burnthesheep

This could be car or bike related, so I'll post it up.

I have researched this one to death and can't find anything to the contrary to say that 99.9% of the public are doing it wrong, but this idiot driving school instructor is doing it right.

We take cul de sac turnarounds counterclockwise. You stay in your lane, keep right. The city here even tickets people in busy areas who park in the clockwise manner, as it is against the law.

Why on God's green Earth is this driving instructor teaching kids to cross the center before the cul de sac and then go clockwise? They're going to hit somebody head on someday! It might be me on a bike within 50 yards of my house!

This instructor is doing the opposite of the below, while crossing center before getting there to be able to do so. What say ye?

base2 

In many places, to avoid "burdensome government regulation & over-reach" and to allow room for "free-market opportunity" driving school instructors are also certified license examiners.

The result is the driving school "instructor" has zero interest in failing his own students.

Combine that with budgetary constraints & there is no accountibility or incentive on the part of the state issuing the license to do anything but take the licensing school at anything other than their word that they had a student that "met requirements."

It's sad that a drivers license is now anything but a certification of a minimum level of competence to operate a machine or perform a task with respect to the rights of others.

njkayaker

Confusing post.

Who is saying this and where are they saying it?

burnthesheep

I watch them do it. Live and in person. I'm in the cul de sac while my kids are playing. We move aside and I see the instructor motion the person driving to cross center, then go clockwise.

Then, usually, they come back about 5 or 10 minutes later and do it again. The same wrong way, with the instructor motioning them to do so.

njkayaker

That clears up the confusion. No one knew who "this instructor" was.

I might have flagged the instructor down and asked what was going on.

If he's part of a school, it might be useful to tell them about it.

burnthesheep

I was very polite, and have sent them a mail.

They almost hit somebody entering the cul de sac the proper way head-on one day while I had the kids standing in the driveway waiting for things to clear.

My annoyance at them using our neighborhood street like a high school parking lot to teach is another story. The city has thousands of streets and hundreds of cul de sacs. They can sod off somewhere else as far as I'm concerned.

Iride01 

Might be because most cul-de-sacs are too small a circle to effectively practice what is illustrated and make a successful turn into a driveway.

The graphic mostly illustrates how right-of-way for any vehicles entering should be thought of. But in the small cul-de-sac next to me, others in my neighborhood and what I been to in other parts of the country, I'd just go directly to the driveway I'm going to if no other traffic is in or approaching the cul-de-sac.

Now if you want to gripe about how driving instructors tell students to adjust their side view mirrors................

Riveting

nimby

burnthesheep

You're not wrong. But the reality is somewhere in between.

It's the scale of use that bothers me. Not that they do it. Once a day, twice, thrice.......fine. But 20+? No. Get more creative.

livedarklions

If the email response is unsatisfactory, a word to the local police might be in order. Definitely stress it's the wrong way aspect you're calling about, don't even mention the NIMBY part.

tomato coupe

A lot of people who live on cul-de-sacs forget that it's a public road, and think it's their private property.

Riveting

Yup, I lived at the very end of a desolate cul-de-sac for 15 years, and I was somewhat irritated by delivery truck drivers who would just sit there and eat their lunch or whatever, and then I'd realize it was a public road, and cut them some slack. The p!ss bottles they left behind were not appreciated though, and I never caught them tossing a bottle with my own eyes, so no management to call and complain to.

Koyote

burnthesheep : I was once in my front yard, on our quiet little 20 mph street, when a young kid (about 17 yrs old) went tearing by at about 40-45 mph, blowing right through an uncontrolled intersection. I ran to the garage, jumped on a SS cruiser (first bike I could reach), and tore down the street. Kid had stopped in front of a house on the next block, looked like he was visiting a friend. I caught up as he was getting out of the car. While the friend's parents stood on the porch watching, I reamed the kid up and down, back to front, read him the riot act about kids on bicycles (like mine), people walking dogs (like me), and if he's ever gonna drive that way again on my street I'll make him wish he'd never gotten a driver's license, make him wish the internal combustion engine had never been invented. As I rode away, the parents were quietly telling him that he should go home. I never saw him again.

You can imagine what I would do to a driving instructor who was using my street to teach kids how not to drive.

downhillmaster

Cool story bro...