What's so bad about U-turns?

[LC_Strawhouse]

@BwanaBob

Winner. Any move by you that requires me to give up my right of way, or deviate from it, is by definition dangerous and probably assholish too. Like making a right on red in front of me when I have the green, because you think you can beat me - you force me to slow down to prevent hitting you. Ditto the U-turn.

But doesn’t this complaint also apply to a standard left turn made against traffic? A U-turn is just an extended left turn, really.

Neither U-turns or left turns or right turns on red (or changing lanes) require any other car to give up their right of way unless the driver has terrible judgment or a death wish.

I can see the argument about some cars not having enough space, but I’m not sure that’s what is motivating the No U-Turn laws.

[chizzuk]

@brad_d

If U-turns are legal for the left-turners, then this is horrible design! I’ve never seen an intersection set up this way, and hope I never do…

The one right outside my apartment is like this. One cross-street is 6 lanes across plus 2 left turn lanes, the other cross-street is 4 lanes across plus 2 turn lanes. In other words, major intersection. When the 6-lane cross street has the left turn arrow, the 4-lane cross street has right turn arrows.

However, the way my apartment complex is set up, it’s at the corner of these 2 streets and has 2 exits, one for each road. However, the 6-lane road has a median in the middle meaning you cannot turn left onto it from my apartment. But it is also the fastest way to the Beltway. So every morning, people from my apartment complex (9 buildings or so) make right turns, zoom across three lanes in a span of 100 feet, and use the light to make a U-turn. Given that this is the DC area, there is a near-accident roughly once every 45 seconds, but somehow we all get by.

I use the other exit, which requires making a left turn across 4 lanes of extremely busy traffic with no light, then waiting at a light that is usually very backed up and has a left turn light that is so short that if you don’t go ahead and run it, it may take 3 cycles to get through. I’ve counted, and if nobody runs it, 5 cars can make a turn. However, if 1-2 people piggy-back on the tail of the last car as the yellow light disappears, then another person pulls out into the intersection to go through when it turns red and somebody piggy-backs on him, you can get 8-9 cars through. I get massively annoyed when the person at the front of the line doesn’t pull out to go through when it turns red.

Oh, and did I mention there’s usually a horde of about 10 pedestrians, many of whom jaywalk, trying to cross at the same time? It’s so much fun!

[Baracus]

@Wheelz

Baracus, granted, everybody should be careful. But it’s shouldn’t be the onus of a driver with the right-of-way and executing a perfectly legal maneuver to “account for the possibility” of someone else doing something dangerous and illegal.

I would agree. In my case, u-turns are legal in NC and the onus should be on the people with the stop sign.

[Gatopescado]

“The Man” is an Ass, and suckles the Black Sperm of the Nanny-State.