[dillywho]

Originally Posted by Polar Bear

Sorry, rubicon, but everything spring_chicken said is exactly right. Chicken knows the "Rules of the Road". You're the one who should brush up.

All the proper look outs, turn signals, hand signals, whatever else, do not eliminate the need for the left turner to identify an adequate gap. If there is not an adequate gap, that "driver behind me" is NOT obligated to stop for you. The gap is what matters, not just the fact that a car might be a short distance behind you.

Before you huff and puff at me, if the driver behind you is really "intentionally accelerating and making a left pass around a cart in a childish and irresponsible manner", then of course he is in the wrong. But that doesn't change the fact that spring_chicken was right...you do not automatically have the right-of-way just because you've signaled your intentions and a car may be a short distance behind you. There's where that little matter of there being a proper opening for your maneuver comes into play.

Looks like the key here is that Rubicon was already out of the diamond lane and merged in with the left turn traffic. This driver was definitely at fault for several reasons, as has been pointed out. A couple of other factors come into play: #1) Speed of the driver even prior to accelerating and #2) IF the driver was paying attention, it is POSTED at a reasonable distance back that carts are to merge with traffic. Car drivers should be expecting them to do exactly that. Merge does not mean to stop and wait for all traffic to pass; it means the same on the highways and drivers are expected to move over when possible to allow for merging or to even slow their speed.