Blimey. Send those people over here, to the spiritual home of roundabouts, and they’ll soon learn. And a friend of mine failed a driving test for a dangerous action - flashing his lights to let someone turn across the road in front of him.
The exception being when traffic has backed up right through the rotary. I have to go through one to get on the highway in the mornings, and the first exit after where I get on is the main route to Microsoft. If traffic is so backed up that no one can get off the rotary, I very much appreciate the people who let me cross the backup so that I can actually go in the opposite direction.
YAAAAAA!!11!! I got the fright of my life this afternoon thanks to some snotbrained old biddy who got the wave-ahead from someone in the northbound lane to turn left out of a strip mall and (no doubt anxious not to hold up northbound traffic) came CAREENING MADLY into (my) southbound lane, causing me to swerve like hell while jamming on the brakes!
I looked thru her windshield as we both sat stopped there for an instant and saw on her wizened puss a total failure of all human comprehension…a giant echoing DUHHHHHHH that said oh deary me how could there have POSSIBLY been anybody in my lane when that nice person waved me ahead?
This is why I wave on the waver and point in irritation at the other traffic, whenever I’m in the waved-on person’s situation.
Oh, and in my particular suburb, the way of handling two cars stopping at the same time at a 4-way stop is: Whoever has the most expensive car gets to decide who goes next. I wish I were joking, but it seems that way more often than not. Either they burst out into the intersection or magnanimously (cough) wave someone on, never mind those rules about the person on the right going first, or the person going straight having precedence over a turner if that doesn’t apply.
Way it works in Westchester is: BMWs and SUVs have rights over everybody, basically because their drivers are assumed a priori to be self-regarding asswipes.
How about the driver I encountered this morning? Stopped at a light, slightly over the stop bar. I pull up behind her, and she starts BACKING UP! I honked furiously and threw the car into reverse, and luckily she realized that someone had actually joined her at the intersection. But, of course, it’s my fault; why should she be bothered to look behind her before backing up? It’s 6:30 in the morning. Surely she’s the only one there…
Or the person in front of you (narrow, two-lane one-way road) who doesn’t realize that the fire engine coming up from behind just might want to turn right and it’s a bad idea to stay at the light once it turns green (we were both in the left-hand lane).
(Unless fire engines don’t make wide turns - I made a guess based on 18-wheelers.)
Some comments here:
My driveway is about 15 yards from a four-way stop. My “leg” of this intersection is a dead-end street with 8-10 other houses on it. This morning, just after I pulled out of my driveway, and as I was stopping at the intersection, I remembered a short phone call I needed to make. No cars were behind me, so I stopped at the four-way and made my phone call. During this phone call, I tried to wave another car through the intersection. Yes, I was there first, but I felt that being on the phone and stopped at a stop sign with no cars behind me gave me a reason to yield the right of way to another car. The other car, though, absolutely refused to go through the intersection until I had completed my phone call. If that was you, I apologize. I truly believed that my own delay should not cause a delay on your part.
Drivers here do NOT know how to merge with expressway traffic. We use “Merge” signs rather than “Yield,” but I don’t remember actually seen a “Yield” sign in expressway merges in any state I’ve driven in (which is probably more than 40 by now). Far too many local drivers who are entering the expressway slow down or come to a complete stop as they approach the merge lane, but I’ve also seen a considerable number who assume that “merge” means “the driver in the lane next to me will definitely see me and let me in.” While I will slow down or speed up to allow merging traffic to merge smoothly, this is not always a safe assumption if I have very fast traffic behind me, or very slow traffic ahead of me. (I learned that by the end of the merge ramp, you should be going close to the posted speed limit. If you run out of merge lane, keep going in the breakdown lane rather than come to a complete stop, if at all possible.) (For the record, I have seen “merge lanes” with traffic lights–especially in California or in areas with construction that has resulted in very short merge lanes. I am aware that the lights should be obeyed when they are present.)
