On Wed, Feb 25, 2004 at 10:09:37AM -0800, Paul Johnson wrote: > On Wed, Feb 25, 2004 at 06:00:03PM +0000, Colin Watson wrote: > > It's a requirement in the UK Highway Code. While Paul decries it on > > safety grounds, the rationale is in fact that going around the other > > vehicle like this is safer because you can see oncoming traffic at all > > times, instead of having to nose out with the car turning across you > > blocking your view. > > Actually, it's not usually the car coming at you that's blocking the > view of where you're going, it's the cornerpost next to the windshield...
Recent updates of the Highway Code allow both alternatives; they point out that offside-to-offside ("tangle") turning is safer for the reason Colin gives, but allow the driver to judge which method to use depending on the particular circumstances. There is a little diagram of each method; that for nearside-to-nearside illustrates the danger by including a cyclist coming up the inside of one of the turning vehicles, whom the driver of the other vehicle cannot see. -- Pigeon Be kind to pigeons Get my GPG key here: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x21C61F7F
pgp00000.pgp
Description: PGP signature