere where you can pass through a rural intersection. If you don’t, then yes, I can see this being more dangerous than normally passing because you don’t have the side-traffic variable. For people in states with laws similar to mine though, where people commonly and legally pass through rural intersections, I think the risk level is equivalent.
Indeed the A-pillar blind spot alone won’t necessarily cause an accident, but take the blind spot, add it to someone driving on the wrong side of the road (either overtaking or doing a farmers turn), chuck in a car on the crossing road who’s driver doesn’t bother to look right before turning because they think there won’t be anything there, and you have the ingredients for an accident.
You can’t control the fact your car has forward blind spots, but you can control how you drive the car. You can avoid overtaking through intersections, and you can avoid doing unexpected manoeuvres such as farmer’s turns. You can also keep a good scan, move your head to look around the A-pillar, actively look for things that are not cars such as bikes, bicycles, and pedestrians.
Just because something is legal, doesn’t make it safe.
I agree that the risk level of passing through an intersection is roughly equivalent to doing a farmer’s turn, that’s why I don’t think people should do either.
QFT. Seriously. Absolutely, no one’s going to be doing this in downtown Minneapolis - as I said above, it would be irresponsible and I should be cited for doing so.
It’s only recently that my home town had any stoplights at all - there was one flashing light for a weird 3-way stop we had, but other than that, there were only stopsigns. They replaced a bridge and rejiggered the road and now bam! There’s two whole stoplights in town. Real ones, with turn signals and everything. Hell, now that I think about it, they’re the only two stoplights in the whole damn county. You have to drive 20 miles to find another town with a significant amount of stoplights.
It’s rural. Really, really rural. Forget what you think about rural, then decrease the population again by half, and you might be close. Rural. While sure, I’ll admit that the farmer’s turn is probably unsafe, it’s no more unsafe than a regular left turn.
I did. I tried to get a ground view of the intersection where I make a farmer’s turn, to provide another example of unimpeded vision, and I couldn’t get it to work. How did you do that?
If the Google car hasn’t made it to your neck of the woods you won’t have street view.
Zoom out a bit, so you can see your entire state. Over on the left of the map you’ll see a little yellow guy. Click and hold him and wait for the blue lines to show up - that’s where street view works. Then zoom back in to your area to see if there’s any blue lines and set the little yellow guy down on one of 'em.
Weird. I can see my intersection, but I can’t copy the link. It wants to be Chique’s link. When I delete Chique’s link and go back to my intersection, there’s no link to copy – the address bar stays blank.
Anyway, my intersection looks exactly the same as Chique’s – flatness all around.
Done it, been behind others doing it, no big deal. I think the nervous-nelly drivers posting here are imagining something much more complex than what really happens. You’re in the other lane for all of 2-3 seconds before you turn.
Of course, if you can’t see that it’s clear ahead and if there is someone stopped at (or you can’t see if someone might be approaching) the cross intersection, you just don’t do it.
In a perfect world. But haven’t you noticed the tendency for drivers to bunch up, even in the middle of no where? It happens everywere I’ve ever driven. Either people are afraid to pass or there isn’t a good chance to, and many drivers just aren’t a good judge of safe following distance.
There are definitely times when it’s not a good idea, but I don’t mind saving a guy behind me a little effort if I can. Just like that tractor driver doesn’t have to pull way over on the shoulder to let me pass, and that trucker doesn’t have to flash his lights at me to let me know there’s a cop around the bend.
And then when I DO go to pass, somebody does a shitty not paying any attention farmers turn when I am beside them and sideswipes me.
IMO farmers turns are stupid and they even make normal passing more dangerous than it needs to be.
But, no its not the farmers turn thats dangerous, its the passing on the left ! Maybe we should make it so that when you want to pass someone you honk your horn, they move over into the left hand lane so you can do a “farmers pass” safely on the right and eliminate those dangerous sane person passes on the left.
Please don’t save me any effort. I’d rather live thank you very much.
