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United States24634 Posts
This is written from a US perspective where people drive on the right side of the road.
Where I live there are a fair number of traffic intersections that have two left turn lanes. Usually, the road that we are turning on to is also two lanes. Thus, the driver in the inside turn lane turns into the left lane, and the driver in the outer turn lane turns into the right lane. This seems pretty simple and obvious to me. However, whenever you see me waiting to make a left at this type of intersection, you'll always find me in the inner turn lane.
I do this even if I ultimately am going to need to the right lane (with rare exceptions). Why?
Because other drivers are dumb.
I can't understand for the life of me how you can be so oblivious when driving a car, but many drivers waiting in the inner lane seem to selfishly turn into the right lane, unaware that they are completely cutting off the person who was waiting in the outer lane. I assume this is because they didn't realize they were cutting off another lane of traffic, rather than a conscious decision...
When I was learning to drive my dad always suggested I wait in the inner turn lane, but didn't explain why. At the time, I just shrugged it off. However, I've come to notice that it's frequent that I have to swerve to avoid getting side-swiped if I'm in the outer turn lane. It's come to the point that I just avoid that lane entirely.
The reason why I bring this up is I just witnessed another near-miss. The driver in the left-most turn lane (old man) turned into the right lane. Fortunately, the driver of the suv in the right lane hit his brakes just in time to allow the car to pass in front of him instead of hit him from the side. It was a bit surreal because I was watching this from directly behind, expecting it to happen, and it did. There was no accident, but I think this must be pretty common.
Does this type of thing happen by you? It makes me tilt hard knowing that there are so many terrible drivers who do bad things like this all the time.
 
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I drive thru such intersections every day and have never had a problem.
But I do compensate my driving in a lot of other ways knowing how many terrible drivers are out there... you can't drive 10 minutes without encountering one.
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I've had this happen to me before but usually its old ladies who cut me off. Then it incites the road rage in me and I go ballistic on a poor AARP member...I'm pretty BM on the road.
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I always turn on the inner lane as well - but for different reasons. Being on the inner lane involves less time turning (smaller radius of a turn), and the less time you are turning, the more time you can be in the lane accelerating.
But yeah, people do that a lot, especially if there aren't dotted lines guiding the lanes.
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I'd say it's more a problem with the fact that road maintenance is so poor around here that they NEVER bother to repair the damn lines. Without any markers whatsoever, the only thing you can do is guesstimate where the lane is, and that isn't a sure thing.
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Some lady in the outer lane almost cut off my mom when she was in the inner lane in this situation the other day.
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Or when there's just one left turn lane, yet the guy in the striaght lane turns left and almost kills you, or in his eyes, almost killing him...
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tofucake traffic blog is so much better 
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Yes it happenes to me a lot. Even when there are painted lines throughout the entire intersection, it isn't enough.
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My city is full of such intersections and everyone understands the system and there is never a problem. Also, the right way to proceed is usually marked on the road itself, so there is not much room for confusion.
Actually I often use the outer lane, because it is the "slow" one and my car has very bad acceleration from rest, so I allow the others to pass me in the inner lane. The only exception is when I know I will be needing the left lane for an immediate next turn.
We should make a European vs. US drivers thread to look for more differences, but I think it could quickly devolve to just bashing one side (not implying me having on particulat side in mind  )
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There's an intersection near my parents' house that has two left turn lanes. The kicker is that the outer one actually ends shortly after the turn: your options are to follow it into a school parking lot, or merge left.
The people who live nearby mostly know about this, and stick to the inner lane for their left turns. However, you often get people who don't know about it taking the (less populated) outer lane, and then frantically trying to merge left... sometimes while still completing their turn.
I haven't actually heard of any accidents happening there, surprisingly, but I sure have witnessed some near misses.
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I see this all the time. Though sometimes on rare occasion I do see the dumb ass that is in the outer lane and feeling the overwhelming compulsion to turn into the left lane (my lane, as I do as Micronesia does).
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I agree with the OP, I really do.
