Road Law you exploit people breaking, and one that hurts...

Joined
Nov 24, 2003
Messages
3,736
Location
Middle of Iowa
So for more clarification. Name a law you expect people to disobey that you take advantage of while driving, and name one that you know people disobey that hinders you.

Of course we could all say left lane bandits...but let's think outside that lane (box).

For me it would people turning right onto a 4 lane road.

When turning right behind a group of slow folks, they almost always turn into the far lane. I can easily turn into the near lane and pass most of the slow moving traffic. I do get the occasional finger from someone who turned into the far lane, then shortly tried to merge back right, and gets a short beep of my horn letting them know someone is already there (legally).

When turning left into a group of cars turning right onto that same 4 lane road, it is nearly suicide to turn while someone is turning. The law is on your side, and you both COULD make the turn at the same time, but no way can you trust anybody to stay in their lane anymore. I HATE waiting for a line of right turners to turn left on the same road we could all easily fit on. When I'm alone driving a beater/rental/company car, I will often make this turn while watching the face of the offending right turner, just to see them flinch in horror and slam on the breaks.
 
+1 This is one of my pet peeves. What makes it even more irritating is that I know people who get upset at people who turn into their lane when they want to make the left turn but they do the same thing when they themselves are making the right turn. :rolleyes:
 
In most states I've driven in (primarily out west), the right on green turner has the right of way over the left on green turner, regardless of the number of lanes on the road. It's just common courtesy for the right turn car to turn into the near lane and leave the far lane open for the left lane turner. If I'm turning left, it's my responsibility to not conflict with the right turner regardless of his courtesy, or lack thereof.

I did see in some backwards states back east, if you were making a right turn onto a multilane road from the curb lane (one lane only turning right), you are expected to turn into the curb lane.
 
left into a group of cars turning right onto that same 4 lane road, it is nearly suicide to turn while someone is turning.
If they're not in a designated right turn only lane, it is legal for them to go straight and hit you*. Turning left while there is anyone in range on the other side with a green light is a bad idea.

* and as someone else noted, in many states it is legal to turn right into either lane. In many places the law is a left turner has to yield to everything on the other side unless they have a stop sign or a red light.
 
Last edited:
If they're not in a designated right turn only lane, it is legal for them to go straight and hit you*. Turning left while there is anyone in range on the other side with a green light is a bad idea.

* and as someone else noted, in many states it is legal to turn right into either lane. In many places the law is a left turner has to yield to everything on the other side unless they have a stop sign or a red light.
👍 I won't bet my right front fender & door that the right turner is going to do anything besides swing across all available lanes during their turn. They do it more often than not where I live, and they have the right of way over a left turner.
 
👍 I won't bet my right front fender & door that the right turner is going to do anything besides swing across all available lanes during their turn. They do it more often than not where I live, and they have the right of way over a left turner.
Do they have right of way over a green left turn light in Texas? or just a non lighted left?
 
It seems very few people in Texas know that it's legal to make a right on red unless there's a sign prohibiting it. I actually cash in on this some mornings if I see it soon enough, I make a right turn behind the shopping center at the corner and drive behind the stores to enter the road I want, while he's holding traffic back by sitting through the red, I have clear road to pull out onto. Thanks, ignorant dude / chick!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bud
A few intersections have two lanes that turn left and one or two that go straight. People will line up in the far left left turning lane and leave the right left-turning lane clear. You have to watch though because the left lane left-turning people will drift into the right lane left-turning lane. No lane discipline.
 
I make a right turn behind the shopping center at the corner and drive behind the stores to enter the road I want
Cutting corners through a gas station or other parking lot is not legal. Thru traffic is only allowed on public roads. Some places do have actual roads around the back of a shopping center and that would be legal.
 
It seems very few people in Texas know that it's legal to make a right on red unless there's a sign prohibiting it. I actually cash in on this some mornings if I see it soon enough, I make a right turn behind the shopping center at the corner and drive behind the stores to enter the road I want, while he's holding traffic back by sitting through the red, I have clear road to pull out onto. Thanks, ignorant dude / chick!
"U-Turns" is another.
 
Cutting corners through a gas station or other parking lot is not legal. Thru traffic is only allowed on public roads. Some places do have actual roads around the back of a shopping center and that would be legal.

Legal in my state unless a NO THROUGH TRAFFIC sign is posted. And my state gives such a property owner some discretion if they want such a sign posted because some, usually Fortune 500 companies, equate such a sign as a negative impression.
 
Not pulling up to the "stop line" thereby not tripping the sensor for the traffic light. Often it's easy to spot these drivers, as they lag back too far behind others.

I used to give them two quick "courtesy" beeps. But I've come to understand that they don't understand what they are doing. Now, if I can, I drive right around them and sit on the sensor.

induction-loop-traffic-lights-sensor-600x304.jpg
 
If I'm turning right from the base of a "tee" intersection, have a red light, and the cars coming in from the right have a green left arrow, they are effective "blockers" and I "may" turn right on red with only a near-stop, assessing the situation.

There is also an intersection where I go straight around a red light via "right-left" because the left is only 50 yards down and merges with my original road anyway.
 
Cutting corners through a gas station or other parking lot is not legal. Thru traffic is only allowed on public roads. Some places do have actual roads around the back of a shopping center and that would be legal.
I'm not cutting through the gas station, I'm driving down a road installed behind the strip mall.
 
A complete inability to stop for stop signs, they just keep on coming sometimes until you let them know they're going to get hit if they don't stop. The incessant red light running is getting old too, it's getting to where one has to look when you have the green to make sure some crackhead isn't going to blast through it anyway. Guess my weakness is going around people who sit on their phones at a green & don't go, along with tiring of the "minus 5 MPH if you follow, plus 5 if you pass" crowd.
 
I'm not cutting through the gas station, I'm driving down a road installed behind the strip mall.
The loading dock shortcut works well with Walmart and most supermarkets. Instead of creeping along in front of the store waiting for blue hairs to ever so slowly push their carts diagonally towards their Mercury Topaz's, you can drive the other three sides of the rectangle and get where you need to go in good time.
 
The loading dock shortcut works well with Walmart and most supermarkets. Instead of creeping along in front of the store waiting for blue hairs to ever so slowly push their carts diagonally towards their Mercury Topaz's, you can drive the other three sides of the rectangle and get where you need to go in good time.

Only thing you need to be careful of is that the rear area behind some strip malls has a lot of nails and other tire-wrecking crap on it, because it's between the rear exits and the dumpsters...
 
Not pulling up to the "stop line" thereby not tripping the sensor for the traffic light.

About 15 years ago I was leaving work to go to lunch. The building had automated gates on the entrance and exit. To exit, all you had to do was to pull up far enough to trip the sensor so the gate would open.

I arrived to the exit gate (with 2 exit gates for 2 exit lanes) to find not one but TWO morons sitting about 6 feet from the sensor (loop detector), waiting for the gate to open.

I opened my window and yelled "YOU NEED TO PULL UP TO GET THE GATE TO OPEN".

And, like some kind of moron mind-meld, both drivers simultaneously pulled up and both gates opened.

I seriously wonder how long they would have been sitting there waiting for the gate to open had I not come along to clue them in...

The company was sold and the building later torn down. I wonder how much hiring such employees who couldn't even figure out an exit gate contributed to such an outcome.
 
Back
Top