Talk:Pittsburgh Left
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[edit] Unclear
It refers to the counter-intuitive practice of giving left-turning vehicles precedence over vehicles going straight through intersections, which improves traffic flow.
Is that intended to mean that the Pittsburgh Left improves traffic flow, or that giving precedence to vehicles going straight improves traffic flow? Either way, the sentence needs to be cleaned up.
- I agree that the sentence needs clarification - but it can't be as simple as an either/or thing. Imagine a fast moving 4 lane road with vehicles going 50mph. If you give priority to cars turning left then all of the oncoming traffic has to come to a screaming halt every time a car is sitting in the turn lane. That can't be good for traffic flow. On the other hand, if it's a really heavily used 2 lane road then the guy who is indicating left is blocking all of the traffic behind him. The oncoming traffic (which isn't moving fast) could just as easily pause for 2 seconds to let him cross in order to unblock a gigantic tailback of traffic in the other lane. So whether this is a good idea or not is heavily dependent on the nature of the road and the density of traffic it's carrying. I don't think such a simple sentence can do justice to that. On the other hand, everything I just wrote - whilst it seems very reasonable - is completely 'original research' and can't go into the article either unless we find some kind of authoritative source to back it up. I'm therefore going to delete that sentence. SteveBaker 20:19, 6 September 2006 (UTC)
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- The article says "The Pittsburgh Left involves two cars waiting at a traffic light or other stop signal", so why would the oncoming traffic have to come to a halt? AndrewAllen 03:11, 14 February 2007 (UTC)
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- In my experience this practice only occurs when someone is impatient and makes a quick left turn or the intersection is long (ie. the stop line for cars on the opposite lane is far away). Pendragon39 05:11, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
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[edit] Lebo Left
Having lived in the Mount Lebanon area of Pittsburgh for a while, I've seen a lot of the Pittsburgh left, and even a little bit of what people are starting to call the "Lebo Left," which consists of a Pittsburgh left being executed behind a car going straight, which is essentially anticipating the Pittsburgh left, but taking it before the opportunity actually comes. Has anyone else seen this? I'd like to include it in the article, but being such a folk thing, it almost certainly has no sources. V-Man737 20:56, 26 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Props
Good compromising. Thanks for the contributions! I hope to see more from you. V-Man737 05:55, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Also unclear
Previously I had only heard of the "New York Left"... I visited this article thinking I the "Pittsburgh Left" was a bad driving habit peculiar to Pittsburgh drivers. While reading the article, I became convinced the "Pittsburgh Left" was actually a traffic law, until I read Legal Basis and the external reference "Pittsburgh Left" seen by many as a local right. Perhaps the opening paragraph should clarify this better...that it's named after a local Pittsburgh custom adopted as a courtesy towards other drivers, not a "rule of the road" found in the Pittsburgh traffic code. Or am I still wrong?! AndrewAllen 03:11, 14 February 2007 (UTC)
- *scratches head* uh, well, to be honest with you, that's how it struck me when I was living there. Before going there, I thought "Surely something like that is illegal!" But after a while, I became more and more convinced that it is actually a traffic law (Until I got pulled over). If you think it'd be better to put it a certain way, go right on ahead and do it. ^_^ V-Man737 03:55, 14 February 2007 (UTC)
