So this has been annoying me lately; drivers leaving excessive spacing when stopped for a red light. I get it, you don’t want to be right on the next guys bumper, you should leave space to escape if the guy in front stalls or somebody tries to carjack you. But 2-3 car lengths? It really bugs me when they do it in a left turn lane causing a back up to the travel lane resulting in overall congestion. Or, if they’re first at the light, they don’t pull up far enough to reach the road sensors that trigger a light change. I haven’t been able to isolate to a specific demographic, seems to be young, old, black, white, you name it. Maybe they’re just stoned at the wheel. I’m tempted to roll down my window and ask ‘wtf’? I’m in the Northeast US. Has anybody else witnessed this?

  • BassTurd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    14 hours ago

    There isn’t a federal law on turn signal use that I can find and it’s left up to the individual states. Every law I looked at said you have to have a continuous signal before the turn and when turning into a different lane. I did not see any exceptions listed anywhere, including turn lanes.

    When turning from a turn lane, to a different lane, that is a change of lane and therefore falls under the law. If you have any other evidence to the contrary or happen to live in a state that I didn’t check where that is an exception, I and the others here would love if you’d source that. If you can’t, then you’re just making shit up and should just take the “L”.

    • orclev@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      8 hours ago

      The only law in my state that requires usage of turn signals states this:

      No person may turn a vehicle from a direct course or move right or left upon a highway unless and until such movement can be made with reasonable safety, and then only after giving an appropriate signal in the manner hereinafter provided, in the event any other vehicle may be affected by the movement.

      The key there is “direct course”. The direct course in a dedicated turn lane is the turn, so no signal is required. If it’s a turn or straight lane it is required as in that case the direct course is straight.