When I am turning left in some intersections, I will allow the car to my left to procede before me, especially if I am in a busy intersection with traffic behind me, and I can see that there is no traffic approaching in other directions. There is one intersection I cross nearly every day that should have a traffic light because of the traffic, and which definitely needs this kind of consideration between drivers just so that everyone stays sane. As it is, it is a three-way intersection with a one-way stop, and a couple of minor, but busy, roads relatively close. I figure that if I have to stop for oncoming traffic before I turn left, I (and the cars behind me) can wait the 10-15 seconds it takes for the car to my left to turn left before I do when the intersection is clear.
Finally–non-functioning traffic lights. We have major storms pass through frequently, and these can knock out traffic lights along with other electric utilities in some areas. If the lights are out completely, or if they are blinking red, they are supposed to be treated like four-way stops, regardless of how much traffic is backed up. Last weekend, I almost got creamed twice by cars that chose to “sneak through” with the car (or cars) ahead of them, rather than wait their turn. I can certainly sympathize with drivers who have been stuck in traffic waiting their turn through the intersection, but I also wish they would understand that I have also been waiting, even if I am going in a different direction.
Strike one.
Foul tip. Strike two.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand an extremely dangerous strike three.
You may feel free to surrender your license to any DMV in your area. Thank you for your co-operation.
Here’s a scenario that I see all the time.
Four way intersection;
It’s not your turn to go yet (right of way thing and all), yet the guy who would have went before you is being blocked by someone making a left turn in front of them and across their path, then it’s ok for you to go.
Use common sense people!!
If there’s an 18-Wheeler or some other putz making a turn through the intersection and he’s blocking/fucking up the normal right of way procedure (and you have a clean shot to make it through the intersection) than Just Go!, use that to your advantage!
What really pisses me off;
is when you have the traffic lights down (for construction, power outage, etc.) and you have an an eight lane intersection (four north-south, four east-west) and the guy next to you (it’s your turn to go) wont go through with you because he got to the intersection a couple of seconds after you did (even though he made a complete stop at this point), but he’s thinking that he has to now wait until the other guys across from him clear the intersection because they got there sometime between your stop and his stop. Shit-head, if I’m going through and you’re stopped next to me then drag your ass through the intersection with me. You completely fuck up the flow of traffic if you staggar lanes going in the same direction.
The Grand finale
(I know this will get most of you upset too)
IF, you need to make a left turn at an intersection but the way is blocked by oncoming traffic fucking and there is a long line of cars behind you that can’t pass you on the right because there isn’t enough room to get throught the intersection (you’re basicall blocking the entire north route because you need to make a left turn HERE) fucking re-think your route you miserable self-absorbed ass-clowned turkey-lipped fuckwhistle. Piss me off!!
I’m stuck five cars behind you and no-one can get through the intersection because of the tight road and your wanting/having to make a left turn. Fine, you finally get through on the yellow light after the oncoming traffic stops. No-one else behind you got through. Then, on the next green light for us, one car gets through and the guy behind him does the same fucking thing Jesus Christ!!, didn’t you learn your lesson from the guy two cars ahead of you???
:mad: :mad:
Assholes!!, Either go through the intersection and make your lousy left turn the next block up and backtrack a block or two, or make the fucking turn before the intersection. This ain’t rocket science, but damned all, if I could do anything on this earth at this point it would be to clamp a rocket to your ass and send you into a low orbit, just skipping across the upper atmosphere so you can enjoy the effects of exiting and re-entereing the atmosphere a couple dozen times before you finally re-enter and crash into a molten volcano!! Fuck me. 
Nope, no way. I would have figured you just weren’t paying attention or had no idea how to go through a four-way stop.
If I knew you had the Right-of-Way, and saw you chattering away on the cell phone, I would have sat there and given you a dirty look, and eventually blown my horn at you. Hang up the phone, and take your Right-of-Way.
