I've mentioned this before. a couple years back. (Re: road sign)

[ScarletHayes]

In my town there are a couple notable places where yield signs are up for people turning right to yield to people turning left.  To envision this, my vehicle and his are driving straight at each other.  At the intersection I plan to turn right.  He is turning left and I have to yield to him.  

So there's one of these up at a busy intersection, and there's another one up right before I get on an on-ramp to I75.  I believe it was either osurox or AJ that I had a discussion with over this.  As I believe one of you is a civil engineer.  Anyway, a couple days back it happened.  It being *CONFUSION*.  So I'm on my daily trip into work.  I go to jump on 75, which is merely a right off of an overpass and then onto 75.  My *HUNCH* is that yield sign is up because there's a brief moment where they give the oncoming traffic a green turn arrow (but that is NOT the case at the other intersection I mentioned), so I would have to yield to that.  But from my angle/perspective, I CANNOT see that.  So, we have what happened to me a day or two ago.  I'm doing my thing, getting ready to jump onto 75 and there is an oncoming truck that is turning but stops dead in its tracks as I stop dead in my tracks waiting for him to complete the turn.  Now he is sitting in a lane of oncoming traffic opening himself up to the possibility of getting T-boned while looking at me like "WTF are you doing you idiot?"  and I'm just doing what the sign is telling me to do...  YIELD!  My guess is that his light turned red while he was waiting for oncoming traffic so he could then make/complete his turn, and then I come along and he has to be thinking "what is this moron doing waiting for me?!?!?!?!?!?"

The above is an absolute traffic disaster in the making.  I CANNOT BE-LIEVE that anyone ever thought this was a good idea.

[Blinky]

Generally if a light is turning red, I will let the people coming from the other direction turn left before I turn right in order to clear out the intersection.

If I were instead to make a right turn in front of them on a yellow light, then they are going to be stuck out there in the middle of the intersection when it turns red.

[ScarletHayes]

Generally if a light is turning red, I will let the people coming from the other direction turn left before I turn right in order to clear out the intersection.

If I were instead to make a right turn in front of them on a yellow light, then they are going to be stuck out there in the middle of the intersection when it turns red.

I can see what you are saying, but when I go to turn right I am in the far right lane.  There is no traffic light for me to even look at, it's just a yield sign you come up to before you jump onto 75.  Your scenario would be a typical intersection where the light is red for both of us and I would have to stop first anyway to make a right on red.  So yeah, under that scenario I would allow him to clear the intersection.  


The other intersection I'm talking about is just a classic 2 busy roads intersection where they T into each other.  That one is even more curious.  There is no green turn arrow at that intersection.  So if I'm just cruising down the road and want to make a quick right, I have to yield to a guy that's turning left?  And the guy turning left, if he's from out of town, has NO IDEA that I have to wait for him due to a yield sign.  It is insane, and just BEGGING to cause an accident.

[Blinky]

One of these? 

[ScarletHayes]

That is the one where the two roads cross each other (no bike symbol though).  I would imagine most of the confusion lies with the guy turning left, wondering why on earth the guy turning right across from his is waiting on him.  

The one at the overpass is just one where the far right lane, which leads to an on-ramp, has to yield to cars turning left to get on the on-ramp.  There is no island at that one at all.  That one is probably even more ripe for confusion.

[Blinky]

Aw yes, now I've got it.


Nothing is as bad as the diverging diamond. 



Whoever came up with that needs to be horsewhipped.

While I don't love SPUIs or Traffic Circles, I can at least understand the logic behind them. The SPUI streamlines what would be two intersections down to one, while the traffic circle reduces head ons and t-bones to fender benders. 

But what the Hell is the point of the Diverging Diamond? You have a busy four lane road, and then all of a sudden the directions cross one another so that you are driving through the exit on the wrong side of the road Great Britain style while trying to process/navigate a complicated freeway interchange? Have these people not met the average driver?

[PtreeCornersBuckeye]

Scarlett...I feel your pain.  They've set up these right turn yield signs all over the place in normal intersections in Atlanta, and it drives me crazy.  You're absolutely right...it causes nothing but confusion and they're downright dangerous.  If I'm going to turn right at one of these, and someone is coming to turn left, I have to know if someone is behind me coming straight to know if I need to stop.  And I've lived through that exact situation you described where I'm yielding, he's stopped and looking at me like I'm the idiot.  Just lunacy.

[PtreeCornersBuckeye]

Aw yes, now I've got it.


Nothing is as bad as the diverging diamond. 



Whoever came up with that needs to be horsewhipped.

While I don't love SPUIs or Traffic Circles, I can at least understand the logic behind them. The SPUI streamlines what would be two intersections down to one, while the traffic circle reduces head ons and t-bones to fender benders. 

But what the Hell is the point of the Diverging Diamond? You have a busy four lane road, and then all of a sudden the directions cross one another so that you are driving through the exit on the wrong side of the road Great Britain style while trying to process/navigate a complicated freeway interchange? Have these people not met the average driver?

Actually they have several of these now in Atlanta and they work really well.  They've really alleviated congestion at several really ugly overpasses. They eliminate the need for a left turn signal at a busy intersection so it moves traffic through much better.

[ScarletHayes]

Blinky that is the very overpass I'm talking about, but there is no diverging diamond there.  Maybe it's supposed to be and they're waiting to implement it fully?  I don't know, but that far right lane is EXACTLY how it is in your pic.  I'll be sitting there at the yield sign and the guy turning left has absolutely no idea as to what the hell is going on.  It's a wreck waiting to happen.  If he gets T-boned and cops come to investigate I am staying there and I am explaining the INSANITY of the yield sign.  The guy trying to turn left and waiting on me probably wants to jump out of his vehicle to kick my azz.  As soon as I show him the yield sign maybe the 2 of us could go down to the country engineer's office and kick his.

[Blinky]

Blinky that is the very overpass I'm talking about, but there is no diverging diamond there.  Maybe it's supposed to be and they're waiting to implement it fully?  I don't know, but that far right lane is EXACTLY how it is in your pic.  I'll be sitting there at the yield sign and the guy turning left has absolutely no idea as to what the hell is going on.  It's a wreck waiting to happen.  If he gets T-boned and cops come to investigate I am staying there and I am explaining the INSANITY of the yield sign.  The guy trying to turn left and waiting on me probably wants to jump out of his vehicle to kick my azz.  As soon as I show him the yield sign maybe the 2 of us could go down to the country engineer's office and kick his.

Yep, looks like it is due for a bridge replacement, and the Diverging Diamond is the planned replacement. 



So it is incumbent on you to let us know if it improves things at that interchange, or makes them worse.  

Was the yield sign heading upwards in this pic, or downwards? Or is there one no matter which way you are going?

[ScarletHayes]

Yep, looks like it is due for a bridge replacement, and the Diverging Diamond is the planned replacement. 



So it is incumbent on you to let us know if it improves things at that interchange, or makes them worse.  

Was the yield sign heading upwards in this pic, or downwards? Or is there one no matter which way you are going?

Ok, so I was about to get onto/turn right onto ramp D.  The pickup truck was coming from the other direction waiting to turn left onto ramp D.  He hesitated and was perpendicular to oncoming traffic because he saw me.  Then I stopped because I was yielding to him.  Total confusion.  I started to go and then he just went because he was risking a possible wreck.  I can't imagine the choice words he must've had for me.  I'm sure the words dumbazz and ####ing idiot were peppered throughout the rant