The rule was simple when I learned to drive: left turns yield to everyone. Then intersections got fancy. Separate right-turn lanes curved inside triangular islands, ending with yield signs demanding that drivers turning right stop if necessary.
It’s 2010 and I’m trying to teach my 15-year-old daughter how to drive. Fuel, tire pressure, seat belt, hands at 10 and 2 – check. Ke$ha on XM, vibration of cell phone – disregard. Having the slightest clue of where we are on the ‘map in your head’ – hopeless.
We’re heading south on Rivoli Drive, preparing to turn left on Northside. Daughter stops just short of turning.
“Go!” I say, louder than I intended.
“You told me to wait for the intersection to clear before I make a left,” my daughter responds, frustrated.
“That’s usually true, but they have a yield sign.”
Three cars are now sitting at the intersection – us, a car coming in the opposite direction making a right, and a car on Northside waiting to turn left to go south on Rivoli.
“How should I know that they have to yield?”
“There’s the back of the yield sign…”
“Really? I’m supposed to see that?” she replies with rising annoyance.
“And they’re in a right turn lane.”
“So left turns don't yield when there’s a right turn lane in the opposite direction?”
“Not always. And there’s the island.”
“I don’t see an island,” daughter responds.
“It’s painted on the road. See those striped lines in the shape of a triangle?”
Daughter would be glaring hatefully at me if she didn’t have her eyes on the road.
“Just go,” I say.
All three cars lurch forward, then all three suddenly stop. Finally, daughter goes.
Daughter is smart, so that particular scene will not happen again. Driving past an accident at that same intersection last Friday will reinforce the need to stay focused.
Moral of the story: There’s enough drama in driving. Don’t drive distracted.
