Posted: 6/1/2007 10:28:39 AM EDT
| When did the middle turn lane become a merge lane? Everyone seems to make a left out of some business and then drive the middle turn lane until they can cut someone off to get into the lane. I've even seen cops doing this. I've only been driving about 37 years so I'm sure some laws have changed, but this is just stupid. |
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I'm not familiar with your state's traffic laws or exactly what you mean by middle turn lane. Here some roads have a center lane, marked by two sets of broken yellow stripes, that is used by vehicles either entering or exiting the road by means of a left turn. These are roads with speed limits anywhere from 30 to 50 MPH, and people do indeed use them for merging when they enter traffic. Lanes that are only for exiting the road by left turn are marked with a single broad white stripe. You can drive over the stripe to enter the left-turn lane, but not the other way (once you are in the left turn lane you have to turn left). |
| And countless people,("people" is 90% of the time a women), think that a real merge lane is to be used buy coming to a dead stop, even though several hundred feet of empty merge lane is in front of them, and then wait, until all 3 lanes of traffic are open, in order to then slowly proceed into the right hand lane. |