| Re: Entering the queue at a stop sign
On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 18:20:50 -0400, Rick Onanian <spamsink@cox.net>
wrote:
>My question: Going straight when there's a right-turn-only lane. This is a
>situation where I feel both danger and my slowing powered-vehicle drivers.
>Consider:
> -that I may have to violate the right-turn-only lane, which is dangerous
>in two ways. One, traffic expects me to turn right. Two, oncoming traffic
>visibility is often blocked by a vehicle turning left.
> -if I don't do that, I have to cross that right-turn-only lane, into the
>straight/left-turn lane. This means merging into potentially much faster
>vehicular traffic, and then forcing them to wait behind.
On city streets, I move into the rightmost through lane. I don't go
out of my way to be an obstruction, but I have the right to use the
road safely, and slowing down a few drivers by a few seconds doesn't
bother me much.
On a highway with a rideable hard shoulder, I look back to make sure
no one's going to turn into me (if there's any question, I slow and
let them pass), then go straight through on the very left edge of the
turn lane (prepared to stop if anyone entering the road from the right
gets confused). This seems to be, on balance, the best way to do it
when motor traffic speeds are that high, though I can see that there
is a good argument for merging into the right through lane even in
that situation. What I would never do is remain on the shoulder (or
bike lane) to the right of a right-turn-only lane.
--
"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes--our
ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit
to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be
walking around."
-- G.K. Chesterton
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