Making A Left Hand Turn ... a poll

[eternalknot]

When you are turning LEFT on a green light yield, do you enter the intersection while you wait for an opening? Do you wait at the red light line until you see an opening?

 

Do you change your technique based on the situation, such as knowing the patterns of specific lights or local traffic habits at certain times of day?

 

On our way to lunch today, my brother and I were arguing the fine art of making a left hand turn.

 

We debated which was more common, and then which was more right. (Slow news day :D).

Edited October 10, 2011 by eternalknot

[LidiyaDawn]

Sometimes…it depends on the intersection, how much time is left, whether my chances of getting to turn are good, blah blah blah.

 

Unfortunately, I live in a town with a lot of VERY impatient drivers and if you don't pull up into the intersection you usually get honked at rudely by the guy behind you. So annoying.

[chai]

If you live in Pittsburgh, one car turns left before anyone goes straight! We were honked at a lot before we learned that unwritten "rule".

 

For everywhere else, I said that it depends. I wait at the light if I think that I could get stuck in the intersection and not be able to turn. I enter the intersection if I think that I can zip left between cars.

[LidiyaDawn]

Hey wait.. what's a "green light yield"? I was assuming you meant turning left, light is green for the go-straights (ie: no arrow) … ?

 

It's prolly the same scenario, just a terminology difference.

[Annie]

It depends.

 

I when I'm driving in the city in which I grew up, I go into the intersection because that's what everyone does.

 

In the city I live now, I wait behind the line.

[TKDmom]

I voted for entering the intersection.

 

But after voting, I remembered one particular intersection near my house where this is a bad idea--the traffic coming in the opposite direction has a green right turn arrow, and when your light turns red, theirs stays green. So you get stuck in the middle of the intersection, with people coming at you from several directions.

 

Anyway, that's my long way of saying I don't always enter the intersection.

[Allearia]

In Berkeley, if you do not enter the intersection you will never ever get to turn left. I learned this very early after I moved here. A lot of times, you have to enter, wait for the light to turn yellow or red, then go, because there are endless cars coming the other way. Sometimes they even keep coming while the light is yellow. If you are already in the intersection the cars going the other way have to wait for you after it is green.

[LaxMom]

Where's the "other"? What if you only make right turns? :toetap05:

 

Nah. Totally depends on the location, traffic, etc.

 

There is exactly one intersection I will force myself through: turning left onto 14th St from Constitution Ave during evening rush hour. It's like DC is just plain evacuating to NoVa and that light is, I kid not, 3 seconds. Three. I counted. Multiple times.

Edited October 10, 2011 by MyCrazyHouse

[Joules]

I enter the intersection if I am sure that I can clear, i.e. if I can see a break in traffic coming up. Or somewhere that I know there is a delay in the lights. I'm the person that gets honked at, because I don't enter the intersection otherwise.

 

But usually I just turn right. Really, I try to plan my stops so I don't turn left very much and preferably where there is a left arrow. In my defense I was nearly killed in a left hand turn accident. I was the passenger and the on-coming car hit my door at about 50mph. Makes dh crazy, but I got a laugh a few years back when UPS cut back on left turns :D

[Annie]

But usually I just turn right. Really, I try to plan my stops so I don't turn left very much and preferably where there is a left arrow. In my defense I was nearly killed in a left hand turn accident. I was the passenger and the on-coming car hit my door at about 50mph. Makes dh crazy, but I got a laugh a few years back when UPS cut back on left turns :D

 

 

I don't blame you! I took auto claims working my way through college, and almost all of the worst accidents were left turn related. Being rear ended at an intersection is probably the most common, but those left turn accidents are the worst! The person that hits you is almost always going fast, and the sides of cars tend to leave you more vulnerable to injury.

[dangermom]

In Berkeley, if you do not enter the intersection you will never ever get to turn left.

 

Hee hee, that's what I was thinking of too. :001_smile:

[Parrothead]

I always pull out there. Generally far enough so the person behind me can get his nose out too.

[Slartibartfast]

I always pull out there. Generally far enough so the person behind me can get his nose out too.

