Comments on: wide right turns

wide right turns

signal — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:33:34 -0800

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.

By: ernie

ernie — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:45:38 -0800

So then left turns are on a dime?

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:46:29 -0800

Warning

By: wilful

wilful — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:46:41 -0800

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.)

By: exlotuseater

exlotuseater — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:48:03 -0800

How appropriate that signal posted this.

By: exlotuseater

exlotuseater — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:54:16 -0800

I also like the signs on trailers/trucks that caution against passing on the right. Often funny, sorta like this:

< -- right side suicide -->

By: exlotuseater

exlotuseater — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:54:51 -0800

except with more space between. ahem.

By: BuddhaInABucket

BuddhaInABucket — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:57:10 -0800

This site is pure gold, and it led me to some beautiful demographic porn.

By: exlotuseater

exlotuseater — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 17:01:42 -0800

example. ok, I'll stop posting now.

By: jayder

jayder — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 17:03:13 -0800

Thank God for the internets.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 17:08:10 -0800

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

By: rsanheim

rsanheim — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 17:10:45 -0800

I saw the "suicide" signs a few days ago. It definitely gets your attention, which I suppose is the point.

By: biscotti

biscotti — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 17:27:43 -0800

My personal favourite is one I saw on a truck in south Texas: On the left: El Paso On the right: El Cruncho

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 17:37:38 -0800

This thread really needs the img tag. (Matt, how are things going on this?)

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 17:38:44 -0800

Maybe some of you code wonks like orthogonality or quonsar could toss Matt a bone so that we could get our img tag back?

By: danb

danb — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 17:45:19 -0800

Another example of exlotuseater mentioned: < -- grateful dead -->

By: flug

flug — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 17:49:17 -0800

The one the bicyclists need to know.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 17:56:48 -0800

So, it's just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right?

By: pwb503

pwb503 — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 18:28:35 -0800

For those wondering why trucks don't need signs about those wide LEFT turns...

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 18:47:07 -0800

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.

By: evilcolonel

evilcolonel — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 18:52:22 -0800

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

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:13:18 -0800

Um. This Infosthetics website is so cool. I'm fully expecting to lose a few hours just wading through all the greatness.

By: rsanheim

rsanheim — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:16:40 -0800

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...

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:26:22 -0800

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.

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:31:54 -0800

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

By: clevershark

clevershark — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 20:31:50 -0800

This thread really needs the img tag. Is it, er, useless without pics?

By: nervestaple

nervestaple — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 21:29:45 -0800

I thought this was a metaphor for US politics when I first read it.

By: HTuttle

HTuttle — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 22:11:14 -0800

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.

By: team lowkey

team lowkey — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:21:20 -0800

It can even be expressed in tardoshop.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 01:38:11 -0800

[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.]

By: gminks

gminks — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 03:39:17 -0800

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.

By: peewinkle

peewinkle — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 05:21:26 -0800

Don't like my driving? Call 1-800-Eat-Sh#t Now that would be website.....

By: Bovine Love

Bovine Love — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 06:52:12 -0800

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.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 08:01:40 -0800

"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.

By: juggernautco

juggernautco — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 21:42:54 -0800

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.

By: Bovine Love

Bovine Love — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 06:41:39 -0800

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.