Yield signs...

[IT Grunt]

... mean you're supposed to /yield/.

I was coming home with my wife from her doctor's appointment, and we're getting onto the interstate. Now this ramp is like many with traffic from two directions able to turn onto it. No light, so those who have to turn left and cross traffic to get onto the ramp have to yield to those who are getting on it from the other direction. They have both a yield sign, and across the small connector they have to drive across is a line of triangles painted like a stop line, so it's painfully obvious this is a yield point.

As I'm coming down and merging onto the ramp, there's a guy coming the other way who has to turn left and cross over to get to the ramp. So I'm coming up the ramp, passing the point where others have to yield, and then hear a HONK HONK. I look behind me and see this car /right/ on my tail. I stared right back, and flipped him off, and then he looked back and I think realized what he'd done, because he got past me a rocketed up the highway as fast as he could and the look on his face showed 'Oh shit'. Karma then intervened as there was construction ahead.

I figure it's probably the same about everywhere, but around here so many people fail to realize what a yield sign means, and run them all the time. Hey, if no one's coming, great! You don't have to yield. But if a car is coming, YIELD DANG IT! </rant>

[Geek King]

I honestly don't think most people know what the Yield means. Most just treat it like a merge.

[Exaspera]

It was that way in Houston. You really had to take your chances getting off a freeway because folks on the service roads were just daring you to try. When we moved to San Antonio, were jaw-droppingly amazed! Folks yielded to everyone coming off the freeway!!!!! They would stop and line up!

Here in Dallas it's half and half. We still see folks going from the far left lane of the freeway to get off when they realize they may miss their exit. ::

[protege]

Here in Pittsburgh, quite a few people see those signs...and think that the *other* lane has to let them in. These idiots then flip *you* off if you don't

[blas]

There is a yield sign to get off the freeway here.

It's an UPHILL off ramp that comes to a yield sign that really ought to be a stop sign because it's so hard to see traffic coming from the left....

Rarely does a day go by that I do not get tailgated on the off ramp because some moron wants to keep flying at 65 mph on the UPHILL off ramp and just fly through the yield sign.

I truly despise anyone who does this. You don't have to slow down to a crawl, but it's an OFF ramp....going uphill....logic and reason say DO NOT keep flying at highway speeds.

[mattm04]

I am shocked when I see someone who doe know what a yield sign means. At a rotary near my house I often see people stop in the middle to let people who have YEILD sign in.

[bhskittykatt]

Our county just got real roundabout happy. I don't mind roundabouts...they really do work to ease the traffic flow there, but many people either ignore the yield sign when entering the roundabout, or treat is as a stop sign.

I've both almost been sideswiped whilst in the roundabout with right-of-way, and I've been behind people who stop when there's absolutely no traffic in the circle. Grrr!

[Pagan]

It was that way in Houston. You really had to take your chances getting off a freeway because folks on the service roads were just daring you to try.

Sounds like El Paso. You put on your signal to change lanes and it's seen as a challenge.

Our county just got real roundabout happy. I don't mind roundabouts...they really do work to ease the traffic flow there, but many people either ignore the yield sign when entering the roundabout, or treat is as a stop sign.

There's one up in Rio Rancho that may as well be put back to a 4-way stop. They have destroyed every single sight line around it so you still have to almost stop to see if there's anyone else in it.

I don't know why it's there in the first place, though. It's a couple of very, very low traffic back streets.

[Kogarashi]

At a rotary near my house I often see people stop in the middle to let people who have YEILD sign in.

I saw someone go the wrong way in a roundabout to make a left turn.

[greek_jester]

There's one up in Rio Rancho that may as well be put back to a 4-way stop. They have destroyed every single sight line around it so you still have to almost stop to see if there's anyone else in it.

That sounds like a roundabout on my commute to work. It's on a crossroads on a quiet country lane in England, which is fine, except for the fact that hedges line the roads all the way around (so seeing the lanes to each side of you is tricky) & the arrows on the roundabout showing which way you should be going around it are at just the right height & position to block your view of the vehicles coming from the lane in front of you. This means you can't see it they're going to turn in front of you either. Effectively, no matter where you're going, you've got to come to very nearly a complete stop to avoid crashing.

[mikoyan29]

Stop sign is pretty much advisory...Yield is pretty much ignored.

[Magpie]

Roundabouts here have huge HILLS in the centre. The idea was to make sure that you didn't accidentally try to drive straight through. Someone explained to the city that this was the opposite of what to do, and the new ones are better (although that might just be because the buses need to drive straight over the centres), but the old ones are probably going to stay that way forever.

[Kogarashi]

Roundabouts here have huge HILLS in the centre. The idea was to make sure that you didn't accidentally try to drive straight through. Someone explained to the city that this was the opposite of what to do, and the new ones are better (although that might just be because the buses need to drive straight over the centres), but the old ones are probably going to stay that way forever.

Most of the ones I've seen Stateside have very small hills or similar landscaping with flowers, but then those cities also seemed to try to make the lanes themselves wide enough that buses can still get through. I'm pretty sure that if the ones in our current town were flat all the way through, there would be a ton of people just driving straight through.

[Bagboy]

There was one rotary on the Cape that was horrendous. Basically, one side was the airport, and the other was a bunch of businesses and smaller streets.

[MadMike]

Maybe he couldn't afford to wait at every "Sop", "Yeld", or "One Vay" sign.