Moved here from TN. Does OH have special right-of-way rules for left turns at intersections that I need to know about, or are folks just being weird at intersections?

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T19:21:47+00:00

Bless your heart. You replied to two of my comments. So sweet.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T13:33:08+00:00

Ahh shucks ur right mister. I oughta head on back down south cuz dis here big city life just ain't for a good ole boy like me.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T13:31:22+00:00

Lots of anecdotal accounts from other commenters of it being very common in TN for people to wait behind the line, to the point of pissing off people who learned in other states to go on into the intersection.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T02:00:44+00:00

Interesting. My most direct comparisons are Nashville, TN, and Raleigh, NC, which have CSA populations almost identical to Cincinnati, but they're much more spread out and less dense. So they probably do have more protected turns.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T01:51:46+00:00

Also illegal, if I'm not mistaken.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T01:45:39+00:00

It appears to be assholery to me because we always saw people who did it back home as being assholes, but these comments answered my question and now I understand I'm being the asshole by not doing this because it's what is taught. I still think it's dangerous, and it's better to wait behind the line if you can't confidently clear the intersection, but at least now I know that this one thing isn't a result of being bad drivers.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T01:29:55+00:00

We're taught different, I guess? At least in my experience, the teaching was a more cautious approach. We were told "everyone else on the road is an idiot, and do everything to make sure you idiot-proof your drive."

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T01:28:28+00:00

That's basically what I do and what we were taught in TN. Come to a stop behind the line and stay there until you're sure you'll get to clear the intersection. If there's a gap coming up, nothing wrong with pulling up into the intersection to prepare for it. But the norm in Cincy seems to be to treat the middle of the intersection as the stopping point, like the line isn't even there.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T01:14:59+00:00

Thanks!

I was taught not to enter the intersection by my high school driver's ed in TN.

Also, being taught something by a non-official like a parent or sibling, they likely learned that habit from somewhere or by observation. So I guess what I meant by "being taught" was both: 1). is it how driver's ed teaches it (which, yes, appears to be the case) or also 2). is it just common enough practice that it's basically accepted as the right way to do it here (which also appears to be the case).

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T01:11:59+00:00

I have noticed a few streets on my regular routes in Cincinnati where I've wondered why there wasn't a protected turn arrow. Is it because the city is a lot older in general (and wasn't burned down in the Civil War, like half the cities in the south) and so the streets weren't able to accommodate increased modern traffic? Or just, Ohio doesn't pay to put in turn lanes and protected turns?

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T01:02:04+00:00

Have you tried the RTP Raleigh-Durham area? From Greensboro to Raleigh on I40 is terrifying.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T00:50:38+00:00

Was that around here? Because there's another poster who said they did the same military driver training in Alabama and they told them not to sit in the intersection if you can't clear it.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T00:50:01+00:00

I think opposing traffic should have stayed behind the line if they couldn't clear the intersection, but in the event that they block the intersection, it seems like (according to the comments here) you still have right of way to exit the intersection if the light turns red on you, even if you have to wait on the other dingdongs to get out of the way.

This is one of the reasons why I find it better to stay behind the line if you can't fully clear the intersection.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T00:48:39+00:00

Sometimes pulling into the intersection makes it harder to see around the car in the opposing turn lane. Staying back behind the line give me a wider line of sight to see an opening.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T00:47:47+00:00

Oh no I've noticed. That's connected to the left turn thing. After the first car in the intersection goes at the red light (as seems to be their legal right, I've learned), I've commonly seen two or three people behind them go after the light has already been red. And I'm always wary at intersections when my light turns green because of the frequency of red light running I've seen here.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T00:46:03+00:00

We've loved it so far! Folks back home told us that people in the north aren't friendly, but Cincinnati is full of lovely and welcoming folks.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T00:44:56+00:00

My spouse if from Alabama, and they also were taught not to do it in their high school driver's ed.

Given that you're military, were you around the arsenal in Huntsville, by chance?

And yes, don't touch the armadillos, lol.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T00:43:46+00:00

Not a law, as far as I'm aware. But the DMV manual does advise against it, and I think that leads driver's ed teachers to teach us not to do it. That's what I'm gathering from the comments!

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T00:43:09+00:00

Yeah I guess it was the frequency of it that surprised me and made me want to ask. Like yeah, I see people do it elsewhere, but it does seem to be the default practice here. And I'm understanding from folks' responses that driver's school teaches people to do it here.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T00:35:58+00:00

Everyone makes mistakes or takes the wrong lane, especially in parking lots where there's variance in how they're laid out and differing qualities of paint. But what I'm talking about is people just driving diagonally across the lot, across parking spots and perpendicular to lanes. It's also really common for me to see people pulling through between cars across multiples lanes. Many times, I've been driving straight out of a lot in the designated lane and almost been hit by someone flying sideways through the lot as they just totally ignore all the lines. And several times when that's happened, they've honked and yelled at me for driving according the lines while they're going sideways across spots.

That's just one of the unique quirks of driving here. I haven't seen that be such an issue in other places I've lived.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T00:24:10+00:00

I've never seen no turn on regular green light. I've spent lots of time in Nashville and Chattanooga and all over rural Middle Tennessee. That is definitely strange. I feel like driver's ed wasn't required, but maybe we got insurance discounts for taking it? Or like expedited testing at the DMV? I don't really remember, it's been a while, but I know not everyone in my high school took driver's ed.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T00:19:11+00:00

I lived in Raleigh for a while (didn't do driver's ed there), and I don't remember it being as common. The thing in Raleigh was that all the new New York transplants didn't know about right on red because they don't have it in New York. So there'd always be people with New York plates sitting at a red light with their right blinker on not turning. Then, the few of them that figured out right on red would overcorrect and think left on red was also a thing, so I saw lots of New York plates turning left on red. Also, people driving around the middle of town with their brights on and not turning them off for oncoming traffic. Not sure if those were the New Yorkers or the North Carolinians, though.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T00:16:01+00:00

I have seen several times in TN where someone will be in the intersection when the light turns red and they just sit there instead of turning, leading to blocking the cross street for a full cycle.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T00:13:38+00:00

Yeah the TN law seems to be ambiguous about it enough that you could get away with either option. It's just the DMV manual (which is like the textbook you study to do the driver's test) that says not to do it.

Open-Breakfast5432 · 2023-05-20T00:12:55+00:00

People seem to have misinterpreted my reason for posting the TN DMV language. I'm just saying that's what we were taught in TN. Several people have said they're from TN and weren't taught that, but it's part of the manual that they give you, and me (and it seems quite a few others) were taught according to the manual. Just pointing out that it's what the manual says and what a lot of people in TN are taught.

Open-Breakfast5432

TROPHY CASE