Engineering OK after all

Right turns explained

A few of the “constant commenters”* have criticized traffic engineering, particularly traffic calming measures.

Twists in the road and curb extensions seem to have caused the most distress. The winding road is designed to reduce speed; it’s easy to navigate at slow speed. And, people in a hurry avoid traffic calmed streets, and thus the schools and children’s play areas adjacent to them.

Watch out for that curb

The curb extension is an angled narrowing of the roadway and widening

of the sidewalk. It helps pedestrians and drivers see each other more easily.

Curbs, whether they are associated with extension-areas or not, pose problems to new, unskilled, and distracted drivers. That seems to be the basis for the criticism: the speaker(s) hit the curb with their rear wheels. The Mayor remarked that he hit curbs and parking bumpers from time to time as well.

We believe that the Mayor has sufficient understanding and skill to make safe and efficient right turns; his bumping the curbs is more likely to be a result of driving distracted. The only advice we can offer is to pay attention to driving and consider the daily drivel while your car isn't in motion.

How to miss curb 

Others concerned with curb bumping may find following that advice helps. However, if they are complaining about the traffic engineering because they are right-turn challenged, here’s a brief description of theory and practice.**

Note that the paths of the left front, left rear, and right rear wheels differ markedly when the vehicle turns right. This is because the car

rotates around the back wheels. (That makes it easier to back into a parking stall.)  

So to have the right rear wheel clear the curb the driver must either swing into the adjacent space on the left of the road being traveled; that is, swing left before starting the turn. Or, they can drive farther into the road they’re turning into before bending right. 

Best way is safest

If the driver swings left:

• Bicyclists, motorcycles, small cars and pedestrians may be misled and enter the area on the right of the turning vehicle. This is dangerous.
•  Further, encroaching on the next lane left can be a problem for a driver in that lane who continues forward not expecting the right-turning vehicle to lurch left into his lane.

Driving a little way into the destination road before completing the turn

allows everyone concerned to see what everyone else is doing and to respond accordingly. It’s safer and less stressful for all concerned.

Not an engineering problem

So, instead of castigating traffic engineers, learn to make a right turn.

It's better to delay turning a vehicle until the right rear wheel – the vehicle’s pivot point --  has passed or is about to pass, the edge of the curb.

Of course, if the driver doesn't know where their right rear wheel is, that’s a whole different problem.

This instruction illustrates problem-solving instead of complaining to government bodies when one's skill and understanding are presently inadequate to the task at hand.

*Many are members of CM4OE -- a fictional group called Costa Mesans for Opposing Everything 

*The pictures in this post are from a booklet from the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles, “Trucks and Recreational Vehicles.” Booklet