GatewayRedbirds.com

Ok. This is going to be hard to describe, so I made a little diagram:



Say you're the blue car waiting at a light, why do the cars turning left (as represented by the red line) have to cheat into your lane? Most of the time it isn't a big deal, but there are a few issues I have with it. First off, it's lazy driving, and I don't like to be on the road with lazy drivers - they have lots of other bad habits that are annoying and downright dangerous. [side rant: since when did it become acceptable to drive a 2000+ pound vehicle at high rates of speed and not take it seriously] It's also an issue when you're just pulling up to the light and you can't get to the line because car after car is cheating into your lane right in front of you. And needless to say, there are plenty of times when the cheater comes as close to possible to hitting your car - people freak when you get within a few feet of you car on the road, but they can get within inches when you're stationary and you're not supposed to care? And what happens when you have a big truck to your right blocking the turning traffics view, they continue on their same cheating path only to discover "oh wow, there's another car there that I'm about to barrel into".

I'm not asking for a perfect 90 degree turn, but damn, give me a little space here people.

The even more annoying/dangerous version of this kind of "cheating" is when you're driving down the street and someone makes a left turn directly in front of you from a driveway to your right. If you pull this maneuver, get the f out of my way. Don't make your turn using my lane. I'm drivin' here.

Absolutely dead on.

Just happened to me on Sunday as I was leaving the grocery store. There's one entry lane in and 2 exit lanes to turn either left or right leaving the lot. I was heading out of the lot but wasn't quite to the left turn exit lane. The guy turning left didn't even get his tires into the entry lane taking up my entire space. I had to slam on the breaks and swerve to avoid him. I gave him a glare that would have melted ice.

He's lucky he missed it. He'd have gone into shock instantly.

totally agree with this rant and my dad does it all the time and it scares the hell out of me. he's even worse in residential neighborhoods. he gets so lazy that he pretty much just treats the whole street like one lane. it's insanely aggravating.

On a related note, whenever there are two parallel lanes that turn together and they paint that curved stripe through the intersection, you really shouldn't cross it. This is really risky for those on the inside path. The worst version of this is when people turn into the complete wrong lane even if it means wandering right into your path as you turn beside them.

The flip side of this coin is when the blue box/car goes beyond the line, cheating in their own way. It's an invitation to chicanery.

i agree. stay out of my lane as i approach the light, [expletive]-knocker.

High quality rant here. I have stopped pulling all the way up to the line while waiting to turn. I don't care how much the people behind me try to push me up to the line by honking or creeping up super close.

i don't really know how to explain this either..

but say you're in the right lane of a two lane street and the guy next
to you in the left lane is turning left.. and he has to swerve into the right
lane.. (right next to you) to make a big old unnecessary rounded left turn..

does that make sense? it's like a turn you'd make in your freaking big wheel for crying out loud

Where is the bicyclist in the sketch?