I'm from Europe and this looks retarded. Can someone explain

My best guess: It's showing potential conflicts in a shared turn lane during high traffic. The green car is unable to merge in to traffic so first turns in to the turn lane, where oncoming traffic may be turning from.

>>929416
Are you honestly confused by a standard center turn lane?

>>929416
This is called "the dingus in the green car abusing the center turn lane." Quite common, unfortunately

>>929416
The green car should not be in that turn lane.
The turn lane should be used as a place to wait as you're waiting for the opposite traffic to clear to turn across their lanes, not turn into when you're getting on the road just so you don't need to wait for all the traffic to clear.

>>929464
>a standard center turn lane

It might be standard where you live, but it clearly isn't standard where the OP lives.

>>929473
ah, so you're saying this situation is showing someone doing it wrong
>>929464
yes i think the whole concept of a "center lane" is confusing. Why not have dedicated lanes for each direction instead of sharing a center lane.

>Fairies on /n/ complaining about the lawful and prudent use of a center turn lane
Why I never thought that all the children here would have no clue on anything about traffic, transportation, or something besides jerking their boyfriend off.

>>929549
it's a turn lane not a merge lane

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>>929416
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/hdbk/traffic_lanes

>A center left turn lane is located in the middle of a two-way street and is marked on both sides by two painted lines. The inner line is broken and the outer line is solid. If a street has a center left turn lane, you must use it to prepare for or make a left turn, or to prepare for or make a permitted U-turn (CVC §21460.5 (c)). You may only drive for 200 feet in the center left turn lane. This lane is not a regular traffic lane or a passing lane. To turn left from this lane, signal, look over your shoulder, and drive completely inside the center left turn lane. Do not stop with the back of your vehicle blocking traffic. Make sure the lane is clear in both directions and then turn only when it is safe. Look for vehicles coming toward you in the same lane, preparing to start their left turn.

>When turning left from a side street or driveway, signal and wait until it is safe. Then you may drive into the center left turn lane. Enter traffic only when it is safe.

It's not a normal traffic lane, it's for turning traffic only. It's common (in California) for drivers to wait for traffic to clear, so it's likely that both drivers will see each other.

>>929473
>>929511
>>929570
There's nothing illegal (in California) about merging from the center turn lane.

>>929629
thanks

>>929629
who has right of way when both facing eachother?

>>929681

The car intending to go straight, or in this case, merging.
When no other rule applies: Straight > right turn > left turn

>>929548
Because that would take up too much space and is fucking retarded to have at minor, non-traffic light controlled intersection with side streets.

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>>929657
After doing a little research, I've realized that this law varies on a state by state basis.

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/traffic_talk_can_i_use_the_cen.html

So it is illegal in Michigan. But then again, they developed their own street plan specifically to deal with lefts, so it's understandable why it would be illegal.

It also varies within the state of Missouri.

http://www.ozarksfirst.com/news/using-the-center-turn-lane-to-merge-is-it-legal

>>929750
no you dipshit you can take the space that is already there and just divide it into two seperate lanes

>>929750
>Because that would take up too much space

Like a whole special lane in the middle of the road doesn't or something?

>>929892
no, it really doesn't

>>929801
The kind of turn in your pic is afaik called "michigan curve". I've seen it in many places around the world. tbqhwy it seems like a much better solution than OP's center lane, which seems like a deathtrap.

>>929899
>An entire lane doesn't take any space at all

Is it some sort of quantum lane that both exists and does not exist? Is it inside a folded space/time manifold? Do the other lanes narrow by 25% each to make room for it?

I don't think we have turn lanes in Europe.

In places with light traffic you just get the dotted centre line allowing you to turn into the side street.

In places with a lot of traffic there's these dotted boxes that you're supposed to stop and wait in, until the opposite lane is clear of traffic so that you can make your turn. It's not a lane though. Just a box with a give way sign.

>>929940
Another lane is an additional 10 feet of ROW to be acquired. A center turn lane maximizes use of an existing ROW and allows for smoother traffic flow. Sorry that this concept is incredulous to you.

The green car shouldn't be turning into that lane.

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>>929416
yes,, reatardd., wheres my Westbound bikelane?

>>930071
One of these days I should go record the idiocy around an intersection near my gym... fwiw it is in little Mexico

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>>929914
Consider the steps involved

Michigan Curve
>Look
>Make right turn
>Make left turn without overshooting
>Stop
>Look
>Make Left turn

Center Lane
>Look
>Make left turn into center turn lane
>Stop
>Look
>Merge right

The center turn lane offers versatility, which is good in small town main streets with lots of cars entering and exiting from various lots and side streets.

Having a Michigan curve would mean making a right, driving until you hit the turnabout, which could be close or a block away, then proceeding in the direction you wished to travel in the first place.

>>929416
The center lane is a turning lane. The green car shouldn't be driving on it. When the green driver made the left turn, he shouldn't have merged into the center lane, but directly into the actual driving lane. Instead the green driver is driving in the turning lane like an idiot. Don't be the green driver.

People still don't understand that in US either. Often on busy streets, some drivers would make their left turn onto the center lane after the oncoming traffic clears and then pause like idiots until it traffic clears enough where they can merge right.

>>930411
>I'm an idiot and don't know that it's perfectly legal to use the center turn lane to merge.
I bet you think it's illegal to pull forward into the intersection while making a left turn.

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Why the hell can't it be directional, like this?

>>930456
It's more for being able to turn into driveways, not just intersecting streets. It's too much effort for the DOTs to shift lane pattern for every damn driveway. Easier for the paint crew to just do the standard pattern, and let the drivers sort it out.

>>930456
The center turn lane is much more flexible than marked lanes as long as traffic volume isn't so high as to be impenetrable to anyone wishing to make a left turn, it can hold a variable number of vehicles without blocking the through lane. Where I live the center turn is used on arterial roads that feed lots of neighborhood streets, but when two arterials meet at a stoplight then the lanes get directional markings.

>>930462
>>930464
Ah, thanks

>>930071
...but the center lane IS "Another lane". Like you said, it requires an additional 10 feet of ROW. Just like any lane.

I avoid using the center lane unless strictly necessary because the local vernacular refers to it as the suicide lane.

>>930456
The center turn lane (or median turn lane, if you will) isn't just for turning out of the roadway; it's also useful for making a left turn ONTO it as well.

Picture this: you're the green car in OP's picture, and traffic from both directions is rather dense and sporadic. You see occasional gaps in the traffic from each direction, but never at the same time.

With your type of dedicated turn-lane, the green car's only choice is to keep waiting until there's a break in traffic from both directions at the same time (or alternatively, make a right turn and drive in the wrong direction until he can make a U-turn). But with the general-purpose median turn lane, like we have here in CA, the green car can turn left into the median as soon as there's a gap in traffic from the left (mostly regardless of traffic from the right), then can wait safely in the median for the next chance to merge to the right (regardless of oncoming traffic from the left).

So you see, the median turn lane, while perhaps a bit confusing, is a lot more useful than a dedicated left-turn lane as you have pictured, and can be quite the time-saver when going from a small road or driveway to a heavily-trafficked road without a signal.

>>930583
his argument is that a single center lane takes less room (3 lanes total) than having 2 lanes dedicated going each way (4 lanes)

Sheesh

>>929416
As a police officer i will ticket the green car. For illegal lane change.
Green car coming from side road should have made a left into the drive lanes not the turn lane

>>931119
>cops not knowing the law
Shocking!

In Sydney on the Cooks River cycleway there are protected boxes to allow bicycles and pedestrians to do both turns in OP to cross small heavy roads.

>>931128
shit b8 m8 1/8