 

That is what I do as well. It depends on the intersection really.

[Penny_P]

Huge pet-peeve when people don't pull up in the intersection. :glare:

[Spy Car]

In Berkeley, if you do not enter the intersection you will never ever get to turn left.

 

Hee hee, that's what I was thinking of too. :001_smile:

 

Now try to imagine Los Angeles :D

 

Bill

[Momof3littles]

I enter if there's no one else in front of me already waiting to turn left. When I was taking behind the wheel driver training, my driver's ed teacher always made us do so. It took my cautious self some getting used to LOL. She always had to urge me on into the intersection.

[LizzyBee]

I usually enter the intersection. At some intersections, if you don't pull out, you will never get to make your left turn. If you do pull out, you have right-of-way to clear the intersection before the cross traffic starts moving.

 

I know someone who failed her driving test because she didn't pull out into an intersection that was on the test route. :tongue_smilie:

[jillian]

If I see an opening coming up I will enter the intersection. If I know I won't be able to turn until the next cycle I wait

[Jean in Newcastle]

It depends on the line of cars coming toward me.

 

If it is a long line of traffic, then I don't bother pulling into the intersection until right before the light turns yellow. Even then, I wait to see because some people speed up when they see it turn yellow.

 

If it is a short line of traffic, then I pull out so that I'm ready to go in the break in traffic.

[eternalknot]

I generally enter the intersection, especially if I "know" it. I didn't realize driving schools taught this.

 

I've always lived in metropolitan areas, including the aforementioned LA and SF, where it was do or die. We now live in a smaller town, the 'burbs of the 'burbs, in the middle part of the country. It's a different driving style here; I hadn't thought about how that might affect one's driving habits but it makes sense after reading this thread.

 

Is this why nobody here turns right on a red light, either? LOL

[laundrycrisis]

If it is an intersection with a left arrow that will eventually come around, as well as the option to left turn yield on green, and the traffic is heavy and it looks like I will not get an easy break, I just wait for the arrow to come around. If it is an intersection where left yield on green is the only way to ever make a left turn, I go into the intersection as soon as I am the person in front.

[LidiyaDawn]

Huge pet-peeve when people don't pull up in the intersection. :glare:

 

Huge pet peeve when people climb up their horns behind someone who doesn't pull up in the intersection. :glare:

 

I'm not saying you do :p - it's just that SOME drivers get all wound up like that. My take on it? I will drive into that intersection when - and ONLY when - I feel that it's safe to go. I usually have three kids in the vehicle and I will NOT play with their lives in the traffic.

[happi duck]

In our experience, this is a regional difference. This and whether or not to speed up or slow down on a yellow light.

[SJ.]

I stopped doing this when an old friend who was a paramedic told me that it sometimes was a problem for the ambulance driver. I also do not take chances now that I am a mother. I seriously drive like a stereotypical old lady!

[Twigs]

3 words: Red.Light.Camera

[MariannNOVA]

I answered that what I do depends on the situation.

 

I wanted to answer that I am from NJ and I turn right to turn left.;)

[ktgrok]

Huge pet-peeve when people don't pull up in the intersection. :glare:

 

It is actually illegal. At least that is what a police officer told me once. But I do it sometimes.

Edited October 11, 2011 by ktgrok

[Joules]

It is actually illegal. At least that is what a police officer told me once. But I do it sometimes.

 

Apparently it depends on the state. I was taught that it was illegal, so I was really surprised about some people mention it was taught in driver's ed. From looking on the web, it's not illegal everywhere. This is the code that applies in GA (I was surprised that the left turn isn't specifically mentioned like I was taught.)

§ 40-6-205. Obstructing intersection

No driver shall enter an intersection unless there is sufficient space on the other side of the intersection to accommodate the vehicle he is operating without obstructing the passage of other vehicles or pedestrians, notwithstanding any traffic-control signal indication to proceed.

Most people still do it here. I think you mostly only get cited if there is an accident as a result. I do know of one city nearby that had awful traffic problems and decided to cite every case of blocking an intersection including left turns. It didn't take long for people to learn not to do it there. It really did help the traffic flow.