Left Turn as light turns red, illegal?

[gnab gib]

Originally Posted by juniperbleu

As for waiting behind the line to turn on a green, many people don't have 45 minutes to kill making one small turn, not to mention I'd foresee you eventually either getting rammed from behind by another driver, or get hit when someone gets sick of waiting and tries to go around you.

That's the biggest problem with traffic in this area: Everyone is in such a friggin' HURRY. I can't tell you how many times I've been waiting to turn left at a green light, only to have people blaring their horns behind me. I'm trying to wait until traffic is clear and it's safe to go, and I have these idiots crawling up my bumper and laying on their horns. RELAX! YOU'LL GET THERE!!!!!

[gnab gib]

Originally Posted by newcomerfromTX

The police here are really nice here. In Texas, if throw a cigarette out you will be pulled over and ticketed.

I wish they did that here. I'm glad to hear that at least someone is trying to stop the leading cause of litter on the roads ...

CigaretteLitter.Org - The Facts About Cigarette Butts and Litter - Cigarette Litter

[Moman1]

Originally Posted by DestinationSeattle

That's the biggest problem with traffic in this area: Everyone is in such a friggin' HURRY. I can't tell you how many times I've been waiting to turn left at a green light, only to have people blaring their horns behind me. I'm trying to wait until traffic is clear and it's safe to go, and I have these idiots crawling up my bumper and laying on their horns. RELAX! YOU'LL GET THERE!!!!!

Try reading the book "Traffic-Why We Drive the Way We Do" by Tom Vanderbilt. I'm not done with the book yet but from what I've read so far, this book needs to be mandatory reading to get a driver's license in every state.

[wwtuman]

A lot of good discussion here. I can remember from driver's ed in high school in NY state (29 yrs ago) that for left turns at a light, such as has been described, it is appropriate to enter the intersection, wait for the light to change, and clear the intersection by proceeding when it's safe to do so. A futher point to bolster this concept was that we were told something along the lines that you couldn't enter the intersection until the intersection cleared and it was safe to proceed, regardless of what the lights indicated - meaning a car already in the intersection had the "right of way" over those entering.

Another point drilled into my and my fellow students heads in drivers ed (kudos to the teacher, Mr. Kingsbury!) was that before you proceed, you look where you want to go to ensure there is space for you, otherwise you'll clog up the intersection. This last point implies that you don't proceed to the middle of the intersection of the road you want to turn onto is jammed with traffic.

The "one car" thing in the middle of the intersection makes perfect sense - normally, you can't get more than one car to fit safely. And, what if you had two cars waiting - and the first car goes, stalls out in the middle of the oncoming traffic, or stops for whatever reason immediately after entering the cross street - maybe a pedestrian decides to cross near the intersection. In that situation the second car is stranded, obstructing traffic.

A pet peave of mine related to turns is this: I sometimes notice drivers going the opposite way, and when they have stopped, waiting to turn, already have their wheels turned in the direction of the turn. I recall being emphatically told NOT to do that, because if you do and happen to get rear ended, you may get pushed into oncoming traffic. Maybe in norther Virginia that won't be that serious with crammed roads of crawling traffic - just a minor fender bender, but where I grew up in rural NY, that scenario would likely get you seriously injured, if not worse.

just some of my thoughts . . .