Some cops will ticket you if you pull up into the intersection, wait, and complete a left turn after the light has turned red. Some folks will jump the green light for the cross street and flatten you. Some folks are too sacred to make the turn. Some intersections have redlight cameras and, if you are in the intersection when the light turns red for you, you get a nice fat ticket in the mail with a lovely mugshot of your car and license plate.

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"You can't fix stupid..." ~ Ron White"
"I never said I wasn't a brat..." ~ Talidapali

Apparently you have never been behind me at a left turn. I move to the middle of the intersection and turn left on red, including redflex camera intersection. Never had a ticket for this in 38 years of driving in the Knoxville area. I do stop short of white line marking the intersection, check for pedestrians, and traffic before making a right on red. Please, be careful in Maryville, some traffic lights have a trailing green for oncoming traffic.

Elrod, I am not sure if your question is for my post. Trailing green is when oncoming traffic continues with green and usually a left turn signal after you get the red signal. The only one I can recall is on US 411, south of Maryville, near Subway. North bound US 411 will indicate red, while south bound US 411 will continue with green and added left turn signal. Maryville is bit slow on compliance with Uniform Traffic Code.

Joe328 is talking about the intersection of Sandy Springs Road with West Broadway Avenue. Heed his advice. The cycle starts by allowing south only traffic with a left hand turn signal, then goes to green in both directions with no left hand signal, and then it returns to south only traffic with a left hand turn before going to red in both directions. If you are north bound and pull into the intersection to turn left on yellow to access the Food Lion Shopping Center or the package store, you'll find an eighteen wheeler in you passenger seat.

Elrod, you are not alone. We were taught to pull into the intersection and wait until traffic clears to turn. The other half screams at the Maryville drivers who won't complete the turn. There are multiple intersections around here that you will never get through if you don't.

Have you had the chance yet to become familiar with the create your own right hand turn lane concept? No, I am not talking about the creative use of the center turn lane as an entrance ramp. I mean the cross the solid white line and leave the road and drive for 100's of yards on the berm before the turn type of creative driving....

Though I have to admit I always feel a bit uncertain that it okay here in TN. That's the way I was taught. If you don't pull up and then complete the turn, you end up fouling up the traffic when the light changes.

Maybe someone can help me out on this problem. Sometimes I feel confused if there is a turn signal. If the turn signal is off, does that mean you can't turn, even if there is no traffic coming toward you in the opposite lane?

I understand that you were not talking about that particular intersection. My comment and Joe328's were offered as a little friendly advice from those who have attempted left-hand turns on yellow as you suggest only to be surprised by on coming traffic.

Mello,

Don't believe that I seen many folks travel for 100's of yards on the shoulder although I am not doubting that some do. I find the shoulder useful as a short deceleration lane when turning right from a section of road where the speed limit is 50 mph.

Not sure where you live, but in my part of the country the shoulder is used as a passing land when cars have stopped waiting to make a left-hand turn. It helps to keep those of us who walk along the shoulder awake and agile.

While I'm still here, I go on the assumption that left-turns are permitted at those intersections where there is neither a sign nor a red arrow indicating that a turn is not permitted.

Nowhere do they "complete the left turn" more aggressively than in Chicago. But that's because there are very few left-turn arrows, so without the aggressive yellow light left, you'd never turn left at all.

According to the Tennessee Drivers' Handbook (warning: big-ass PDF), proceeding into an intersection and just sitting there before you have clearance to complete the turn could get you a ticket. Page 60 of the PDF says:

You should not enter an intersection unless you can get through it without having to stop. You should wait until traffic in front of you clears so that you are not blocking the intersection. If your vehicle is left blocking an intersection (with or without a traffic signal) it prevents other traffic from proceeding and you could be ticketed for this type of action.

--Socialist With A Gold Card

TDH says, "You should not enter an intersection unless you can get through it without having to stop."

Elrod says, "when you plan to make a left turn at a light, you go out into the intersection and when the traffic is clear you complete your turn..."

Now, Elrod, it doesn't really make sense that you think you should be able to go out into the intersection and "wait" for the opportunity to run the red light.

