Lots of intersections round here are similar to the one shown on the right, ('positive offset') where the median divide is broken to allow turns into subdivisions, strip malls etc. The offset allows you to see oncoming traffic clearly. I position the car well into the intersection, about far as I can without impinging on oncoming traffic. When traffic is slow, people are more likely to let me through & it clears the view if it's blocked by people turning left across me from the other direction. What do you do?
(http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/safety/97135/images/e1.jpg)
Floor it.
I'm confused about what the question is. The offset helps you see around the other car. What do you need people to let you through for?
Quote from: MrH on September 27, 2016, 11:28:51 AM
I'm confused about what the question is. The offset helps you see around the other car. What do you need people to let you through for?
Slow-moving oncoming traffic. People are more likely to stop and let you in if you're positioned up close rather than hanging back on the right side of the divide.
1. Flip on the fake lights and siren
2. Proceed through intersection
For a left turn I generally pull as far into the intersection as I safety can, if that's the question.
Quote from: Morris Minor on September 30, 2016, 08:04:12 AM
Slow-moving oncoming traffic. People are more likely to stop and let you in if you're positioned up close rather than hanging back on the right side of the divide.
For us here these intersections usually have separate traffic lights.
As for my strategies, or more accurately pet peeve about left turns.... I personally hang back a little bit so I can carve the widest arc as that's the fastest and safest way through. I see a lot of people pull way way forward, and then either have to damn near drive on the sidewalk to clear the turn, or make the turn really tight.
I think people don't have a real grasp of how to use and control space to their advantage on the road.
Quote from: 12,000 RPM on October 11, 2016, 10:24:01 AM
For us here these intersections usually have separate traffic lights.
Bugs me when they don't. There are way too many lights in Utah that should have left turn arrows but instead force people to sit in the middle and wait for the yellow light to slide through. And now the cops have the nerve to bust people for it. Not the public's fault the street light design is 20 years behind the times.
We have way too many intersections that not only don't have a left turn arrow, but have no left turn lane either (and not enough shoulder to go around, not that it's technically legal to use the shoulder to go around). Somebody wanting to turn left at a busy intersection can back traffic up quite a ways.
I think traffic lights are a pretty hopeless & dangerous way to control intersections.
I trust a traffic light way more than the on-the-fly judgment of the average American driver.
I can think of one light in my county that has a designated left turn light. Maybe even the whole UP, who knows. :lol:
#ruralaf
Quote from: 12,000 RPM on October 14, 2016, 07:32:07 PM
I trust a traffic light way more than the on-the-fly judgment of the average American driver.
But traffic lights depend on drivers. You see a green light, you go through it, and get killed by the guy who ignored his red light. Lights can't stop that happening.
Quote from: Morris Minor on October 16, 2016, 11:49:40 AM
But traffic lights depend on drivers. You see a green light, you go through it, and get killed by the guy who ignored his red light. Lights can't stop that happening.
But lasers can
just make right turns.