Do you do simultaneous right and left turns onto a 2 lane road?

The cars turning right have the right of way.

Even if it was a four lane road I’d still wait for those people turning right because far too many of them are too frickin lazy and take the turn wide ending up in the lane next to the one they should have been in. But that’s a rant for another time.

You have a general legal obligation to determine that you can make a left turn safely. And I think your insurance company would hold you at least partly at fault if you got into an accident in this situation.

There could be some straight-through drivers who ended up in the right turn only lane and will not be constrained by the solid white line. And then you have all the wide turners who can't do a precise right turn, and those that make their lane change without signaling or shoulder checking after making their right turn. Why take these risks at all?? There is nothing overly defensive about this at all.

It’s better to wait, just in case the right turning vehicle overshoot into your lane you intend to go into. Plus the others are right about right turn as right of way, more so with their dedicated right turn signal if they have one. Defensive driving 101.

It depends.

Any Toyota/Lexus, Minivans making a right and I will wait. I just don’t trust them.

Making eye contact with the driver helps when simultaneously turning.

You friend is wrong. You can turn left into the closest lane you don't have to wait for the cars making a right turn since they are suppose to turn into the other lane. If they hit you it's there fault. The ticket they get will most likely be improper turn or maybe unsafe lane change.

Dealmaker1945 wrote: ↑ You have a general legal obligation to determine that you can make a left turn safely. And I think your insurance company would hold you at least partly at fault if you got into an accident in this situation.

No they won't since the OP would have performed a proper turn unlike the other vehicle.

In ON, you must always turn into the lane that corresponds to the lane from which the turn was commenced. This means a person turning right must turn into the right lane and a person turning left must turn into the left lane.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/drive/m ... to-anyway/

https://www.ontario.ca/document/officia ... directions

You have the right of way to turn left into the left most lane just as their right turning car has the right of way to turn into the right most lane. Now here's the tricky part, as you are the left turning vehicle, you have to ensure you can make the turn safely.

My recommendation: judge your speed and their speed, make eye contact, and if you can judge that you can complete your turn before they initiate theirs, go for it. Or wait a few seconds and let them initiate theirs before you start yours.

Note though: a lot of drivers are idiots, dimwitted and/or selfish, so don't always assume they're going to stick to turning into their proper lane. The same goes with you being the right turner versus the other person turning left. Always use caution and if something doesn't feel right, don't turn.

bembol wrote: ↑ It depends.

Any Toyota/Lexus, Minivans making a right and I will wait. I just don’t trust them.

Making eye contact with the driver helps when simultaneously turning.

lol what's up with this toyota/lexus hate?

I agree with the majority of posters, each vehicle has a designated lane to turn into so technically should not be an issue. Real life however is i always ensure the person making a right slows their vehicle considerably and is indeed going to make his right turn, and i stagger my vehicle when making a left turn to enter my lane in a zipper like pattern so that should they wander into my lane that i have adequate space to not be in any kind of collision even if the other vehicle is in the wrong for turning into the wrong lane.

Just because you have the right doesn't mean we leave common sense at home and not take basic precautions, no one wishes to ruin their day regardless of who's fault it is.

90% of drivers never turn into the proper lane. Not sure if it's the same in Nova Scotia but in Ontario once you have "signaled beforehand" your intention to move into a dedicated turning lane ahead you do not have to keep your blinkers on once you are in the turning lane even if stopped at a light waiting. Being in the dedicated turning lane itself is the indicator that you are turning. Lot of people don't know that. It's like exiting the freeway left or right... you are supposed to signal your intention to move over into the exit lanes BEFORE you actually move over so the drivers behind you will know your intentions. Once you have moved into that dedicated exit lane you can stop signaling. Most people however don't start signaling until they have already started moving over if at all.

In my mind, driving is about safety, defence driving more so, just because one has the right of way does not make it safer. I have driven enough to learn there are so many shitty drivers that do NOT turn into their dedicated lane. Even when they do, both cars turning into their dedicated lanes at exactly the same time can be a "crowded" situation. I always let the car making the right turn finishes first (so I can observe if they turn straight into the left lane instead or even worse decide to straight afterall) before I proceed to turn into the left lane. All you are losing is maybe 5 secs, but can potentially save you hours of trouble.

raven0usvampire wrote: ↑ lol what's up with this toyota/lexus hate?

Something to do with their technology. In my experience in the GTA Toyota Lexus vehicles require more turning radius then heavily loaded tractor trailers.

The car is designed in Japan where left hand drive is used. Thus when modified for american Market the high performance steering requires more space.

Similarly in Japan parking is very tight. The vehicles simply are not designed to park in wide open spots at Costco as a result many park over lines or against other vehicles to simulate the tight Japanese parking situation.

These are high performance vehicles.

raven0usvampire wrote: ↑ lol what's up with this toyota/lexus hate?

