The turning lane is there for a reason, please use it… all of it. Maybe you’re not 100% sure this is where you want to turn, so you lave half your vehicle in the roadway or you are preparing for a U-turn so you’ve left extra space to make it and you believe these are justifiable excuses to endanger others.

Guess what? They’re not!

The center turning lane is there for a reason

Turning lanes exist on roadways from Pinellas County’s own Gulf Blvd to London’s Oxford St. These areas of the roadway exist to help traffic flow and minimize potential fender benders.

When you decide to straddle the roadway and turning lane you are creating a dangerous situation for the drivers behind you. The car directly behind you is anticipating you to fully enter the turn lane. When you don’t they end up having to slam their brakes on. This creates the perfect circumstances to create a collision in multiple ways. For one, they could rear end you.

If your steering wheel is already turned, this could send you into oncoming traffic. If they manage to stop in time, the car behind them might not, causing them to get rear ended. Drivers will also sometimes swerve to avoid the collision instead of slamming the brakes on. These creates another potential collision point as they might not have checked their blind spot, thus slamming another vehicle onto the sidewalk where in a nightmare scenario some one is killed. All because you were only concerned with where you were going and had no consideration for the drivers around you.

So then, what can be done to prevent your collision causing, careless driving lane straddling?

Prevent Center Turn Lane Related Collisions

U-Turns: The simple solution here is to wait until you find an area wide enough to allow you to complete your U-turn from within the turning lane. If such an opportunity is not available, simply make the next available left turn and either circumnavigate back to your course.

Lost Driving: Get out of the left lane all-together. Make the next available right hand turn, check your GPS from a side street or parking lot and then return to your course with the needed knowledge to safely proceed to your destination. Never stop to check directions in a turning lane. You will again be putting other drivers at risk by doing so.

By the way, coming to a stop while straddling the roadway and turning line is in fact, against the law.