After my most recent ride along with my local PD the officer I rode with pulled over a car turning out of a parking lot (3am) onto a 3 lane access road. The driver turned into the middle lane and the officer pulled him over for a "wide right turn" since he didn't turn into the right most lane. We talked about this after the stop, and he said that you are required to turn into the nearest lane (left lane when turning left and right lane when turning right). He said he never rights a situation for it but uses it as probable cause to pull people over to do sobriety checks (driver was leaving a bar). Turns out it did wind up as a DWI arrest as the driver was drunk (good thing he was stopped).
And to my question at hand, this got me thinking of situations for which I am at a traffic light turning left where more than one lane turns (say 2 for this example) and we are turning onto a 3 lane road. I know that if I am in the left most turn lane I must turn into the left most lane, but what about the person in the other turn lane. Are they required to turn into the center lane or right lane? I always turn into the right lane as people tend to not pay much attention and will turn into the center lane from the left most lane. Yesterday when I did this I almost got hit by a car turning right onto the street we were turning onto as they were turning right from the other side of the intersection (assume failure to yield on their part since we had a protected green arrow and they had a yield sign). Just curious though what the requirement is for that situation.
Figured I would post it up as I'm not sure how many non-officers would even know about this regulation too.
And to my question at hand, this got me thinking of situations for which I am at a traffic light turning left where more than one lane turns (say 2 for this example) and we are turning onto a 3 lane road. I know that if I am in the left most turn lane I must turn into the left most lane, but what about the person in the other turn lane. Are they required to turn into the center lane or right lane? I always turn into the right lane as people tend to not pay much attention and will turn into the center lane from the left most lane. Yesterday when I did this I almost got hit by a car turning right onto the street we were turning onto as they were turning right from the other side of the intersection (assume failure to yield on their part since we had a protected green arrow and they had a yield sign). Just curious though what the requirement is for that situation.
Figured I would post it up as I'm not sure how many non-officers would even know about this regulation too.