wide right turns

October 29, 2006 4:33 PM

You see, when large trucks make a right turn, they swing a little bit wide to the left first. Simple idea. Many ways to express it. God bless us all.
posted by signal (35 comments total)

So then left turns are on a dime?
posted by ernie at 4:45 PM on October 29, 2006

Warning
posted by caddis at 4:46 PM on October 29, 2006

Actually it's amazing how well international hazard symbols, including driving, are coordinated. Obviously whichever body sets these things hasn't gotten around to wide turns. And they probably should. (Though they wouldn't necessarily be right-hand turns.)
posted by wilful at 4:46 PM on October 29, 2006

How appropriate that signal posted this.
posted by exlotuseater at 4:48 PM on October 29, 2006

I also like the signs on trailers/trucks that caution against passing on the right.

Often funny, sorta like this:

< -- right side suicide -->

posted by exlotuseater at 4:54 PM on October 29, 2006

except with more space between. ahem.
posted by exlotuseater at 4:54 PM on October 29, 2006

This site is pure gold, and it led me to some beautiful demographic porn.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 4:57 PM on October 29, 2006 [1 favorite]

example.

ok, I'll stop posting now.
posted by exlotuseater at 5:01 PM on October 29, 2006

Thank God for the internets.
posted by jayder at 5:03 PM on October 29, 2006

In Canada, the size of the vehicle is irrelevant.
We just look for the Alberta plate.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 5:08 PM on October 29, 2006

I saw the "suicide" signs a few days ago. It definitely gets your attention, which I suppose is the point.
posted by rsanheim at 5:10 PM on October 29, 2006

My personal favourite is one I saw on a truck in south Texas:

On the left: El Paso
On the right: El Cruncho
posted by biscotti at 5:27 PM on October 29, 2006 [1 favorite]

This thread really needs the img tag. (Matt, how are things going on this?)
posted by caddis at 5:37 PM on October 29, 2006

Maybe some of you code wonks like orthogonality or quonsar could toss Matt a bone so that we could get our img tag back?
posted by caddis at 5:38 PM on October 29, 2006

Another example of exlotuseater mentioned:

< -- grateful      dead -->
posted by danb at 5:45 PM on October 29, 2006

The one the bicyclists need to know.
posted by flug at 5:49 PM on October 29, 2006

So, it's just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right?
posted by clevershark at 5:56 PM on October 29, 2006

For those wondering why trucks don't need signs about those wide LEFT turns...
posted by pwb503 at 6:28 PM on October 29, 2006

flug, that link is not right. However, hitting a right turning car is the classic cycling accident. Drivers just fail to appreciate how fast a cyclist can be going and think that they have successfully passed them and can turn safely. I am pretty sure the statistics show that this type of accident causes more injuries than any other on a bike. The scary one is getting rear ended by a fast moving car, and they are often fatal or similarly horrible, but thankfully infrequent.
posted by caddis at 6:47 PM on October 29, 2006

In Canada, the size of the vehicle is irrelevant.
We just look for the Alberta plate.

Oh, snap!
posted by evilcolonel at 6:52 PM on October 29, 2006

Um. This Infosthetics website is so cool. I'm fully expecting to lose a few hours just wading through all the greatness.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:13 PM on October 29, 2006

caddis: Its not that simple - you can't just toss some code to matt. You have to get up to speed with the infrastructure, learn how things are done on mefi, get up to speed with the style of javascript and (maybe) coldfusion used, etc. So there is a ramp up cost, plus security has to be granted for test servers and source code repositories. Its common to have a lot of time in just getting setup and the dev environment working even for small tasks.

I'm sure a lot of mefi coders would like to help, but I'm sure Matt prefers to keep it limited to a few people who he has worked with already...
posted by rsanheim at 7:16 PM on October 29, 2006

I know, but what I am expressing is a frustration that is nothing new here. Matt has said that his talents lie not in programming. Perhaps. His talents in social engineering are quite evident. Yet, this is a site populated by very, very many computer professionals whose talents very much do lie in programming. Please, let them present.
posted by caddis at 7:26 PM on October 29, 2006

security has to be granted for test servers and source code repositories

Security? Test servers? Source repostories? MeFi?

Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

actually I have no idea
posted by George_Spiggott at 7:31 PM on October 29, 2006

This thread really needs the img tag.

Is it, er, useless without pics?
posted by clevershark at 8:31 PM on October 29, 2006

I thought this was a metaphor for US politics when I first read it.
posted by nervestaple at 9:29 PM on October 29, 2006

Hopefully they don't actually SWING the other way but move fully OVER the other way. Else they're just increasing the angle they need to make.
posted by HTuttle at 10:11 PM on October 29, 2006

It can even be expressed in tardoshop.
posted by team lowkey at 12:21 AM on October 30, 2006

[Is this actually a big problem? It happens a lot and people get hurt? If so, why don't they make a light bar (big, obvious, red, flashing lights) on the back of the truck that swing out to physically reserve an extra lane of traffic.

If the driver puts on a right turn signal but starts to swing left, the computer-controlled light bar would swing right relative to the rest of the truck (but stay in place relative to the right traffic lane) while the rest of the truck went left. The truck would temporarily sweep up to two lanes of traffic at once. Then the light bar would swing back into place as the truck moved right through the turn.]
posted by pracowity at 1:38 AM on October 30, 2006

those signs are no help if the trucker pulls up next to you at a light to turn right....and turns even though you have no way to move and avoid his wide right turn.

and keeps going after he has taken your mirror off.

asshole.
posted by gminks at 3:39 AM on October 30, 2006

Don't like my driving? Call 1-800-Eat-Sh#t

Now that would be website.....
posted by peewinkle at 5:21 AM on October 30, 2006

My mind is quite unsuited for that warning. I never really got it .... I mean I know what the danger is, but never really understood the wording. "Wide right turn" would seem to imply that you don't want to be on the left, since the guy is gonna go wide, but yet it is really on the right you don't want to be. Or is that although he is a bit left, it is because he is going right that they are trying to warn you? In any case, terribly confusing for people whose mind works like mine (where obvious doesn't exist and we always tend to see the holes, not the cheese..). The right side/suicide seems more obvious. Or just plain don't pass on right during right turn.
posted by Bovine Love at 6:52 AM on October 30, 2006

"those signs are no help if the trucker pulls up next to you at a light to turn right....and turns even though you have no way to move and avoid his wide right turn.

and keeps going after he has taken your mirror off."

Or goes right over the hood of your mom's 1970 Falcon station wagon.

Oh yes, I remember that well.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:01 AM on October 30, 2006

Bovine Love-- your approach makes total sense, and I think it would be a perfectly good way to go about the warning ("don't pass on right during right turn").

The guy who created the first wide right turn sign (yep, there is such a thing) wrote to me when he saw my site (self-link-- I am the wide right turn site guy but I don't know the poster [signal] and didn't pimp for this FPP) and I posted his story here. Interesting guy.

Upshot of his story: standards can start off life as being maddingly random.
posted by juggernautco at 9:42 PM on November 1, 2006

That is pretty fascinating, juggernautco! Thanks for posting it. I'll admit the evolution/variation of the signs, or more generally in society is an interesting one and your slice of it is quite fascinating. Makes me look around a little more too, which is always nice.
posted by Bovine Love at 6:41 AM on November 2, 2006