Who Yields?

[frank j. bauer]

At 02:48 PM 7/10/2002, Brandon Rogers wrote:
>Hi all-
>Here is a question that has been bugging me for many months.  Here's the
>situation:
>
>You approach an intersection and are going to turn right.  The intersection
>has a dedicated right turn lane, complete with a small pedestrian island
>between the right turn lane and the staight lanes.  The right turn lane has
>a YIELD sign and it merges immediately (no extended merge lane) with
>traffic.  The lights at the interection are green (both your direction and
>oncoming) and nobody has any arrows--just green.There is nobody going
>straight in your direction as you enter the right turn --but a car in the
>oncoming lanes is turning left to go in the same direction you are going to
>be going.  Do you yield to him because you have a yield sign, or does he
>yield to you because left turn traffic yields to oncoming?
>
>I'm sure some of this depends on local laws--but I'd love to hear some
>thoughts--this bugs me every time I go to lunch.


your "yield" is to those who have right of way.
since the oncoming vehicle is making a left turn, it does not have the
right of way to which you can yield.
under the circumstances you describe, if you turning right approach the
intersection simultaneously with another turning left, you have the right
of way and the yield sign does not apply...

frank