left turns and how to make them safer,, don't! make 3 rights . | GTAMotorcycle.com

left turns and how to make them safer,, don't! make 3 rights .

meester_jamie

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I was in USA , and it confoosed me to see that I had to turn right where I wanted to go left... so I googled around,, and I found way more than I thought was researched on turning left.
In my day to day riding, driving.. I try to plan to go west when everyone else is heading east... and to make the turn one road before everyone else.. and to find the other entrance into the car show... I just hate waiting in line.
I do try to avoid left turns... but I am going to think more about 3 right turns...
seems turning left on a bike can be a killer......... sigh ...

here is UPS thoughts ... and more..
https://www.thestar.com/business/2014/04/07/why_ups_said_no_to_left_turns.html


Drivers stuck in traffic while waiting to turn left, take note: making three right turns makes better sense.

At least that’s what package delivery company United Parcel Service has figured out.

The company, whose bread and butter is getting parcels to destinations quickly, has reduced left turns, creating efficiencies and cost savings on their gasoline bills.

“Left turns are always a last resort,” said Gordon Reed, director of customer solutions for UPS Canada. “We design our whole routes to turn right. The rationale behind it is you idle less and you’re not sitting, waiting at lights.

“You can do more stops in an hour than if you are turning left.”

The company, with its signature brown trucks and delivery staff in brown uniforms, moves 16 million packages a day worldwide. By having trucks avoid left turns, UPS learned it saved time, conserved fuel and boosted safety.

In the old days, managers plotted routes on maps, but with computer software, they now design them to include loops, avoiding as many left-hand turns as possible.

The policy, developed by a UPS engineer, has been around for years, and the company says that in the past decade, it saved nearly 38 million litres of gasoline in North America, and cut 100,000 metric tonnes of carbon emissions.

Reed concedes that for small courier companies that do 20 deliveries in a day, the savings wouldn’t be as noticeable as with a UPS truck doing 150 deliveries.

Still, Reed says that when he’s driving his own car, he’ll turn right to avoid sitting at a stoplight if he can, especially if there’s traffic.

“Turning left always takes more time,” he said. “Even if there’s an advance green, only three cars get through, if you’re the seventh one, that may mean it’s two lights until you get through. You may be able to do three rights before you could turn left.”

Canada Post doesn’t have an official policy on left-hand turns, but spokeswoman Anick Losier says the post office avoids left turns to optimize delivery routes.

FedEx also doesn’t have a left-hand rule, but designs routes carefully. Its eco driving program to reduce fuel consumption includes urging drivers to use gentle acceleration, adopt a constant speed and release the accelerator early when approaching a stop.

Reed says the UPS policy was originally adopted to cut costs, but it has had an environmental benefit.

While the left-hand avoidance policy exists, it doesn’t mean a UPS truck will never turn left.

“Every driver, every day is doing a couple of left-hand turns,” Reed said.

“You can never get to a point where you never do any. But all the routes are designed, wherever practical and possible, to not have any
 
"Even if there’s an advance green, only three cars get through, if you’re the seventh one, that may mean it’s two lights until you get through."

Or 10 cars go through but YOU're still on your 2nd right, picking up a nail or a piece of glass in your tire, on some dirty back street.
 
And then there's the "Michigan left" ... no left turn allowed at the intersection. You go past the intersection to a designated (and often traffic-light-equipped) U-turn location, do the U-turn, then turn right. Or, you turn right, then do a U-turn at the designated U-turn location - same end result.

The problem for motorcyclists isn't so much the turning left, it's the OTHER vehicles turning left. Avoiding left turns yourself doesn't help with this.

A friend of mine had a very close call a couple of days ago with a car that came very close to turning left in front of him, and this was at night, the car driver had no excuse to not see the approaching headlight of that bike (and mine behind it, and another behind me).

Roundabouts address this, also.
 
IIRC, UPS has the luxury of planning their delivery routes to avoid lefts, so the trucks can travel in roughly right-hand spiral patterns in pursuit of efficiency. Also, those "safer" right hand turns lead onto side-streets, which anyone with experience knows are littered with hazards up to and including police cruisers driving the wrong way on one-way streets (VERY true). No emergency, not a care in the world. Four way stops are basically Russian Roulettes, IMO. Take a deep breath, relax and enjoy the ride. You will get there eventually.
 
It is an interesting idea to turn 3 rights instead of a left hand turn. We spend so much time trying to be more visible with gear, developing a 6th sense for bad driving habits, and so we should seriously consider this.

Washington Post said:
Federal data have shown that 53.1 percent of crossing-path crashes involve left turns, but only 5.7 percent involve right turns. That’s almost 10 times as many crashes involving left turns as right...And 36 percent of fatal accidents involving a motorcycle involve a left-hand turn in front of a motorcycle, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association [Could not find this reference]...
It’s important to note that UPS policy is not a 100 percent ban on left-hand turns. One UPS official estimated that the company’s trucks turn right 90 percent of the time. If in a residential area where traffic is light, a left-hand turn is sensible. Or if a series of right-hand turns would take a driver far out of his way, a left-hand turn is efficient.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ng-left-while-driving/?utm_term=.42e5c3597708

For light traffic in a residential area UPS does use left turns.

I can see in a heavy traffic road, right turns only when there are many roads close to your turn that you can make 2 quick right turns, especially downtown. You basically need a street (street A) that is just a little further than your destination left turn, and this street needs to connect to a street (street B) that connects your destination street. If street A and street B are in close proximity to your destination street, then it would be convenient and efficient to turn right twice.

Unfortunately I have been trying to find an example here in North Scarborough and am having trouble. The busy intersections such as Brimley south/left on Sheppard do not have streets near enough to do 2 quick right turns. You do need density in streets. It would also help if the streets were designed to take advantage of right turns.

If you are commuting and have a left turn intersection that you wait a long time, have had some incident, or consider it higher risk, you could research whether there are 2 side roads just a little further than your destination left hand turn. It might make your commute a little safer.
 
I don't like taking lefts in car....just can't see other cars approaching...especially in 3 lane roads...

...I HATE taking lefts on a bike...I do like to follow the right hand rule...and usually will take it any day over taking a left..
 
I make left turns all the time. I just will not go unless I can see what's coming or if the lane is clear. I rather take a little longer making a left turn then be someone's road kill. If you keep avoiding left turns you will never be good at them.
 
I make left turns all the time. I just will not go unless I can see what's coming or if the lane is clear. I rather take a little longer making a left turn then be someone's road kill. If you keep avoiding left turns you will never be good at them.
+1 for this.

Once in my early early riding days I had a car hit me at walking speed when I was 95% through a left turn. They were turning right and too busy watching the pedestrian they drove around so they didn't see me til they bumped me. No damage to anyone or anything, but boy did he get an earful from another driver who watched it happen! And I was reminded to watch everything.
 

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