I would never trust someone waving me through, especially while they’re on a cell phone - it’s too easy to forget what you’re doing and go ahead and go through the intersection and then hit me. And then technically, it’d be my fault.
Is that the rotary just north of I-90 in Bellevue? I get a kick out of the fact that in England, there’d just be a circle painted on the pavement in the center of the intersection; but in Bellevue they have to use about 37 traffic signs (Yield! Right Turn Only!) to explain how it’s supposed to work…
If you like that, you’d love Washington, DC, where they put stoplights in the traffic circles, apparently blissfully unaware of the resounding defeat of the purpose of having traffic circles in the first place.
And what would be your solution if there is no other alternative? Because of road works my way home has been squished from it’s normal 2 lanes to 1 lane. Yesterday some impatient wanker started tooting because he had the light to go straight ahead but I was turning right and couldn’t turn because of oncoming traffic. I’m supposed to harikari myself because he is used to having 2 lanes? There is NO alternative turn!
It is impatient idiots like you and the mad tooter who cause accidents. Take a fucking chill pill. It is better to arrive a minute late then never arrive because your impatient arse is wrapped around the front of someone elses car.
My drive home includes a verrrrrrrrrrrrrry slow drive down a road with many workplace driveways, common courtesy includes slowing down and waving in people from driveways. Fuck if it didn’t I might as well put off leaving work for a couple of hours so I could get out of my driveway!
Sometimes the right move is the polite one and I don’t give a shit if the rude wanker behind me is irritated, my aim is to get home not to die because I may hold up some dipshit for a minute.
Here in New England, it is apparently Common Wisdom that, if you are the first car in the left lane at a traffic signal, you may turn left in front of oncoming traffic when the light turns green. Not only do the left-turners assume this, the oncoming traffic does also, and will hold up traffic behind them in order to wave me through. I have never seen the right-of-way rules turned so completely on their head.
Let me explain two circumstances in particular. Both of these happened while I was at a bike race with my Wife. I do know how to drive when there are dozens of bikes around.
I also know that bikers get very frustrated with cars.
1 - At an intersection, on a green light I wanted to make a left. A bicyclist was proceeding across the intersection and had the ROW. Though he was not yet in his peddles and was having a bit of a problem getting going. He tried to wave me through. What he did not know is that another bike behind him was moving and was going through the intersection.
2 - Me, right turn out of a parking lot onto a fast two lane road with a bike lane. 6 bikes are approaching from the left. I decide to wait. I could have gunned it and gotten out. Lead rider waves me out. And starts to slow down. The rest of the group does not see this, and since they do have the ROW, I don’t go and let them pass before I make my turn.
They where trying to be nice. That’s great, but it created dangerous situations.
No thanks.
But I’m kinda curious why Sally Jessy’s Funky, and where. 
I’ve had 2 of my clients (I’m an insurance agent) sued in the past year for waving someone on when it wasn’t safe to do so. The wavees were then hit when they pulled out. In both cases the wavers were found at fault.
That’s usually known as a Pittsburgh Left, though I believe that the PL is executed without the assumption that oncoming traffic will cooperate or is even OK with it.
As far as #2 in the OP goes, depends. Here there’s different rules for roundabouts and rotaries (I only know the difference because of the Armdale Rotary in Halifax. If you’ve been here you know it.) The Armdale Rotary was alternating–one car in the rotary, one entering, on in, one entering, etc. Of course, no one followed that, so if you let someone in, another car might slip in front of you as well, or you might not be allowed to go when you should. It’s recently been changed to a roundabout–vehicles already in the circle have right of way.
We’ll see if it’s any better.
However, I have to share one stupid move my mother pulled once (fortunately, there were no other cars. I was embarassed enough without people around). We were on a divided road, making a left turn at an intersection. We get the green light, Mom turns, and after making the full 90 degree turn, so that we’re heading straight left of our original route…she stops. Right in the middle of the intersection. Why? Because there was a red light in front of us.