Left, right, left….why?
You’ve heard the classic driver ed mantra: “When at an intersection look left, right and then
left again.” Why? The reason is simple, traffic is not static and so the picture we get with
our initial view of what’s happening in the street is not complete. Cars, peds and bikes are all
moving at different speeds. So when at an intersection, where road users are traveling in all
directions, blind spots abound. In fact, the slower the speed limit the longer those blind spots exist.
So why “left” twice and not “right”? Because in the US, vehicles closest to us are coming from our left.
If perpendicular to a one-way street where traffic is coming from your right, it would be wise to look
right, left, right instead.
