Left Turn, Right Turn; What Lane is Legal?

We have an intersection in town that causes more arguments and ill will than I’m sure any…..can’t say that, there are a few in Portland that suck. But this intersection is ridiculous and today my father and I almost had a bench clearing fight with a dumb ass.

Warning: You might not care, in which case, move along. As well, this is long because I’m pissed off. So, if you don’t care, again, nothing to see here.

Here is the offending intersection:

This is the Salmon Creek or 134th Street area of Vancouver. Safeway at bottom right, Burgerville marked at top.

Sat View of the area.

You might be thinking, who cares?  This ties into my general rants about how people don’t give a crap anymore and are very self-centered.  Obviously I should use this as practice to have loving-kindness for those who are not as enlightened as I but this time I just want to reach through the car window and choke someone. This intersection was de-designed some years ago and it’s been a mess ever since.  As you can see, it’s a short stretch to the next intersection where you have to get into the left lanes to turn left and eventually get on I-5.  This small stretch is often backed up because the lights are so short and there are way too many cars on the road.  Both are causes for people to be assholes.

Here is a closer shot of the intersections, including the turn lanes:

So, as you can see, when you come out of the intersection on the right and turn right, you want to get into the left lane quick so you can get to the left turn lanes that get you to I-5.  Same with the left side of the intersection as they want to turn left but as we all know, you are to stay in the lane you are turning from or the lane inside or closest to you.  Meaning if coming from the left side and turning left, I wouldn’t cut over to the right lane going north, because why? Those in lane two on the right will be turning there.  Both have green lights.

But oh no, everyone coming from the right wants to cut across the lanes and quickly get into the left lane.  That’s wrong you ass and just to show you I downloaded the Washington State Department of Licensing Manual on Driving.  Might a suggest you, yea you Mr. Ass who flew off the handle, you might want to take the test again.  Study because you will FAIL!

From the Manual:

Pages 37 & 38:

Dumb ass in the Silver Chevy Truck who was talking on the cell phone and yelling at us:

#1 Driving with a cell on your ear, illegal.

#2 Turning right in an intersection and crossing a lane to quickly get to the left lane, also, WRONG!

#3 Yelling you have the right-of-way, also WRONG. I’m not even going to show those diagrams, go get the manual and see why there isn’t a right-of-way per se and if there were, it wouldn’t apply here.  You would have had it if you had gone through the intersection as your lack of a turn signal indicated, we were turning left after all. But then you turned right, of course removing doubt that you were turning.

Only you crossed lanes into our left turn lane.

Then you decided to get very angry at us for turning and ruining your chance of getting to the turn lanes for the freeway. Boo Effing Hoo!

Learn to Drive, please.