I have done what you describe many times. I too have done it in several states. I also, though, don't see any problem with not doing it. There are very few intersections that require running a red light to get where you are going. If I felt running a red light was necessary, I would drive a different route.

TCA 58-8-129 titled "Left Turn at Intersection", makes no reference about stopping in the intersection.

Here is 55-8-129 The driver of a vehicle within an intersection intending to turn to the left shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle approaching from the opposite direction which is within the intersection or so close thereto as to constitute an immediate hazard, but the driver, having so yielded and having given a signal when and as required by this chapter, may make such left turn, and the drivers of all other vehicles approaching the intersection from the opposite direction shall yield the right-of-way to the vehicle making the left turn

Sorry about the typo on the code reference. Now that you have the correct code posted, is the left turn legal?

...and the drivers of all other vehicles approaching the intersection from the opposite direction shall yield the right-of-way to the vehicle making the left turn

Right, you know the person approaching from the other direction who is planning to run the yellow light is going to yield because of TCA 55-8-129. And you know the officer is going to cite the other driver for failing to yield. And you are looking forward to a visit from The Great Pumpkin.

The one good thing about being pessimistic is - at least it shows you understand the situation. -- Unknown

Or, in other words, just because they do it somewhere else, doesn't mean you should do it here.

Use common sense, don't run red lights. If someone's trying to turn left in front of me, I'll slow down if I can to give them a break so he/she can turn. Some other drivers won't and will probably be lining you up in their crosshairs if they think you're trying to turn in front of them. I'll go to lights that have turn signals and backtrack, just to be safe, if the light, and the intersection, without a turn signal is particularly dangerous where on coming traffic approaches at Mach 1.

Most of all, use common sense, be patient (so you don't wind up one), and be careful out there.

I'll go to lights that have turn signals and backtrack, just to be safe......

I frequently go a good bit out of my way to avoid problem intersections. Being "from around here" I use a lot of back roads to get from here to there. Being retired helps, too, since I am rarely in a hurry to get there.

I have often thought that traffic laws are nothing but codified common courtesy, something of a rarity nowadays.

I have also noticed that the size of your vehicle has a bearing on driver courtesy. More drivers tend to "take liberties" with me when I am on my motorcycle than they do when I am in my F150 pickup. The experience in my Honda sedan is somewhere in between.

Wearybottom Associates

Priuses (Prii?) apparently rank about the same as motorcycles on the automotive food chain.

In fact, there's open hostility sometimes. It's quite bizarre. And I don't even have an Al Gore bumper sticker, or any other kind of bumper stickers.

I'm going to get one of those big-ass air horns like diesel tractor trailers use. (Is that legal?)

I'm going to get one of those big-ass air horns like diesel tractor trailers use. (Is that legal?)

I don't know about a big-ass air horn, but we could definitely use a better horn than the candy-ass horn the car has now.

Yeah, it's so European it sounds French!

I almost included my rant about big rig drivers in that comment but I'm only half way through my first cuppa coffee.

When you bought the Prius, I was really jealous until I thought about the perils of driving a small, efficient vehicle.

Wearybottom Associates

Use common sense, don't run a red light.

The question is, are you running a red light? If a vehicle is in the intersection when the light turns red, its legal to continue. Its also safe since cross traffic has a delayed green of five seconds. It is illegal and dangerous to backup, just to clear the intersection. I see drivers who will not enter the intersection for a left turn on red, but will turn left as soon as the light turns green into oncoming traffic, without a signal. Searching for a traffic light with a left signal is just not practical, its also time consuming and polluting.

Some drivers, myself included, may make unsafe decision, thinking it was the safest move. "If common sense was that common, more people would have it (author unknown)."

I always figured the real problem was that East Tennesseans need to pause for a moment of prayer and study before attempting anything rash, like moving their vehicles when the light turns red.

I'm with you on this one Elrod. It took me a while to get used to this and other traffic oddities after moving down from Ohio.

There are some real problem intersections here in Blount County and yes, this which I am now writing should probably be over on Blountviews instead of here....

I never said I pull out in the intersection to turn. I hate doing it and I try to avoid places where it really needs to be done to make a left turn. Far too often I find I must pull into the intersection to turn because my car is low and when there is a line of Hummers and SUVs directly ahead in the opposite left turn lane- I can not freaking see around them to make sure the lane is clear so that I may make the turn at all.

