Driving over a double yellow line (Los Angeles: insurance, legally, store)

[robertpasa]

I thought it was always illegal to drive over a double yellow.

If you are driving out of a store onto a two-way street, and there is a double yellow, are you allowed to turn left? (which means you went over a double yellow)

Also, if you're driving on a two-way street with a double yellow, can you turn left (in the middle of a block) to go into a store?

What I've seen lately is, people sometimes make a u-turn right before an intersection. Not IN the intersection. Last night I almost collided with somebody doing that because I was turning right and he did that so I almost smashed into him. (I was facing north and wanted to turn right; he was facing west and did a u-turn.)

The handbook says you can make a u-turn over a double yellow in a residential but not a business area.
I never make a u-turn over a double yellow, I thought it was always illegal.

[CALGUY]

You must be new to Los Angeles.
It won't take you long to realize the drivers here make their own laws when it comes to driving.
If they happen to get stopped by LAPD, it's, "what law, I didn't know that was the law".

Bob.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by CALGUY

You must be new to Los Angeles.
It won't take you long to realize the drivers here make their own laws when it comes to driving.
If they happen to get stopped by LAPD, it's, "what law, I didn't know that was the law".

Bob.

Great, so you have people making up the rules as they go along, risking an "oops" with the more law-abiding citizens, like the OP? The insurance companies and courts love that, I'm sure.

[RMESMH]

Originally Posted by robertpasa

I thought it was always illegal to drive over a double yellow.

If you are driving out of a store onto a two-way street, and there is a double yellow, are you allowed to turn left? (which means you went over a double yellow)

Also, if you're driving on a two-way street with a double yellow, can you turn left (in the middle of a block) to go into a store?

What I've seen lately is, people sometimes make a u-turn right before an intersection. Not IN the intersection. Last night I almost collided with somebody doing that because I was turning right and he did that so I almost smashed into him. (I was facing north and wanted to turn right; he was facing west and did a u-turn.)

The handbook says you can make a u-turn over a double yellow in a residential but not a business area.
I never make a u-turn over a double yellow, I thought it was always illegal.

It is my understanding that the handbook is correct.

One double yellow...primarily to keep people from passing.

Two double yellows....often shaped like a raised island, and you're not supposed to turn...u-turn nor left, over two unbroken double yellows.

[EA]

The majority of traffic laws are there for one reason. Generate revenue.

[Texamichiforniasota]

I see uber/lyft drivers doing crazy illegal uturns like this all the time. Either they are picking someone up who is on the left side of the street, or they've already picked someone up who is going to a destination in the opposite direction that the car is facing. It would help if the apps defaulted to picking someone up on the right and told the pedestrian to cross the street so they are being picked up in the direction of travel.

[EA]

Originally Posted by Texamichiforniasota

I see uber/lyft drivers doing crazy illegal uturns like this all the time. Either they are picking someone up who is on the left side of the street, or they've already picked someone up who is going to a destination in the opposite direction that the car is facing. It would help if the apps defaulted to picking someone up on the right and told the pedestrian to cross the street so they are being picked up in the direction of travel.

I'm just not gonna drive out of my way any more than I have to.
Out here in Vegas there's no u turn signs everywhere. The issue is there's no left turn lanes so you either drive 2 miles out of your way or you flip a ***** illegally.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by robertpasa

The handbook says you can make a u-turn over a double yellow in a residential but not a business area.

You cannot turn left over a solid double yellow line, unless you are turning into a private driveway.

[Texamichiforniasota]

Originally Posted by EA

I'm just not gonna drive out of my way any more than I have to.
Out here in Vegas there's no u turn signs everywhere. The issue is there's no left turn lanes so you either drive 2 miles out of your way or you flip a ***** illegally.

We're talking about LA, not Vegas.

[Des-Lab]

Originally Posted by EA

I'm just not gonna drive out of my way any more than I have to.
Out here in Vegas there's no u turn signs everywhere. The issue is there's no left turn lanes so you either drive 2 miles out of your way or you flip a ***** illegally.

The (most likely) reason for that is left turns are extremely inefficient and obstructive since a permissive left turn adds an additional cycle to the signal rotation, thus creating even more gridlock. This is why companies like UPS and FedEx will avoid them in their routing as much as possible. It incrementally adds up to a lot of stopped time and in the aggregate, makes a huge impact to their operations.


This is part of the reason many areas are starting to install roundabouts whenever feasible. The really smart ones are doing three rights with a partial cloverleaf to alleviate that.


But yeah. Sometimes you just gotta go out of your way.