AIBU to think CF right-turners should not use the left-turn queue? DIAGRAM INCLUDED.

Holidaydreaminggg · 2026-04-23T10:11:07+00:00

Yellow drivers in very slow moving traffic. Blue cars all moving with no traffic. This means that the queue of pink cars turning right can be quite long (maybe 10 cars long). Grey cars turning left always get out quite quickly as the blue cars have no traffic. I notice quite a few cars that are turning right at this junction join the queue of grey cars rather than pink. (EG. The grey car circled). This slows down the people turning left as obviously these people need to wait for somebody in the yellow queue to let them in. They obviously join this queue as it’s much quicker moving than the pink queue (as the majority are turning left). AIBU in thinking the way this junction is designed is so that the people turning left can do so quickly without having to wait for gaps in the traffic for people turning right? The central island is fairly big and contains many trees. My drawing is quite a bit out of scale - the middle island is probably three full road widths in size.

ColdAsAWitches · 23/04/2026 16:15

Looking at the actual photo, they are doing nothing wrong. That's big enough to be treated as two separate junctions rather than just one. If they've found a shortcut, well done to them.

Oleoreoleo · 23/04/2026 15:35

I agree @Holidaydreaminggg that it’s selfish driving. Unfortunately there’s a lot of that. Nothing you can do because it’s not illegal and probably the congestion lasts for 15 mins twice a day. It would irritate me too. Maybe just use the opportunity to hone your zen meditation skills?

Longtimelurkerfinallyposts · 23/04/2026 14:05

Agree with other posters - if there are enough people waiting to turn right, then the entire road (before it splits in two) ends up being blocked anyway - those wishing to turn left would be stuck behind a longer queue, and still not get anywhere very fast.

If someone is clever (aka 'cheeky') enough to use the left fork in order to make their right turn into the main road, perhaps they could also be considerate and let a few of the waiting pink cars enter the traffic stream in front of them?

I prefer to imagine what the situation would look like if every single one of those selfish cheeky fuckers left their cars at home and travelled by bicycle instead = no traffic jam at all.

LostFuse · 23/04/2026 13:53

But the grey cars wouldn't be able to get to the left turn if the road was already blocked by the right turning cars.
Its just the "cheek" that bothers you :)

Original poster

Holidaydreaminggg · 23/04/2026 13:48

LostFuse · 23/04/2026 13:30

So, realistically, it probably makes no difference to anyone.

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Well the difference is that the grey cars turning right really slow down the grey cars turning left. The grey cars turning left don’t even have to wait usually as there is no traffic at all. Where as they are forced to wait until a yellow car lets in the people turning right.

They grey cars turning right are also ‘pushing in front’ of the pink cars too really.

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Original poster

Holidaydreaminggg · 23/04/2026 13:37

Yoheresthestory · 23/04/2026 13:34

You might be right but what do you win other than a loss of control of your rage?

It doesn’t cause me to have road rage. I just think they are cheeky!

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Yoheresthestory · 23/04/2026 13:34

You might be right but what do you win other than a loss of control of your rage?

FeralWoman · 23/04/2026 13:32

The photo helps a lot. There needs to be a traffic light at the pink and yellow junction. That would allow the pink cars out.

LostFuse · 23/04/2026 13:30

Holidaydreaminggg · 23/04/2026 13:23

Yes they do. Until someone lets them in.

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So, realistically, it probably makes no difference to anyone.

Credittocress · 23/04/2026 13:29

SquirrelRed · 23/04/2026 12:51

Describing this as a terrifying experience sounds very dramatic. If you were just waiting in a closed lane for a gap in the traffic, why were you 'incredibly frightened'?

Edited for spelling mistake.

Edited

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Well you try being sat for several minutes in the closed lane of a 4 lane motorway trying to get edge into traffic, whilst people are driving aggressively to prevent you from entering the only open lane

Cantthinkofanewusernameffs · 23/04/2026 13:25

Until you mentioned the price of houses, I thought you lived near me. 😂

We have a junction like this, called Conker Island. If I was driving and saw a pink queue, I would nip down the grey lane and see how many pink cars I could beat out onto the main road.
It's a legal manoeuvre. If some people think it makes me a CF, then so be it.

The people living in the houses facing the island use the grey lane too, so they don't have to cross traffic to turn onto their drives.

Original poster

Holidaydreaminggg · 23/04/2026 13:23

LostFuse · 23/04/2026 13:10

Going by your daigram alone, if someone came along wanting to turn right to join the right turning queue of traffic, it looks like they would block the lane anyway if the right turning lane was full - as in your diagram.

Yes they do. Until someone lets them in.

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LostFuse · 23/04/2026 13:10

Going by your daigram alone, if someone came along wanting to turn right to join the right turning queue of traffic, it looks like they would block the lane anyway if the right turning lane was full - as in your diagram.

Original poster

Holidaydreaminggg · 23/04/2026 13:06

Added the actual junction for extra clarity 😂

AIBU to think CF right-turners should not use the left-turn queue? DIAGRAM INCLUDED.

