A few weeks ago a local newscaster on the evening news really stirred things up by providing an editorial about how right lane of a 4 lane should be for right turns only.
His logic (?) was that those in the right hand lane were just clogging the roadways for the rest of us while waiting for the light to turn green and that traffic would flow more smoothly this way.
What he did not address was how many miles back through prior intersections the stacked up traffic would be when all of the outer lane traffic is shuffled to the inner lanes. Journalists…
It’s not quite a turning lane story, but I work at a secure facility with 25 mph speed limit. As I was going through an intersection I looked over to see a minivan blowing through the stop sign. It was an honest mistake as the driver didn’t see me as she was looking down in her lap at the time. She was kind enough to give me an apology wave after she nearly t-boned me.
@Barkydog, I don’t think we are talking about the same thing. You seem to be discussing the end of the green light cycle and I am talking about the start of the green light cycle. If it is something different, then I missed it.
On the way home today, I was in the left turn lane waiting for the light. When the light changed, the guy in front of me made a right turn across two lanes of traffic.
OK4450 and db4690, sometimes that is not a bad ideal. Around here, there is one 4 lane (5 lane if you count the center left turn lanes) going through town. The traffic isn’t all that heavy and there are a lot of businesses lining the road on both sides. Most people drive in the left lane and use the right lane for right turns, its just natural.
You can drive exclusively in the right lane if you want, no one is going to give you any static over it, but you will spend a lot of time stopping for cars that are turning right into the businesses. There’s not enough traffic to really hold up in the left lane. But thats just this place, not every city or town is this way.
Kieth,
My town is one like yours, route 66 is similar where staying in the left lane is the path of least resistance due to many , many right turners and businesses with dirveways that require a near stop to get in.
The single middle left turn lane runs the entire 10 miles of town and many drivers smoothly use it to accelerate and merge too.
But then there’s the left turn butt-heads who feel they must come to a near stop …in the left driving lane…before getting into the left turn, AND SLOW DOWN , lane with NO turn signal pre-telling of their intentions
@jtsanders I was talking about people not pulling into an intersection for a left turn. My original read was this was the op question. As I stated previously this is now a bad practice, but I am gonna do it anyway.
I call that crowding the light, @Barkydog. And that has been a common practice in my neck of the woods for as long as I have been driving. At some intersections the practice is necessary.
Well, “crowding the light” (late left turn) and the “Pittsburgh left” (anticipating the green for an early left).
IMO, “stay in the left lane if going straight” is HORRIBLE advice. In a “true” four-way intersection (i. e. No left turn lane, no left turn light) you’d have:
A handful of people turning right, in the right lane
One guy turning left, in the left lane
67,422 cars going straight stuck behind the guy turning left.
It’s generally poor policy to do much “surface street” driving in the left lane for this reason. Also, if the road you’re on happens to have a paved shoulder, do the considerate (albeit technically illegal) thing and use it as a “de facto” turning lane.
ken green, you could be describing my town except the highway number is different, its not on route 66. We have those idiots that slow down to next to nothing before moving to the center turn lane, and a few who never even go into the turn lane at all except to cross it. Fortunately we don’t have too much traffic so they are just an annoyance, kinda like the big tractors that are three lanes wide on a two lane road.
