A scene to warm your heart or boil your blood

or confuse you, given the thread title. Kyle and Nick will get it at least.

[action=Chuck]tries to imagine Uncle Albert in the middle of that[/action]

Is that charming scene complete with splattered fallen corpse?

Holy Shit.

That'll take a while to untangle.

If they'd turn that into a proper roundabout, there wouldn't be those problems

Is that Seoul Korea on a light traffic day?
I've seen this stuff with traffic backed up for blocks, and once you're in the middle you can't leave. There is literally no room to turn around and take another route. Now imagine two dozen huge military trucks with trailers and pissed off soldiers caught up in the middle!

[-]It can't be untangled without everyone backing up, that's the beauty of it.[/-] Beautiful, beautiful deadlock.

Wait, that's actually not quite true... looks like there's a couple of cars that can turn right to get out of that mess. But I question whether or not that'll be enough to free things up.

And those problems also wouldn't exist if those drivers weren't hopeless fucking incompetents.

You don't block the fucking intersection. Ever. I don't care if your light is green. If you won't clear the intersection, you wait at the fucking cross walk. Even if that means sitting through another red light.

Don't go there UA. Do you remember the "left turn" thread debacle a few weeks ago?

Actually, I'm not sure I do.

Italy?

Just as well. There was a lot of "clearing the intersection" discussion.

Gimme a link. I might need to set somebody straight.

Actually it could be a summer scene out of minneapolis.

I don't think there are many 1500 series gm trucks in Italy though.

In many states, left turn is the only situation when you're legally allowed to enter the box without your exit path clear. You shouldn't impede anyone when you do so, and it should improve the traffic flow.

Any other situation calls for snipers, IMHO.

Dam Cellphone Drivers

Hmmmmmmmmmm That could be cleared real fast. You would need some cops though to direct people. But you could block the intersection and just clear that.

They need to fix the timing on the lights. People tend to block intersections because they get used to the lights timing (it turns red to fast!) and don't want to get caught waiting five or more minutes for their light to change to green again.

Don't come to New Jersey.

#1: Just shows how self-centered and dipsticky people are
#2: I don't remember ever sitting through a red light that lasted much longer than a minute. Aside from the time that one left-turn signal quit cycling altogether, which doesn't count
#3: I question the wisdom of any planner/engineer/system that leaves a busy road sitting at a red light for five minutes. (If there's a question of the people blocking the intersection for any great length of time, it's most likely a fairly busy road, no?) I mean, five minutes would be, like, an apartment complex's parking lot that exits directly onto a freeway or something

Murphy's Law clearly indicates that the first and second conditions will always be mutually exclusive. Well, unless you include protected turns where the exit path is clearing, and even then you're risking being left high and dry .

Bring that shit on. I don't care how special the residents of some areas think they are, the same standards apply everywhere.

There is no God if we don't get a reality show with UA driving in other countries.

Every week we blindfold him, take him and his vehicle to different locations, then put him behind the wheel and let hilarity ensue!

Santa Barbara used to have red lights that were four (4) minutes long. They had signs recommending that you shut off your engine while waiting for the light to change!

There's nothing in that photo that couldn't be quickly cleared up by the judicious use of a tactical nuclear warhead.

Am I alone in noticing a giant Santa sitting on a ledge of one of the buildings? Is he instigating this mess?

See below.

The green car is trying to turn left. He's allowed to pull into the intersection and wait to turn. If he waited behind the line, he'd impede just as many people as he is now. In fact, if the divider is large enough, he can pull to the left far enough to allow the cars behind him to pass him on the right (one of the few times it's legal in NY).

The intersections are (usually) designed to allow left-turners from both directions to pull into the intersection and make their turns.

The only concern is what happens if he doesn't get a break in the traffic to allow his turn? Well, then he waits for the light to turn red and completes his turn when the other traffic stops. The lights are timed to permit this.

From the New York Driver's Manual:

If we didn't do this in city driving, no-one would make a left turn without a filter arrow.

But...is only one car allowed to do this at a time? In many towns several people will shoot through turning left during the brief time they have to "clear the intersection." The diagram doesn't addres this.

Every intersection should have a dedicated left turn lane and green left turn arrows included in the stop light cycle. People are just too fucking stupid to be trusted with anything less.

I agree. The left turn arrow takes all guesswork out of the equation.
If there is a left turn arrow there is no excuse for even being out in the intersection waiting for an opening to turn left......you know you will get your opening when the green arrow comes.

OKay, let me add this to my "if I were the President" wish-list.