Posted on 03/13/2013 2:05:22 PM PDT by djf
OK, I'm driving to the store.
On the way to the store, there is a T in the road, I approach it not on the cross street, but on the leg of the T, so I have the STOP sign in front of me. So I stop. I'm gonna turn left.
Coming up from my right is an Econoline van or somesuch. He has the right of way.
He stops and decides he wants to wave me on. He has plenty of room to make the turn.
I sit there staring at his stupid face for about twenty seconds, and of course, as soon as I think he's totally brain-dead and get ready to take my foot off the brake, his van starts rolling. You could bet your kids eyes that it would happen that way...
So he turns and passes me with a big grin and a wave, and I'm about ready to flip him the bird!
So... if he waves me on like that, even though he has the right of way, am I breaking the law if I go? Odds are, for me at least, that I would just sit there, I DO NOT appreciate the uncertainty he started by not following the rules of the road!
Opinions? Anybody else have this happen?
Yes, you are breaking the law. The dufus was NOT supposed to wave you on, that’s how accidents happen.
...next time just sit there and start counting to 30 on your fingers so the other driver can see you.....soon enough he’ll leave...*smiles*
The other habit here which bugs the hell out of me is people who will drive up an entrance ramp with a football field length of merge lane (or more) and suddenly slam their brakes because they can't immediately get into the driving lane.
So you've got all this to watch whenever you enter a controlled access highway:
In similar situations we have had people wave us on and we go ahead. They know why they aren’t ready to procede, I don’t. No point in backing up traffic. I have also waved others on when I was quite ready to procede. My husband does this frequently because he hates being tailgated and he really hates headlights in the rearview mirror.
I call that Laws by Feeeeelings. He FELT nice or maybe morally better letting you go first. We have laws so we don’t have to operate on feelings. I cannot stand that. But I do go first if someone lolly-gags at the stop sign. He who decides first gets to go, imho.
Pretty much the only way I would go would be if he was in some kind of big-rig that needed alot of room to make the turn.
And frankly, I understand that people behind me might get a little ticked if they don’t get to their kids soccer game on time or whatever.... my opinion on that? Eff em. I’m not gonna risk my life, or others, because somebody’s in a hurry.
Realize I’m not the one that made this into an uncertain situation.
I’m not sure you’re breaking the law. You stopped, right? That might be all the law requires—it might vary by state. Of course, there are also laws that would cover pulling into traffic in a reckless or dangerous fashion, but it doesn’t sound like that would have been the case here.
And I’ve stopped at intersections where there’s no stop sign before, just because my mind wandered. (Better than going through a stop sign.) His grin and wave might have meant “Sorry, dude, I know I spaced out there for a minute.”
This often happens to me when two of us are stopped opposite each other at stop signs for a main street and I have my left turn signal on. The other car, not turning, has the right of way. Fairly frequently they wave me on, however. If there’s no other traffic, I just go.
Yep you’re still breaking the law. I run into that at side streets sometimes, I’ll have the stop but the other person thinks it’s 4 way, they wave me on, I shake my head and point to my sign and their lack of. Eventually they go, they probably think I’m a jerk, but if I go and they hit I’ll get the ticket, and when their lawsuit turns the incident into a lottery win for them I’d be stuck thinking “I knew I shouldn’t go”.
When drivers do that to me I give them that “You’re an idiot” look and sit there and outwait them. Eventually it dawns on them that I’m not going to move. Sure some drivers are just trying to be nice, but with my luck the one time I decide to trust the other guy is when I’d get hit and be at fault.
Agreed, never go even if someone waves you on. My stepson learned that lesson the hard way.
This is the basis of a lucrative insurance scam. The other car has the right of way, waves you on, crashes and you are at fault. He collects...and can claim all sorts of medical injury.
I hate it when another driver makes up an ad hoc traffic rule and seeks to apply it to other drivers (except, possibly, in a true emergency). I’ve gone the other way just to avoid that stuff.
I get that at traffic circles all the time. People coming from my left don’t realize that they have the right of way and will stop dead if they see me approaching from their right. Then, of course, there are the idiots who come breezing through from my right even when I’m already in the circle. Sigh.
Your situation is a pet peeve of mine. I’m sick of drivers who yield when they are not supposed to. It happens to me when I have to turn left when I as the turner am supposed to yield. There’s always somebody coming from the other direction who wants to yield for the left turner, even though the law says the left turner must yield. These overly-aggressive yielders must be libs who think it’s “not fair” that the left turner always has to yield. They don’t get it. Those traffic laws are not there to punish people. They are there so we can all agree on who has the right of way.
I look down at the passenger seat, tune my radio, and eventually they go. I’ve had people wave me on, absolutely clueless that others are coming around them on the right while they sit there and stall everyone. I HATE it.
Also a PA thing - people who pull waaaaaaaaaay over to the right - to make a left turn.
I wonder which is worse: those people or the ones that drive down a mile of a "lane closed ahead" and expect to get in front of all the people who already pulled over.
Given the tense in this post, you must be texting while driving.
I also have problems with the left turn yielders....especially when its a 4 lane, and (although they don’t seem to know it) all they are really doing is making it impossible to see cars in the other lane....and there is no way I can go.
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