Stay in your OWN DAMN LANE

[unperson]

So, my route to the freeway (and work) involves a stoplight that has two lanes - the leftmost lane is left-turn-only, and the right lane is left-right-straight. Both of these lanes, when turning left, have their own lanes of travel (ie turning onto a two-lane road), yet people CONSISTENTLY just sliiiiide on over from the inner lane to the outer - no signal, nothing, just smearing their way across the lanes.

Well, I've nearly been hit enough here that I'm no longer behaving in a passive-aggressive way, and have decided to just work on the aggressive part - that is, I don't yield my lane to ANYONE when I'm turning there - I maintain my lane position and speed, and to hell with the racers, they can get behind me or move over later.

Well, this morning, some stooge in a BMW decided to test me.. and lost I think I've discovered something important here - if your car is worth more than mine, you're more likely to yield.. especially when it's pretty clear that you're in the wrong!

But seriously, WHY is it so damned hard to stay in your lane of travel? I've dealt with this on turns in either direction, and the meatheads behind the wheel always look surprised to find out that the car that started out turning next to them at the light is STILL right next to them FIFTY FEET down the damned road?!?

[Jay 2K Winger]

Saw that happen pretty frequently when I still worked at the wholesale club. The turn-in to the shopping center that I took had two left turn lanes. Immediately after the turn was a three-way stop. The left lane was left-turn only, the right line merged into the traffic flow.

I lost count the first week of how many people would try to slide on over into the right left-turn lane from the left left-turn lane.

[blas]

This is why I hate multi-left turn lanes. With a passion.

And they are effing ubiquitous in this city.

There is always some asstard who gets in the wrong left turn lane and thinks that mid-turn (sometimes right at the end of the turn), they can just slide over, nevermind that there is someone there (and guess who that someone always is?!). I have nearly side-swiped people in the lane next to me trying to avoid being side-swiped by these people.

You got yourself into the wrong lane, after we're done turning, you can figure it out for yourself when it's SAFE. TO. DO. SO!!!!!!!!!!

I anticipate it now, and as long as no one is behind me, I generally lay off the gas and just let off the brake when I get the arrow and slowly turn, in case the idiot in the lane next to me is going to attempt that.

What irritates me the most is when these people weren't in the incorrect lane after all and then at the next stoplight, they make a last second lane change and get back into the lane they didn't want to be in so badly before.

[bhskittykatt]

We have numerous multi-turn lanes in the city and I see this all the time! I hate it! There's even lines painted through the intersection to direct people to stay in their own lanes, but of course everyone ignores them and it becomes a free-for-all in the middle of the box...

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, this morning, some stooge in a BMW decided to test me.. and lost I think I've discovered something important here - if your car is worth more than mine, you're more likely to yield.. especially when it's pretty clear that you're in the wrong!
?

I know, right? I get that with tailgaters. It was especially funny when I was driving the Big Green Bitch. If you are driving, say, a Beemer or a Jag or Lexus and you pull in behind a ten year old discontinued van with a fucked up rear bumper and an unrepaired dent in the back doors, you ought to be able to deduce that you care way more for your front end than I do for my back one.

You might also consider where all that rear end damage came from. And what your deductable might cover.

[Andara Bledin]

I know, right? I get that with tailgaters. It was especially funny when I was driving the Big Green Bitch. If you are driving, say, a Beemer or a Jag or Lexus and you pull in behind a ten year old discontinued van with a fucked up rear bumper and an unrepaired dent in the back doors, you ought to be able to deduce that you care way more for your front end than I do for my back one.

Heh. My former pa-in-law had the Behemoth. One of those old massive Ford extended work vans with some notable body damage (some of which I contributed ). I loved when people would start trying to usurp my right of way, notice what the hell they were competing with, and back right down.

We have a double-right turn coming off the local freeway along the route I take to get to work. Immediately after that intersection is another intersection with a double-left turn that 90% of all northbound (the direction I'm going) traffic takes. There are a constant stream of people who come from the righthand right turn off of the freeway and try to go directly into one of the left turn lanes, completely ignoring the two straight lanes and the people in the leftmost right turn lane. I used to make a point of going from the leftmost right turn lane (when I used to take the freeway) into the rightmost left turn lane just to be in their way for being in the wrong lane. I also won't cede right of way to the turners when I'm straight past the freeway offramp to the left turn.