Probably owns a Hyundai or Kia

oilerfan89 wrote: ↑ Probably owns a Hyundai or Kia

Came across some dummy fanboy (probably a shareholder) on a news website comment section claiming that Hyundai was the best cars and any owner having problems with their engines is due to the owner's negligence with maintenance rather than anything wrong with the engine itself. Also we should only be getting oil changes and parts from Hyundai as everything else is subpar products. Then he went further calling all Toyotas POS vehicles. Lol.... What a clown.

I don't because I can't trust other drivers to turn into or stay in the correct lane.

derass wrote: ↑ I don't because I can't trust other drivers to turn into or stay in the correct lane.

Bingo. 99% of the time when I think to myself 'Oh I could have gone' then I see the idiot turning right sliding into the lane I was turning into.

Ballroomblitz1 wrote: ↑ I agree with the majority of posters, each vehicle has a designated lane to turn into so technically should not be an issue. Real life however is i always ensure the person making a right slows their vehicle considerably and is indeed going to make his right turn, and i stagger my vehicle when making a left turn to enter my lane in a zipper like pattern so that should they wander into my lane that i have adequate space to not be in any kind of collision even if the other vehicle is in the wrong for turning into the wrong lane.

Just because you have the right doesn't mean we leave common sense at home and not take basic precautions, no one wishes to ruin their day regardless of who's fault it is.

That's why I thought it was an interesting discussion. All of the legal reasons why I'm in the right(can't cross solid white, can't go straight on RT only, right turn into right most lane), are at best secondary laws, which I'd imagine only have ever been ticketed in the case of accidents or cops on a really bad day, and have been ignored at one point or another by pretty much everyone.

Similar idea from another angle. The reason (I presume) that that lane became RT only was to free up the lane ahead so that adjacent traffic turning right, has a free lane to turn into. Does that change the situation? if You're turning right onto a 2 lane street with a RT only, and Straight/left lane, and what point do you consider it safe to complete your turn? When the only traffic is in the RT only lane? (What if they go straight instead?) When the only traffic is in the straight/left lane? (What if they do a lane change in the intersection?) Legally it would seem to me they have a permanent green arrow.

This whole thing kind of reminds me of a "what's the speeding tolerance on this highway/weekend/time of day" discussion.

That's one thing that frustrates me about driving laws here. There are laws, and then there are "laws". Very few are black and white, subject to whims, and like the fellows who about 25 years ago made a protest on the 401 after getting a ticket, getting told by the judge at 101 he was breaking the law, so him and a buddy drove at exactly 100 km/hr blocking both lanes, and before long had a 12km long line of cars behind him. Then got *another* ticket for obstructing traffic or something. Bit of a dick move yeah, but I can't dispute his point. Take Germany as a counter point. No speed limit on some highways, way better driver training, but you might get a ticket for being 3 km/hr over. Remove the ambiguity.

Edit: found the story. Not sure if it was the one I was thinking of, as like 10 years ago I searched it, it was obscure, and pretty sure it was from the 90s. Regardless, jist is the same: https://www.drivers.com/article/149/

savemoresaveoften wrote: ↑ In my mind, driving is about safety, defence driving more so, just because one has the right of way does not make it safer. I have driven enough to learn there are so many shitty drivers that do NOT turn into their dedicated lane. Even when they do, both cars turning into their dedicated lanes at exactly the same time can be a "crowded" situation. I always let the car making the right turn finishes first (so I can observe if they turn straight into the left lane instead or even worse decide to straight afterall) before I proceed to turn into the left lane. All you are losing is maybe 5 secs, but can potentially save you hours of trouble.

What do you do during rush hour or other busy times when the light is green and there is a steady stream of cars turning right. There will be no opening using your method and you can't wait forever and hold up all the other (many) vehicles behind you waiting to turn left. Being cautious is good but being overly cautious is going to cause more traffic gridlock. There is a mall across from a large grocery store near me and the vast majority turn west onto the street very few go straight. So if the people turning left waited for the right turners to finish only one car turning left would get through each light.

tew wrote: ↑ What do you do during rush hour or other busy times when the light is green and there is a steady stream of cars turning right. There will be no opening using your method and you can't wait forever and hold up all the other (many) vehicles behind you waiting to turn left. Being cautious is good but being overly cautious is going to cause more traffic gridlock. There is a mall across from a large grocery store near me and the vast majority turn west onto the street very few go straight. So if the people turning left waited for the right turners to finish only one car turning left would get through each light.

If it is as busy as you claim, chances are there are equal amount of cars going straight, which means you have to wait for the light to turn before you can make your left turn anyway. So you are not blocking traffic by being ultra safe anyway. I drive fast, but also drive according to condition…
What you describe is basically when an accident is most likely to happen, cuz someone rushes during a busy/rush hour……