4 ms·
Just 2 days ago I saw a waymo car stuck at 4th and Townsend in SF facing NE (toward the bay). The car was in the left of 2 lanes. The light for the left lane tu
by greggman3 5y ago
Just 2 days ago I saw a waymo car stuck at 4th and Townsend in SF facing NE (toward the bay). The car was in the left of 2 lanes. The light for the left lane turned green. The car sat there. People behind started honking. Eventually it went. Not if there was a driver or not.
In the driver's defense (computer or human), SF's signals have gotten very complicated in the last ~10 yrs and even non-robot drivers fail to follow the rules about 20% of the time. 3 places I can see this happen every day are (1) 4th and Townsend on Townsend facing NE (the one above). The issue is the left lane has a green light but the right lane has a separate right turn signal because there is a bike lane further to the right that gets green first. Sit at the corner and I guarantee within 10 right turning cars someone will turn on red.
Similarly, 5th and Bryant on 5th going NW (into the city). This has a similar deal. There's an on ramp to the freeway but it has a separate right turn signal from the green forward signal. This one, for me, is around 100% violation by which I mean I've never NOT seen a violation at the corner. Not ever car, but ever signal at least one car will turn right on to the freeway even though there are 2 large no right turn lights and a green bike light.
The last is 4th and King, on 4th going SE facing the bay. I'm not sure these are technically violations. The left lane is painted as left turn only. The right as right turn only. The middle lane crosses King. Again, this is close to 100% for at least one car per signal ignoring those markings. I don't blame them as there's no way to see the markings until you're just a few car lengths from the intersection and if there are other cars there you can't see them at all. Further, looking up the law, solid white lines are just guidelines. It's legal to cross them. (double white are not). Still, people in the center lane get angry and honk when people in the left or right lanes cut them off since they weren't expecting it.