I was taught when making a left or right at an intersection onto a multi-lane road, you turn into the closest lane to you/same lane you are turning from. I'm not actually sure if there is a traffic law in VA to address this or if it's just best-practice. This allows others on the other side to make right on red/yeild (depending on the configuration of the intersection). I see many cut across the furthest lanes(s) in order to make a turn into a shopping center etc. when in fact they should have to turn into their lane, signal, get over if safe or if not, oh well, you have to go further down or make a u-turn or come at it from the other direction. We have a particularly bad intersection that is one of the most dangerous in the county partially for this reason...see below. Cyan left arrow driver goes into furthest lane to get to the shopping area on the right. Cars making the right at the yield (not a red light lane) go into the right most lane and wham-o! I asked a defensive driving instructor specifically about this one and he said the cyan driver should turn into his closest lane (left-most) first then signal over but here you really can't...you'd have to get it differently...bad situation. The county is actually making this whole intersection a funky new style thing (see below) to help with this. So BITOG...if there is a crash...is it the cyan or red driver's fault? Red has to yield to on-coming traffic (which is primarily coming straight through the intersection...but even then you have folks cut over to make that right to get their Walgreens fix hahaha. Cyan has to turn into the closest lane and signal over/yield. I was also told that you shouldn't change lanes within X feet of the intersection....so that handles some of this too. Seems like this could go either way! In before winter tires enter this dicussion.
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