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Comment by drawnwren | Hacker News Reader

I've seen these driving around SF, they're still using the standard engineer in the driver's seat model. One almost hit me when I did the standard SF, 'drive around the person waiting to turn left in your lane' thing on 16th.

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Did you have the right of way in that situation?

I think so? I don't know the law, but I do know if I'm turning left and someone else is turning left in the other lane - in sf, I need to make sure the cars behind them aren't going around them in the same lane.

I guess I'm not understanding the scenario. A car was stopped in your lane waiting to turn. Presumably you should wait until they have turned, or make a safe lane change to another lane to move around them?

Yeah, I don't know if you're in SF - but on the one lane roads, traffic doesn't stop for people turning left at lights. Again, I don't know the legality - but I've seen police and government workers do it as well. Because the streets are made w/ enough space for vehicles to park next to the lanes of traffic - there is enough room to pass on the right in an intersection.

I understand that part. But not the one about the cruise car almost hitting you.

So: one lane street, person in front of you turning left, you pass them to the right in the space where there might be street parking which extends into the intersection. During that time, the car trying to turn left is finally able to do so and the car immediately behind it is the cruise car. Cruise-car is now able to go straight and almost hits you as you're both competing for that one lane?

Nope, cruise car was in the other lane turning left. It turned into my lane just after I passed the car turning left and the cruise car made a sudden stop in the wrong (my) lane. Had it continued, it would've collided with my rear wheel - so I'm like 75% sure I wouldn't have been at fault.

So, by the sounds of things, everything worked as designed. In many similar situations with a human behind the wheel, that would have been a collision.

Based on personal experience (as a firefighter/paramedic), I wouldn't be surprised if a not-insignificant percentage of collisions (both car/car and car/bike) in SF are caused by that very scenario.

Personally, that sounds like an anecdote very much in favor of automated cars.

You're completely off base here. I'd say I do this 10-15 times a day. So ~100 times a week, and there is never an issue. I am infrequently the first car to do it. I put it in quotes because it is a very common practice in SF. You would have to wait through every light twice to get anywhere in the Mission if you didn't do this. It's mostly single lane with no turn light. I noted that it was odd because I very rarely have problems doing this.

Passing on the shoulder (over a white line), or in a designated parking lane is indeed a violation (obviously I'm not sure of the specifics of the intersection, so I don't know if either of those apply).

Neither of these apply.

AFAICT, no; the requirement that passing on the right, where allowed, only be done when the maneuver can be executed safely would seem to require yielding to other traffic (CVC Sec 21755(a).)

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