However, you have to understand that the opposite happens quite often too. I personally turn from whichever lane I will need to be in (e.g. inner lane for a left turn, or lengthy trip on following road, outer lane if I'll be needing a right turn shortly after). Whenever I am turning left from the outer lane, inevitable someone from the inner lane decides to turn into my lane. Basically it comes down to drivers in the US are terrible. I guarantee if you start using the appropriate lane you'll notice both lanes deal with the same problem.
If Police want the roads to be safer, they need to stop worrying about speeders and start pulling over dangerous drivers who do things like that and other just dangerous things (not signaling for turns/merges, Driving through red. Turning on red at no turn on red intersections, weaving through traffic, using handheld devices...)
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I hate people who drive slowly on the speeding lane (left) on two lane roads, specially when they do it going completely beside another slow car on the right (which is ok to do)
LOL I had to re read ur post to understand it, and I can't believe people actually do that? I've seen countless amount of standard retarded stuff (not signaling, sudden stops, what I wrote above, ignoring pedestrian cross) but I've never seen someone do what you are describing, and I go trough that kind of road daily.
Edit: What is really scary here is how fast bus / truck drivers go. 2 days ago, on a tight turn with 1 lane for each way a fucking truck got into like half of my line to turn faster, I hit the breaks full stop and it was a near miss, but I was scared as fuck. Buses go at 90km/h on curve full roads -.-.
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I usually take the outside left turn lane because the entry into the next street is easier. If you're in the inside lane, you have to aim your car between the car waiting to turn left in the opposite side of traffic and the person in the outside lane who may or may not have given you adequate room to make your turn (because they're inconsiderate jackasses who clip your lane while making the entry into theirs). That, and when an oblivious moron turns from the inside lane into the outside entry lane, he usually is past me by the end of the turn so that there is no incident.
My biggest rule of thumb when driving: assume everyone is an idiot, including yourself.
Edit: I think a lot of it depends on the size of your car. When I'm in a smaller car, inside lane, when an SUV, outside.
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Huh, I rarely see this; only times I see it when there is sparse traffic so there isn't danger to switch lanes, or traffic is nonsensical anyway in middle of a large city (larger vehicles get right-of-way).
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God i deal with so many bad drivers in Maine, so i just drive 3 miles under the speed limit and let them risk their own lives rather than mine and my passengers, though i still get flipped of a lot. I always stay on the right most not turning lane and pray people pass me rather than tailgate. Just assume that people will do the stupidest thing possible on any situation, and react accordingly.
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On May 18 2012 09:14 Jaaaaasper wrote:
God i deal with so many bad drivers in Maine, so i just drive 3 miles under the speed limit and let them risk their own lives rather than mine and my passengers, though i still get flipped of a lot. I always stay on the right most not turning lane and pray people pass me rather than tailgate. Just assume that people will do the stupidest thing possible on any situation, and react accordingly.
In Maine wth... I can't imagine there being much traffic their at all. I was wondering if there are two turn lanes, but three lanes to turn into, which car (the outer or the inner) has the right away?
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There aren't enough lanes where I live for this to be an issue =[
Although I do get the feeling that the vast majority of people with drivers licenses have no idea how to pay attention while driving.
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On May 18 2012 09:37 Livelovedie wrote:Show nested quote +On May 18 2012 09:14 Jaaaaasper wrote:
God i deal with so many bad drivers in Maine, so i just drive 3 miles under the speed limit and let them risk their own lives rather than mine and my passengers, though i still get flipped of a lot. I always stay on the right most not turning lane and pray people pass me rather than tailgate. Just assume that people will do the stupidest thing possible on any situation, and react accordingly. In Maine wth... I can't imagine there being much traffic their at all. I was wondering if there are two turn lanes, but three lanes to turn into, which car (the outer or the inner) has the right away?
It depends if the lane lines are drawn in the intersection so that it indicates what lane you should end up in. If not, I just stay on my side (very left if inside, and very right if outside), and then move into the middle from there.
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EPT
