Where Exactly Should You Stop While Waiting for the Left Turn?
Here’s a question that has plagued me for most of my driving life: how far to an intersection should you drive while waiting for a left turn against oncoming traffic?
To be clear, I spoke to Sam Schwartz, aka ” Gridlock Sam, ” a transportation engineer who was New York City’s Traffic Commissioner in the 1980s.
It turns out that at least in New York it is not forbidden to enter an intersection with a green or yellow light. But getting stuck there is illegal.
So how far should you go to an intersection for maximum safety, efficiency, and your chances of getting out?
Answer: X marks the point.
Schwartz says: “Imagine two diagonals from four corners where two diagonals meet. The front of your vehicle should not extend beyond this meeting point. “
If you go too far, “cars turning against you, not on your right, will be on your left, and you will cross each other. The most effective way is not to cross the opposite direction of traffic. “
And if you don’t go far enough , you block people trying to walk: “Too often people end up blocking a pedestrian crossing, and New York City pedestrians are very angry. Most likely they will kick your car. So try not to do that. “
When can you come in?
You drive well into an intersection on green or yellow. “You can enter the intersection until the red signal. You can enter in yellow, and if it changes to red when you are at an intersection, you will be allowed to pass. “
But don’t get hung up.
Schwartz tells me: “There is one caveat to this. I just got back from Seattle and noticed how well people do not enter an intersection if there is no room on the opposite side. The same is true in New York – there is a law on books, according to which if there is no room on the receiving street, you cannot enter the intersection. This is called reverse flow if you do – if you get in and get stuck. “
Googling the laws of various states is an interesting rabbit hole: take, for example, this Quora question , which seems to confirm Schwartz’s claim: you can enter an intersection, but you cannot stay there when the light turns red. A reporter from the Bellingham Herald is dealing with laws in Washington that seem to indicate that you cannot enter an intersection if there is no longer a clear path. But he notes that “there are other places in the country where law or culture expects drivers to enter an intersection, even if there is no visible opportunity to turn left.”
This debate on Michigan law indicates that motorists can cross a pedestrian crossing to wait for vehicles to be released. And in Montana, Captain Arthur Collins of the Montana Highway Patrol said in an email, “That’s a good question. You can enter an intersection at a green or yellow light to turn left. However, you cannot block the intersection once the light changes. Personally, I will not go to an intersection at a green or yellow traffic light unless I am the first at the intersection. Thus, I know that I can clear the intersection as soon as the oncoming traffic stops at a red light. ” His view of other states? “For the rest of the country, most of the road rules are pretty standard across the country. However, the execution may be non-standard. “
Good point of view. So what is a cautious driver to do, especially a multi-state driver? In Montana, I would probably wait. At home in New York, I drive to an intersection, because if I hadn’t, I would still be sitting there. As with all road traffic, check local laws and use common sense.