We have a student driver in our house so I ask him what the handbook says. It simply says Do Not Block Intersection. Ok, don't block it. I take that to mean if I am in the intersection turning and the light turns red I don't stay there, I get the heck out of the intersection when the road is clear. Easy!

I am sure by now Elrod and our friends who bleed scarlet and gray have seen a few other unique features down here.

The No, you go first! No YOU go first! action that can occur at any four way stop. While I don't get upset when this happens at stop signs it completly freaks me out when I am pulling into the center of 321 and the guy who is actually traveling on 321 and wants to turn into the road I am leaving does this.

The student driver converstation in our car when this happens-

Ok, who has the right of way, you or him?

He does, I have a stop sign and he is in the road already.

Good. Now he is waving us on to come out infront of him. What do we do now?

We wave, yell and point to TCA that shows him he is the only one with right of way and if I pull out and he changes his mind and hits me- we get the ticket.

Correct!

While it is not so much of a problem out here on 321 W, it is a huge problem for drivers who are leaving Topside Rd and want to turn north on Alcoa highway. Talk about taking your life in your own hands. Drivers leaving Topside Road turning north do not seem to understand that they never have right of way and pull right out in front of cars trying to turn from the north bound Alcoa onto Topside.

Chance are good when you see an Alcoa City Officer with a car pulled over out there someone as has done just that.

Now- this is one thing I miss about Old Tennessee... no one around here seems to do this any more...

There's a joke I've heard about Knoxville drivers, and living here for nearly 43 years, I know there's a lot of truth in it.

"When car makers first began thinking about moving the dimmer switch for headlights from the button on the floor to the lever on the steering wheel, they decided to experiment on cars being driven in Knoxville.

At first they weren't sure if moving the switch would work, because Knoxville drivers kept getting their feet hung up in the steering wheel."

When the intersection at the new Maryville Building/Blockbuster went "left turn on green no arrow", I could have cried. And yes, there are guys that seem to get off by speeding up, or even slowing down, as you are trying to turn left. Very annoying.

I actually don't think drivers around here are overly timid or "too friendly." Considering the number of cops out there, drivers go at a reasonably brisk pace on 321 toward Townsend, for example. On backroads drivers rarely clog up the roadway going under the speed limit. In Michigan I found drivers to be much more timid, even to the point of danger. On interstates drivers would go slow in the left lane and clog up traffic, which would inevitably make it less safe. The only thing they did better up there was drive in snow.

All of this is why I was curious about the left-turn issue. This ain't Chicago or New York, but it's more aggressive than rural Michigan. So why the reticence with left-turns at intersections? And I'm talking about intersections where it's safe to follow through with the turn as the light turns red. It would make sense in Michigan, but not here.

Sympathetic turn signal...

As I recall from a previous explanation, it is when someone in front of you is turning and you use your turn signal to let those behind you know someone is turning, it is not necessarily you that is turning but someone ahead.

And something that only happens in the Old part of East Tennessee...

Elrod- like most things in life, it is simply that the folks who learned to drive here were never taught the pull up and take command of the intersection technique. Much like some were taught to toss their beer cans out the window and leave unwanted dogs on rural county roads. See Blountviews on that...

On the subject of TN traffic customs...

Some have the custom for oncoming traffic to pull to the side of the road when meeting a funeral procession.

I can vaguely remember the law being changed several years back to make this illegal, in response to a fatal accident. Am I remembering correctly? I just looked at the driver's manual online and it says nothing about it being illegal, and in fact calls it a "common and accepted practice."

I personally think it is a hazard to do so and can't see how it shows respect. You can show respect if the procession is in your direction or at intersections.

Some have the custom for oncoming traffic to pull to the side of the road when meeting a funeral procession.

In 1991, I went to the funeral of a friend in Clinton. Burial was at Bookwalter just north of Sharp's Gap in Knoxville. The procession was a lengthy one along Clinton Highway with traffic passing us in the inside lane. Just inside Knox County a big rig driver pulled alongside the rearmost car and remained there until we exited the highway at Tillery.

Wearybottom Associates