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Who has right-of-way on a one-lane bridge?

Started by wanderer2575, September 13, 2016, 09:42:45 PM

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cpzilliacus

Tangier, Virginia has several narrow (one lane) bridges on its state-maintained roads.  They are not terribly long, and traffic seems to be light enough that drivers, riders of two-wheeled and three-wheeled vehicles and pedestrians all get along with each other.  If a car, four-wheeler or golf cart has started onto a bridge, then a car in the other direction will politely wait.
Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.


cpzilliacus

Sweden and Finland are more explicit about it. 

If you see the sign below at the approach to a one lane bridge or tunnel, then you must yield to traffic entering from the other direction when you see this:



If you see the following sign, then you can assume that vehicles in the other direction will yield to you:

Opinions expressed here on AAROADS are strictly personal and mine alone, and do not reflect policies or positions of MWCOG, NCRTPB or their member federal, state, county and municipal governments or any other agency.

The Nature Boy

Quote from: cpzilliacus on October 06, 2016, 02:29:51 PM
Tangier, Virginia has several narrow (one lane) bridges on its state-maintained roads.  They are not terribly long, and traffic seems to be light enough that drivers, riders of two-wheeled and three-wheeled vehicles and pedestrians all get along with each other.  If a car, four-wheeler or golf cart has started onto a bridge, then a car in the other direction will politely wait.

I would assume that it works similarly to a four way stop where whoever got there first gets to cross. Of course, it HAS to work that way because if a car is already on and another approaches, is the first car supposed to back up and go back to his original side because of an arbitrary yield rule?

Duke87

Iceland has a great many one lane bridges. Nearly all of them are first come, first serve. Traffic counts are low enough that one vehicle needing to yield to another is unusual and on the odd occasion where it's too close to be obvious who was there first... people figure it out. It helps that people in Iceland are generally quite courteous, so you don't get standoffs where both drivers refuse to yield. It also helps that you don't have the US' culture of litigation, so you don't always need to have explicit rules about who is liable in the event of every possible mishap.
If you always take the same road, you will never see anything new.

Max Rockatansky

Personally I'd love to see an encounter on these bridges on Blackrock Road, who backs up and how far?

Bridge 1





Bridge 2






kkt

Quote from: Max Rockatansky on October 12, 2016, 10:06:20 PM
Personally I'd love to see an encounter on these bridges on Blackrock Road, who backs up and how far?

Uphill traffic backs up and goes through the Mines of Moria instead.

Or at least to the next spot that's wide enough to pass.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: kkt on December 20, 2016, 02:07:59 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on October 12, 2016, 10:06:20 PM
Personally I'd love to see an encounter on these bridges on Blackrock Road, who backs up and how far?

Uphill traffic backs up and goes through the Mines of Moria instead.

Or at least to the next spot that's wide enough to pass.

You know I always found that idea interesting.  Most vehicles have a uneven brake bias from front to back, some lighter vehicles like sub-compacts still even use drums.  It would seem to me that in that situation that gravity would be your friend as far as backing up going uphill instead.  Granted every time I've found myself on a road like that I generally just hope for the best in regards to someone coming the other way.  You'd at least be going a quarter mile in either direction to find a comfortable spot to pass side-by-side.  Those PG&E guys must have thought that I was nuts.

Incidetally Mineral King isn't too far to the south from Blackrock and has some resemblance to scene where the Fellowship is climbing the Misty Mountains in the snow storm.  :-D



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