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GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 23/04/2026 13:00

Holidaydreaminggg · 23/04/2026 12:48

It’s in a really lovely leafy area with all £1.5m+ period houses - these roads are very quiet the majority of the time. I can’t see the residents wanting a roundabout here! There are a couple of schools in the vicinity which cause the traffic.
I do agree a roundabout would work much better! It would need to have traffic lights though due to the difference in traffic from each direction and it’s just not really that sort of area.

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Just sounds like an accident waiting to happen and also really impractical.

Perhaps it is in denial about the sort of area it is!

I guess they could just make it “left turn only” but that wouldn’t help the traffic issue.

xILikeJamx · 23/04/2026 12:58

It would appear that the grey queue is not "left turn only" but rather a T junction, therefore YABU

Presumably the intent was that the pink queue saved right turners some time, but in actuality it takes longer than just getting into the yellow traffic from the grey queue side. You could maybe petition the council to make the grey queue left turn only or try and split it into 2 lanes so there's one for each direction

Original poster

Holidaydreaminggg · 23/04/2026 12:54

Benjii · 23/04/2026 12:49

Is the lane for turning left actually restricted to those turning left? I.E. does it have a no turning right sign?

No I don’t think it does. The road is definitely angled in a way which makes it feel strange to turn right though.
There are also a few houses where the grey cars queue (if that makes a difference). So they wouldn’t be able to get to the pink side if they wanted to turn right onto the main road after coming out of their house.

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SquirrelRed · 23/04/2026 12:51

Credittocress · 23/04/2026 11:41

I had a terrifying experience on a motorway a few weeks ago, where I entered the motorway on a slip road and there was only one lane open. I had to cross three closed lanes to enter in the open lane. If I had gone through the gantry I would have got points. All the drivers in the open lane refused to let me in leaving me stranded.

They were obviously convinced that I had slipped up the line of traffic to avoid the queue and had taken it upon themselves to police the situation and not let me in. What they didn’t realise was I had only just come on via the slip road.

They left me incredibly frightened for several minutes as a 5 cars kept nose to tail to not be the one to let me in.

It isn’t up to you to police the road. You don’t know the situation, and you can put other users in dangerous situations and cause unnecessary stress and distraction.

Describing this as a terrifying experience sounds very dramatic. If you were just waiting in a closed lane for a gap in the traffic, why were you 'incredibly frightened'?

Edited for spelling mistake.

Benjii · 23/04/2026 12:49

Is the lane for turning left actually restricted to those turning left? I.E. does it have a no turning right sign?

Original poster

Holidaydreaminggg · 23/04/2026 12:48

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 23/04/2026 12:43

It sounds annoying but like something drivers are inevitably going to do.

I think the junction sounds like it needs redesigning as it clearly isn’t functioning as it’s meant to and this is going to cause road rage. sounds like a roundabout would help! Or to do something to ease the traffic going in the yellow direction.

Edited

It’s in a really lovely leafy area with all £1.5m+ period houses - these roads are very quiet the majority of the time. I can’t see the residents wanting a roundabout here! There are a couple of schools in the vicinity which cause the traffic.
I do agree a roundabout would work much better! It would need to have traffic lights though due to the difference in traffic from each direction and it’s just not really that sort of area.

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GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 23/04/2026 12:43

It sounds annoying but like something drivers are inevitably going to do.

I think the junction sounds like it needs redesigning as it clearly isn’t functioning as it’s meant to and this is going to cause road rage. sounds like a roundabout would help! Or to do something to ease the traffic going in the yellow direction.

Original poster

Holidaydreaminggg · 23/04/2026 12:37

profpoopsnagle · 23/04/2026 12:16

Could it also be their line of sight?

I live near a similar junction, but in my case, I prefer to use the grey lane to turn right because it's better for sight- to see a gap in the traffic. The pink one is much harder as cars come around a corner fairly fast. The other thing is that the yellow cars in my scenario often also need to turn into the road I am on, so it's win win for giving way.

No this definitely isn’t the case. The whole of the main road is straight.

There aren’t many ‘blue’ cars at all really. So the only way to pull out is by a yellow leaving a gap for you, or to cheekily pull out half way into the road and create yourself a gap (and end up holding up the eventual blue cars).

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Original poster

Holidaydreaminggg · 23/04/2026 12:35

Credittocress · 23/04/2026 12:16

Well this is the first mention of schools or anything. You basically asked if someone happens to be in the wrong lane should I let them in. In my view yes you should, we need to accept humans driving cars may make wrong decisions, it’s up to the police to police this, not other drivers

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No I didn’t.
I asked whether they were CFs by joining the lane of traffic turning left to turn right rather than sitting and waiting behind everyone else turning right. I notice people doing this fairly often when sat in the pink traffic myself.

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FeralWoman · 23/04/2026 12:25

Sounds like the junction needs better signage directing traffic, like left turn only lane (grey), right turn only lane (pink), and a no right turn sign for the grey cars.

profpoopsnagle · 23/04/2026 12:16

Could it also be their line of sight?

I live near a similar junction, but in my case, I prefer to use the grey lane to turn right because it's better for sight- to see a gap in the traffic. The pink one is much harder as cars come around a corner fairly fast. The other thing is that the yellow cars in my scenario often also need to turn into the road I am on, so it's win win for giving way.