Responding with lights and siren

[ScubaDelta]

Looking cool = 10 points

Seeing the look on your platoon member who just sent your Lt. home with a back injury because he rolled the hmmwv = priceless

[robert gift]

Exactly. This is why is it best to prefer, in order:

1. left open thru-lane

2. open lefturn lane

3. an open thru-lane or righturn lane -even if right of occupied lanes (be ready for someone clearing right)

4. going into opposing traffic lane #1

When turning right at a red intersection, I prefer the right turn lane with no siren so drivers ahead can continue right turns on red. (With siren, they may freeze and no one moves nowhere not no how!)

You are asking for right of way. The driver is not required to move forward and get hit (as the motorist killed in front of Lakewood fire truck was).

Nonetheless, he panicked (did they have Yelp sounding?)and did not wait for cross-traffic to stop.

This is why we prefer opposing lane #1 rather than pulling up behind someone stopped at their red signal.

You, not they, take on the risk of getting cross-traffic to stop.

We drive GENTLY, PREDICTABLY, and courteously with as little use of the siren as possible.

gently, predictably and coureously yet you run through red lights if you think the intersection is clear,

I do not run through intersections if I merely THINK they are clear.

I see if they are clear and if no one is approaching.

If you can't verify it is clear, you most slow as necessary and be able to stop if necessary. (Just as the state statute reads.)

I do not stop for the sake of some theoretical "rule" that we should stop at every red signal.

Just as I do not do the ritual of stopping at railroad crossings if I can see both directions down the track that no trains are approaching.

What a ridiculous rule for school and other busses.

you drive into oncoming traffic but you say you only do that when there's lots of room. Whew, keep spouting that nonsense and believing it will only make you sorry in the end.

Yes, if you have room to stop.

When necessary, I do drive into oncoming traffic. It is easy to observe if oncoming drivers see the EV and easy to observe how they react.

It is safer than approaching someone from behind, unsure if they even know an EV is approaching, unsure where they will move, IF they will move, or if they will slam on their brakes.

If you push someone out into traffic, even though you didn't ask them to go into traffic is still YOUR FAULT.

It is THEIR fault.

I am merely asking for the right of way. I am not directing them to do anything.

NEVER DIRECT ANYONE TO DO ANYTHING!

Even in your POV, if you wave someone to turn in front of you and they collide with another vehicle, you can also be blamed.

You come up behind someone at a stop light and nearly every person (good driver or bad) will try to get out of your way. Sometimes they will pull ahead and then to the right and sometimes they will go into oncoming traffic or into cross traffic and in the end, you will probably not be found at fault in a traffic citation or traffic court but in the court of public opinion and civil court you WILL Lose.

That was THEIR unfortunate, poor decision.

Nonetheless, this is why going around is so much better.

If you go into oncoming traffic it is your fault NO MATTER WHAT? You are not given carte blanche to drive any the hell way you want to. You are not given the right to go into oncoming traffic. Any EVOC instructor will tell you that the oncoming lanes of traffic is the last route you want to go.

Our statutes do allow proceeding in opposing lanes.

It is done routinely by fire and ambulance.

Better than coercing someone to move forward into cross-traffic.

We have a major intersection with a 200+ yard long raised median. Often vehicles are backed-up solid behind the red signal and it takes two signal cycles to get through.

We simply go on the other side of the median and pass everyone silently until we near the intersection.

No one in that pack will be trying to squeeze over, possibly contacting other vehicles, while the EV is trying unsuccessfully to get through the mess.

And no one at the front is going to pull out into cross-traffic.