OMG, that would infuriate me. Stopping like that might cost me a chance to actually turn. Are people stupid enough to do that on multi-lane roads?
I second this. Motorists who don’t understand this should be caned in public, as an example to their fellow drivers of what not to do.
Not on a multi-lane freeway.
Or at least take their mace away … 'cause I was just trying to be helpful …
If you pull into the intersection waiting to turn left, you MUST make sure you:
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Keep your wheels pointed straight ahead, not to the left! If you have your wheels turned left and are hit from behind, you’ll be pushed into oncoming traffic.
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MAKE SURE THE ONCOMING TRAFFIC HAS STOPPED AT THE RED BEFORE TURNING! You don’t want to get slammed by the dufus who thinks yellow means speed up as he tries to beat the red.
Maybe its a “biker thing” but I’ve had to drop the cycle enough times and come real close a whole lot more times because I had the right of way, just to get cut off, that if there is any doubt I’ll stop and wave the person through. I don’t do it very often when I’m in a car but -------- sometimes there is just enough of a look of impatience in the other driver that I feel better letting them go first.
I got hit by a driver as I was turning left in a situation like that. I had the right of way, making a left-hand turn in front of a driver who I would have sworn had made eye contact with me and acknowledged my presence. Turns out he was just looking right through me, and as I was crossing in front of him he darted forward and knocked my motorcycle and me to the ground. Thankfully, that relatively soft impact was enough to jolt him back into paying attention and he stopped before running me over.
I keep seeing this claimed, but I’ve seen no evidence that any such study actually exists. The closest I’ve seen was a paper from someone who claimed to have run a computer simulation, and concluded that late merging might be quicker in limited circumstances, but did not describe the methodology.
It’s an “ass move” if there is no one to your left and someone is merging onto the highway on your right. No, you’re not under a legal obligation, but when in Rome! I’m talking to you, big white SUV this morning. They had NH plates but I like to believe they just moved here from Mass. 
YES YES YES YES YES!!!
Whenever I am at a left turn lane, I pull out as far to the intersection as I can so I’m about halfway across the road. This allows other people behind me to pull into the intersection and finish a turn when the light changes. (The law here is as long as you are in the intersection when the light turns red, you’re fine.) But those fucking jagoffs who don’t pull into the intersection at all while they’re waiting to turn or, even worse, leave a half or more car-length space between them and the car in front turning, such that I can’t pull at least part way into the intersection…there is a special place in hell for those people.
Nah. If you’re timid and slow enough to be in the right lane, I’d prefer for you to just park your ass in the right lane.
Yes, the ideal would be to use all available lanes for as long as possible, and maybe that’ll be what we get once all cars are self-driving and communicating with each other. In the meanwhile, though, when you know you’re going to have to be merging soon, you take the first opportunity you see to do so, because you don’t know when (if at all) the next opportunity will be. When human drivers try to take advantage of as much lane as possible, you end up with people running out of lane before they’ve merged, and inevitably causing snarls in all of the traffic when they force their way into the other lane anyway.
I merge early because it’s then easier to move further over to the left into a lane that is not just about to stop.
Our highways all say, stay right except to pass. It’s not being timid and slow, it’s staying in the traveling lane.
But if someone is merging and there’s no one in the left lane for miles, friggin move left and don’t make me run out of on-ramp!
According to Wikipedia, Washington D.C. is the only state that doesn’t have the “move over law” for emergency vehicles.
Even though pulling off to the side/otherwise getting out of the way of ambulances, police, and other emergency vehicles with sirens and lights on is (apparently) the law in 49 states, many drivers seem to think that moving over is a courtesy, not the law, and if they’re not feeling courteous they don’t do it. Get the fuck outta the way!
My dad’s a truck driver and taught me to double-flash my headlights when a semi is passing and wants to get in front of me in a lane. This is to let the driver know that he’s safely cleared his trailer length. I do this all of the time – some drivers double-tap their brakes as a “thank you,” but many either don’t know what I’m signalling (or just don’t do the brake tap). Was anyone else taught this?
This book goes into detail about all things traffic, including late-merge patterns (the author argues they are the most efficient). A great book, far more interesting than one would think analyzing traffic could be: https://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307277194
As a fellow Prius-driver, you are. At times though, it’s unavoidable, what with Houston’s habit of varying which left lanes are left turn only. Plenty of intersections here where the only lane that goes straight is the far-right one.
It may be different where you live, but consider also that the right lane is usually the more beat-to-shit one, with potholes, cracks, bumps and other road debris. Is the dollar or so you save hyper-miling, worth the increased risk of wearing out your front end or right side flattened tires that you incur by dwelling in the right lane exclusively?
My personal traffic courtesy is to turn my headlights on when it’s raining. Not sure if it’s a law, but it is awfully convenient to be able see traffic better in inclement weather.
It’s not just getting out of the way of moving emergency vehicles, in almost all states you’re also supposed to move out of the adjacent lane if there are emergency vehicles with flashing lights stopped on the shoulder. Nobody ever does.
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There’s an obvious exception to this: if the traffic is so bad that there’s no opening if you try to turn left. If you enter the intersection to make a left and still can’t exit the intersection when the left turn arrow goes red, that’s Blocking The Box, and in California at least, that rates about as high of a ticket as riding solo in a carpool lane. I have had to wait 15 minutes at a light because of repeated cycles of a long line of cars turning left from the other direction (i.e. right across my path) suddenly coming to a stop because of the traffic on the freeway they’re trying to merge into, which doesn’t clear until the light in my direction goes green, yellow, red.
Here’s another one that’s not a law, and I’m not entirely sure how popular this one is; when there’s two lanes in each direction, and you come up to a traffic light, if you’re not turning right, you should be in the left lane - otherwise, you’re holding up the people who can turn right on the red.
Some of these can also vary based on local conditions. For instance, there’s a section of the Shoreway in downtown Cleveland that’s two lanes each way, and there’s an entrance ramp followed very quickly by an exit ramp (and hence, a very short third lane between the two ramps). If you’re going through there and you’re not exiting, you should be in the left lane, because traffic getting on or off there has only a very short space in which to merge in whichever direction they’re going. You don’t worry about people trying to pass, because only a total jerk would try to pass in that particular section of road, because everyone knows that you need to leave room for cars getting on or off.