Traffic School: Who Has The Right Of Way?
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someone said:
The orange car should have the right of way because it should not have to anticipate the blue car making a u-turn?
This.
Taking a u-turn is not discernible over a left hand turn to other drivers. the u-turn car should always assume other cars don't know you are about to do, and therefore should yield to other traffic. Even if the intersection had 4-way lights, and the blue car had green, he should assume the orange car is going to take a right on red.
'but officer, I signaled with my left turn signal to let everyone know i was going to do a counter-clockwise donut in the intersection'
Dan
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They should both turn into the closest lane which allows the turn to happen simultaneously.
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this is a dangerous maneuver, and is probably breaking some traffic law.
Dan
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this is a dangerous maneuver, and is probably breaking some traffic law.
This works out for me all the time leaving work and having to do a u-turn on hwy100 (me being the blue car). Never had an issue and never was honked or cursed at by the orange car.
Nevertheless, the orange car should have right of way since a u-turn is not a typical maneuver like a 90deg turn is or going straight. Otherwise people should be smarter and look at the cars wheels/tires. If they are half turned the car is most likely doing a normal turn. If they are fully locked (as they should be for u-turn) then the car is most likely doing a u-turn. Then just plan accordingly with other traffic.
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yes it usually works out, but can you trust people to turn simultaneously and not cross over the line?
there's a 4-way light intersection by the lake where this becomes a problem. there are only two lanes, and they aren't very wide. on green, the left hand turn cars often don't yield to the right hand turn cars (illegal) and the cars come within inches of each as they each turn into the lanes simultaneously. of course, if the right hand person backs off when they see the left-hander come barreling in, they risk getting rear-ended by stopping at a green light half way through the turn.
Dan
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You both can turn but you have to stay in the lane closest to you. If one car crosses the center and hits the other, they are at fault for the accident. It's happened to a few people in my family. You are not allowed to cross two lanes of traffic while turning. lol
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yes it usually works out, but can you trust people to turn simultaneously and not cross over the line?
there's a 4-way light intersection by the lake where this becomes a problem. there are only two lanes, and they aren't very wide. on green, the left hand turn cars often don't yield to the right hand turn cars (illegal) and the cars come within inches of each as they each turn into the lanes simultaneously. of course, if the right hand person backs off when they see the left-hander come barreling in, they risk getting rear-ended by stopping at a green light half way through the turn.
No, the red car is perfectly legal to make their turn here as well as the orange car at the same time. When you make a turn you are legally obligated to keep your lane closest to you, THEN merge/change lanes after your turn has completed.
The red car here needs to wait only if it is a 1-lane road in which case the orange car has right-of-way to make their right turn first.
The reality is most drivers don't actually know that this is the law, nor can you trust people to hold their lanes. I see people making turns like this all the time who just swing into the next lane over. People are so fucking bad at driving they can't even do it right when it's explicitly painted on the road - in downtown Waukesha by Whiterock Ave/Main, there is a stop sign with 2 lanes of traffic that are allowed to turn right side-by-side. Huge painted arrows in the road showing this, along with a road sign. The amount of times I see 2 people turning right there, and the person on the far right side just swings into the left side cutting off the person turning right alongside them is staggering.
EDIT: Building on my point that thousands of people don't actually understand right-of-way in multi-lane situations - you also have the right of way to turn right on a 2-lane at the intersection if traffic is clear in the right lane. Why? Because again, legally you need to hold your lane when making your turn. If you make a right turn this way, and someone in the left lane crashes into you in the right lane, then it's because they made a lane change in the middle of the intersection as they were passing through, which is illegal, specifically for the reason that people turning right have right of way into their nearest lane if it is clear. The person making the lane change in the intersection would be at fault for the crash.
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Section 346.31, Wis. Stats., states that a person making a U-Turn must turn into the left lane from the left-most lane. Section 346.33(1m), Wis. Stats., goes on to say that the U-Turn may only be made when it won't interfere with other traffic. So the blue car would have to turn in to the left lane and the orange into the right lane meaning they could turn simultaneously as stated above. Here's a link to the statutes
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Earl said:
C
D)
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KaiserRolls said:
Earl said:
C
D)
E
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I hate making u-turns and (try) avoid them at all costs.
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