Bill, I would think that you have the right of way, as you are already established in traffic. The car looking at you is coming out of a parking lot.
yeah, but they don’t behave that way, so I yield.
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One thing I learned in 54 years of driving is that no one comes out ahead in a collision. Yield to the jerks. The jerk that stole your right of way will continue doing that to other drivers and eventually, he will meet another jerk just like him and they will have a collision.
Then he will come to community/cartalk and want our opinion, but only if we side with him. If we don’t serve him up some sympathy, he will think we are a bunch of jerks that are part of the grand conspiracy against him.
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“…edit: actually the cars exiting the parking lot have their own traffic light, so that shifts things. Didn’t realize that until recently…”
Good point, don’t assume about the signals that other directions do, or do not, have. Traffic light sequences are not always symmetrical, and can also change by time of day (school kids and pedestrian delay). Follow your own signals, follows rules of road, and ALWAYS assume someone is likely to do something knuckle-headed, and be prepared for that. You will not be disappointed for long…
A popular insurance scam around here a few years ago was for somebody driving a junker to wave you through, say, a left turn, then hit you. You’re in the wrong, they deny waving you through, and they get an insurance payoff (I don’t know how that worked). So just watch out if somebody who has the right of way is waving you through…
You would be correct except they have a green light facing them. If a traffic light did not face them they would be required to stop before entering a through highway.
Took HS + advanced college drivers school (lower premiums) = those going fastest making exit gets right-o-way, same with elevators, those getting off get etiquette priority, the latter making sense as per empty first them fill up, the former akin to easier & more under control to speed up than to brake from lightning speeds.
Too bad the authorities worry more about where to eat lunch than placing obvious yield signs for the self-centered in this world.
Perhaps somebody knows the answer to this. a 4 way intersection, say runs east and west with no stop signs, Northbound and southbound have a stop sign. If I come up to such an intersection, going southbound making a right hand turn, the northbound left turn driver even though they have been there much longer waits for me to turn right. Is this the law or safety or courtesy?
The southbound car making the right has precedence over the northbound car making the left. But if he insists on ignoring that and making his left in front of you, let him. The smarter driver simply yields.
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Thank you for your response, I always felt like the left turn guy that was there first should have the first chance, and he would have less opportunities than I to travel west, and feel the urge to give the driver a chance to go while the going is good. Does the same hold true for a southbound driver going straight? 2 left turners no problem.
Michigan Compiled Laws section 257.650 (1) states: “The driver of a vehicle within an intersection intending to turn to the left shall yield the right of way to a vehicle approaching from the opposite direction which is within the intersection or so close to the intersection as to constitute an immediate hazard; but the driver, having so yielded and having given a signal when and as required by this chapter, may make the left turn and the drivers of all other vehicles approaching the intersection from the opposite direction shall yield the right of way to the vehicle making the left turn.”
It appears that if the left-turner enters the intersection before the straight-througher, he does have the left turn right of way.
There has to be reason used. At an unmarked intersection, a left turner will have the right of way if he’s already begun the turn when the other driver comes upon him, but he never has the right to “cut out” the other car unsafely. If you as the left hand turner get hit by an oncoming car (that isn’t speeding), you’ll get ticketed for “failure to yield the right of way”. And, even worse, you might get hurt!
When in doubt, yield.
The Northbound driver clearly getting to the stop sign first, has the right of way over you, you both have to yield to East-West traffic. If the West bound traffic is preventing him from proceeding you may make your right turn if there is no Eastbound traffic to yield to. If the Eastbound roadway is two lanes wide you may both turn at the same time. He into the left hand lane you into the right. Except for double turn lanes ,you only have the right to turn into the lane closest to you.
You both yield to East and West. But if there are no vehicles on the cross road…then the rule is as follows.
#1 - Who ever reaches the stop-sign first as the right of way.
#2 - If you both reach the stop-sign at the same time, then the driver who’s turning left must yield to any driver going straight or turning right.
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In the case where there is a merge (whether or not there is a close exit), it depends on what signs are present:
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If the entrance ramp has a YIELD sign, then the entering vehicles yield. This is a very poor design.
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If you have a MERGE sign (picture of merging arrows), they you are burdened to speed up or slow down to fit in between the entering vehicles. That is the purpose of the MERGE sign. This is a better design because you can see all of the cars on the ramp, where they have to look behind them to see you.
Putting an exit close to a previous entrance is bad design…
The entering drivers have no other lane to use to immediately exit to a surface road. They have no other place to go to get out of the way. If you are staying on the freeway, you can change lanes.
Again, if you have a MERGE sign, you have to yield by adjusting your speed to make room for them. Do a “zipper merge”, where cars from the ramp and cars from the freeway alternate.
At a T intersection with a driveway as the fourth leg, it depends on what controls are present.
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If there is no control shown to the driveway or if there is a STOP sign, the intersection violates the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Mixed signal and stop legs are not permitted at the same intersection.
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If there are signals shown to the driveway, then it has all the power of street. The left turn must yield to oncoming traffic.
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Back in the day, all the new freeways in my area had cloverleafs, which seemed at the time to be a good idea, an efficient use of the space. They built them everywhere. Then the issue the OP raised began to occur. Now, as the funds become available, our state (California) DOT is converting the interchanges at high traffic areas to offramps to the main surface roads to exits that end at the surface road with a stoplight. Now, however, there is another issue that’s come up. Virtually all of these types of exits have multiple lanes that can turn either left or right. The law here is that, when multiple lanes can turn at a stoplight, the inside lane (for example, the right lane where 2 lanes can turn right) MUST turn into the nearest lane, that is, the right lane on the surface street, while the left right turn lane can turn into any other lane. The problem that has arisen is that the drivers in the inside lane often want the left lane on the surface street so they turn directly into the left lane. When the light is green they are cutting off the drivers turning from the outside turn lane. This is especially bad when, after making the turn, there is a stoplight within 100 yards on the surface street that has a left turn. Of course, this is problem exacerbated when there are 3 turn lanes.
They know…they’re just being jerks…
There’s no way on earth that, exiting from the highway and entering the highway should be together.
This was concocted by the illuminati to create accidents and try to eliminate our population and, at the same time, create more revenue for our government.
I agree with you completely. The drivers entering the highway “should” give the right of way to the drivers exiting the highway.
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I agree that it SHOULD be that way…but it’s impossible as some of these extremely high traffic clover-leafs. The drivers entering the highway would be stopped for HOURS waiting for traffic to clear during rush-hour.
