Giving way to the right

There is one particular intersection in Wellington that I try to avoid because drivers are now so indoctrinated with the right hand rule that they use it incorrectly.

I’m talking about Tory Street. The part of Tory that turns onto the one way Cable Street – near The Warehouse and the new Wholey Bagels. Cars turn from both directions on Tory into two lanes of Cable. In this case the left turning traffic outside Wholey Bagels does NOT give way to the right turning traffic outside The Warehouse because the road code states that both cars turn into their respective lanes. They’ve even painted a dotted line to guide cars into the correct lanes. Yet the intersection is always jammed up with people waiting to turn left while everyone coming from the direction of The Warehouse turns right.

Except when I come along, and alarm others in the car by just turning – obviously always safely – despite the usual horn blaring at my apparent arrogance and disregard for the road rules. Today I upset two little old ladies in a grey Toyota … not that the one driving could properly see over the dashboard!

My frustration has finally driven me to actually check the turning rules in the road codes. And wa la!

http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/roadcode/key-driving-skills/using-lanes-correctly5.html