(Disclaimer: The site links to a study done in British Columbia, Canada and I'm from British Columbia, Canada :)).
Last night, I was driving with my girlfriend in SF, and we made a left turn onto the leftmost lane of a 3 lane street (19th Ave). Someone from the other side made a right turn onto the same street, but moved from the rightmost lane they were supposed to go in to the leftmost lane. (picture=1000 words: http://i.imgur.com/1cyok.jpg . We were the red arrow, they were the blue/gray arrow)
We came within centimeters of a collision for something really dumb because this guy wasn't paying attention/was a poor driver/etc.
After moving here 2 years ago, I had to study for the driver's license written test and I remember being shocked at reading "when turning at an intersection, if you are in the only turning lane, you may enter into any of the lanes during your turn".
So I'm imagining that if you both had green lights, since you were turning left, he had the right of way (not saying his actions weren't stupid by the way).
> 2. Right turn. Begin and end the turn in the lane nearest the righthand curb. Do not swing wide into another lane of traffic.
Maybe I'm remembering the rules of left turns? As long as there was only one left turning lane (and you had the left turn arrow), you could turn into any of the new lanes (not just the left most lane).
Combine that with people who turn right into other-than-the-right-most-lane, and you've got a recipe for disaster.
Ha, the more you know. I have an out-of-state license, and learned how to drive in Europe, where this would definitely not be legal. Guess I should move my butt to a local DMV and get a local license and learn the local quirks.
I'm not sure about that. In Poland there is definitely no law against turning right into the left lane. On the other hand most intersections where this would be possible have either road markings that prohibit this or traffic lights set up so that left turners and right turners never enter the lane at the same time. This is also the reason why it is forbidden to U-turn when the lights show the green left arrow - you could collide with a right turner.
I'm also about 75% certain there is no such law in Germany but my German is too rusty to dig through their traffic laws :)
I put the answer "when there are no bikes present," which as a bicyclist makes a lot of sense. The correct answer was "within 200 ft of turning right," which is complete and utter bullshit because I got hit by a car less than two weeks prior that entered the bicycle lane to turn right without signaling.
If I could get cars ticketed by taking video of violations I would buy a GoPro camera tomorrow.
That's what I get in Scottsdale. You just have to assume here that every driver feels entitled and doesn't give a fuck. Whatever is the shortest or fastest path is their birthright.
So if you want to go faster lobby for faster speed limits. In the mean slow the F down!
If you want the roads to be safer, lobby your public officials for the implementation of 85th-percentile speed limits.
There is absolutely zero evidence that enforcement of artificially-low highway speed limits makes anyone safer.