After reading these comments, it's clear we all have different opinions on what's safe when making left hand turns in big intersections. Perhaps the time of day should be considered. For instance at 1:00 PM the traffic is most likely at a high volume, making it unsafe to sit in an intersection waiting to make a left hand turn. Most likely you will be in the intersection after your light has turned red, which is illegal. At 9:00PM, when traffic is at a low point it is probably safe to creep into the intersection to make a turn. With that being said, if you are the first car at the stop bar waiting to make a left hand turn, as another poster pointed out it's not always a good vantage point for seeing oncoming traffic, especially if there is a car in the opposite direction waiting to make their left hand turn. Perhaps the car behind you or a car two cars behind you have a better site line for seeing whether it is safe to make that turn or not. So here's where the problem arises.....since those cars behind you have a better site line to see if it safe to make a left hand turn or not and you being the first car don't have a good site line, that's when the horns start blowing! Then, you as the driver in the first car get intimidated and decide to proceed with the turn even though you don't have a good sight line.....and BANG! Another car plows into you at 50mph or more. So, if you are sitting behind someone making a left hand turn and they chose not to make the turn when YOU think they should, maybe they can't see well enough to do so safely. Please give them a break. Is the extra seconds or minutes really worth someone's life? Also, if you have two cars in an intersection turning left coming from opposite directions, which I've seen many times, it makes for a very confusing area. I just can't see where waiting in the intersection to make a left turn when it is busy is safe, regardless of the rules.
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