Bad Manners at the Stop Sign

At the stop sign: mirror, signal left, brake and stop before the marked stop line. Look left, look right and the pickup that was following behind stops ahead of me on my right, half on and half off the roadway, to make a right turn.

Of course, I can't see cross traffic to my right properly, so he gets to go before I do.

I'll bet that he was completely oblivious to both his bad manners and the traffic rules that he failed to heed.

Passing on the Right

Passing on the right is generally forbidden in BC and having to travel off of the roadway to do it is one of those instances. No matter in this case that the gravel shoulder is smooth and available to drive on it is still not acceptable driving practice. The white line that defines the right edge of the roadway at this intersection has been almost totally worn away by drivers who have preceded this man.

Stop Sign Example Street View

Stop Lines

If he had stopped properly at the marked stop line I still would have had to wait because I could not see over the front of his pickup.

Prevention

One suggestion to prevent this from happening that was made to me would be to approach the intersection as far to the right as possible. While this would work for making a right turn or travelling straight through, it is not proper when making a left turn.

Drivers turning left are required to position themselves at the left edge of the lane as they approach the intersection.

Turning at intersections

165 (2) When the driver of a vehicle intends to turn it to the left at an intersection where traffic is permitted to move in both directions on each highway entering the intersection, the driver must

(a) cause the vehicle to approach the intersection in the portion of the right side of the roadway that is nearest the marked centre line, or if there is no marked centre line, then as far as practicable in the portion of the right half of the roadway that is nearest the centre line,

Me First! Drivers

There is no doubt in my mind that if this man was standing in a lineup and I walked past and inserted myself in front of him I would be in for at least a dirty look, some verbal protest or even physical retaliation. That situation is really no different from this one at the stop sign. He took a turn that was not his to take and caused inconvenience to others. Aside from being illegal, it is simply bad manners in my view, and probably yours too.

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Here is a look at some other common practices that seem to be more common every day.

The first that really is dangerous is the one where the vehicle following a vehicle making a right turn uses the left turn lane to proceed through the intersection. Illegal of course but probably so because of the potential for a head-on collision with the vehicle on the other side of the intersection that is actually going to make a left turn from his/her left turn lane which just happens to line up with the other left turn lane.

Stop lines are there for a reason. Stop before them and you don’t get into a situation where a larger vehicle that needs every bit of room he can get in order to make his left turn in front of you. The large vehicle can’t back up in an intersection and the offending vehicle may not be able to back up because of traffic that has stopped right behind it.

What has ever happened to all those people that had to drive correctly in order to get a driver’s licence? Now that they have it, do the rules of the road go out the window with the other garbage that they throw to the side of the road? Could it be that everyone is so much in a hurry that the ‘me first’ rule is the only rule that they go by?