My last car was a dinky, beat-up Toyota that most other drivers just kind of overlooked. Now I'm in a pretty huge and shiny Nissan that's really hard to not notice. I've also got decent insurance and enough savings to cover any necessary deductable, so while I'll avoid an accident if at all possible, I'm not afraid of letting one of these dipshits hit me if I can't.

Yeah, I can be a bit aggressive on the road, but most of my energy is spent on defending my own position and otherwise avoiding being involved in any incidents.

^-.-^

[TheSHAD0W]

Could've been worse...

[ADoyle90815]

I know what that's like, as that's the same thing I put up with on my way to work, including the lines in the intersection telling people where to be when turning.

[Daemonmonkey]

I know, right? I get that with tailgaters. It was especially funny when I was driving the Big Green Bitch. If you are driving, say, a Beemer or a Jag or Lexus and you pull in behind a ten year old discontinued van with a fucked up rear bumper and an unrepaired dent in the back doors, you ought to be able to deduce that you care way more for your front end than I do for my back one.

You might also consider where all that rear end damage came from. And what your deductable might cover.

Especially as in most countries if someone rear-ends you they get the blame, or a huge part of it.

[Nashida]

Ugh, when I was still at The Ram College there was an intersection nearby that was famous for this. I'd hit it every time I went Rt.9 west to get back to school from student teaching. It had 2 left turn lanes and one straight/right turn lane. With the left turn lanes it was typically assumed that if you were in the leftmost turn lane, you would take the left and then either go straight at the next light or take the left there to go down Rt. 9 east. The middle lane was the other left turn lane, and with this one you'd either be going straight at the next light or take the right to head up to the college.

Too many times I would be in the middle left lane to go straight and nearly get broadsided by someone to my left who decided to slide over in my lane either because he wasn't watching or because the driver ahead of him was going to be taking the left at the next light and didn't want to be stuck behind them and miss the light. Or I'd be in the leftmost lane and people from the middle lane would try to slide into me there as well.

Worse still would be drivers in the straight/right turn lane deciding to turn left at the last minute...so glad I'm not there anymore.

[bhskittykatt]

Just the other day at one of these intersections, I watched a car almost get sideswiped. The person in the outer turn lane turned into the proper lane, but they cut the turn close and almost hit the other car that was turning at the same time.

[Mycroft]

Near my house, there is this intersection. Top right is the eighth largest mall in Canada. Bottom left is a flyover, with a dual left turn lane. If you follow the lanes around, however, you notice they go to *two different roads*. Strangely enough, it is well signed.

You wouldn't believe how many people want to do the left-from-the-inside, drift-to-the-outside on this one...

It doesn't help that because it's a best hope patch (used to be a lighted intersection, but now the E-W road is freeflow) only 4 cars can fit in each lane, so people, finding the lane for their turn is full, cut over and get into the other lane (then try to "merge in", to the surprise of the other vehicle). It doesn't help that what you see in the map is the usual state of affairs, with 2 more cars turning to go north than the lane can accept when it goes red, blocking both lanes southbound from turning. It really doesn't help that there's a sight-blocking concrete wall at the north-east corner, and the lane coming East to that light is a)coming out of the mall, and b) uphill. At least twice, I've seen people run the red westbound and pile into someone going north.

Me, scared? Of course not.

[Kogarashi]

Worse still would be drivers in the straight/right turn lane deciding to turn left at the last minute...so glad I'm not there anymore.

And I got to witness a reverse of this just yesterday.

There's an intersection at one shopping area with three lanes heading one direction. Two are left-only lanes, the third a straight/right lane. The left-turn lanes take you to a residential area, as well as the highway's northbound ramp. The straight/right lane takes you to more businesses (or a parking lot if you turn right), then the highway's southbound ramp. Because of the signage, the left-turn lanes are supposed to be left-only, but since there's one straight lane and two lanes across the intersection, far too many people, including this one yesterday that was next to me, go straight from the middle left-only lane. They really shouldn't since some people going straight through change lanes in the intersection (which they shouldn't) so they can get to the gas station or be on the left-hand side of the two left-turns onto the southbound ramp.