Quote:
Originally Posted by ken cool
You say that for a left turn one should take the extreme right position on the road. I agree that this is true to keep yourself well balanced through the curve and you are not dangerously close to oncoming traffic when one finishes the curve. However, if we take into account legalities, if it is a left turn at an intersection and not a curve, we have to stay to the Left Lane to turn Left. Else if we take left from the right most Lane, we would be in the line of oncoming traffic coming from behind us.
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Your standpoint is right and most such urban 'T-intersections' will have a stop-light for right turning traffic anyway which means that lane is cut-off and impractical for the left turner. When the traffic and road environment is crowded enough for legalities to become paramount, the rider will be at a low enough speed through the turn to make the demarcation between 'entry, apex, exit' rather redundant. In our typical urban scenario, except during very late or early morning hours, rarely can a T-point (as the one illustrated), be taken at speeds fast enough to justify 'setting up for the turn'. The context of the above write-up lies in the call to stress the need for planning, setting up and executing a turn as a maneuver that requires more thought than straight line riding. And the 'T-intersection' example makes for an easy visual pointer to the need to apex late to gain in terms of improved vision across the maneuver, ensure safety post maneuver and conscious application of specific skills to execute the maneuver. A similar diagram could be constructed to show a sharp left-hander on a single lane highway where the direct utility of this technique is equally demonstrable but then again single-lane highway situations are also rare.
As for coming in the way of traffic coming from behind the rider, the rear-view mirrors and 'keep that neck on the swivel' should provide enough clues to that. A skilled rider is someone who is aware of his riding environment 360 deg around him. A slight move towards the right lane to make more space, trafficators blinking away to glory showing the rider's intention to turn left, rear checked visually not once but twice and more and the turn gets executed smoothly. Is done and can be done in a routine basis. The diagram is
not to scale and the extreme right position is sort of exaggerated to accentuate the difference between the 'late apex' and the 'early apex'. In real life, the rider may not have to go
all the way to the extreme right (as the diagram depicts) to gain the benefits of this technique.