I know of an intersection that pretty much everyone has a hard time with. Both roads have one lane in each direction and a left turn lane. Two of the left turns are more than 90 degrees, and people can't seem to figure them out. My approach is the enter the intersection straight, go nearly half way across and turn hard to the left, and exit the intersection in the correct lane and as straight as possible. If someone is turning left from the other side I can't do that, and sometimes go a little over the white line into the shoulder.
Pretty much everyone else starts turning as soon as they get into the intersection and exits the intersection in the left turn lane, sometimes putting the entire vehicle to the left of the yellow lines. If that left turn lane is occupied, they swing completely onto the shoulder to avoid hitting the vehicle in the left turn lane. I don't get it. There's no rule that says you have to start turning as soon as you enter the intersection.
There is a skew intersection I use often (because it is near my house) that forces me to turn through a greater-than-90° angle after wheeling slightly into the intersection on a straight course. I think it has to do with the offset for the raised center island on the target street not being set further back from the intersection throat to compensate for the skew, but I have not actually carried out measurements to check.
13th and Zoo Blvd., Wichita, Kansas (difficult movement is westbound 13th to southeast-bound Zoo)Why do people back up to the left just far enough that they can turn all the way right and just make it? After backing they swing across the left side of the road, blocking traffic in both directions. A better maneuver would be to back up until you can just straighten the wheels and go straight ahead. This would more quickly get your vehicle out of the way of drivers going in the other direction. Some people seem to be afraid to reverse an inch farther than they have to.
Backing up is seen as a difficult part of driving and thus attracts what is called
stereotype threat: people become anxious, shut down, and do badly at it, thus confirming the stereotype. In actuality, it is possible to become quite good at it, but I believe it generally requires dedicated practice in a nonthreatening setting. When I decided (after about 20 years of driving) to make reversing into rather than nosing into parking spaces my personal default behavior, I went to lightly used parking lots to practice, just as I had done when I was a teenager and learning how to drive for the first time.
My personal philosophy, whether reversing into spaces or out of driveways, is to treat the space or lane I am reversing into as the target and aim generally to back through a 90° angle (if possible) and straighten out the steering wheel as part of the maneuver so that both car and wheels are pointed straight ahead when I come to a stop. This minimizes tire scrub and wear on hydraulically assisted power steering. (I realize that electrically assisted steering is now the norm, but at 25 and 14 years respectively, both of my vehicles are old enough to still have power steering pumps.)
Reversing out of driveways onto high-speed roads adds another layer of complexity since it is hard to practice reversing both fast and accurately, which is a useful skill to have when you are reversing left and have to clear a lane between the driveway and your target lane. My personal preference in such cases would be to reverse
into the driveway, as I feel a vehicle already in the high-speed highway has better visibility.
Many people who back into parking spaces as their personal default cock their vehicles just outside the space and then reverse into it through a shallow angle. I dislike this method because it involves more tire scrub, but the use of it is not always the result of a lack of skill. When the car is just outside the space, instead of a stall width or more down the aisle (the ideal position for beginning to back up through a 90° angle), it blocks a following vehicle that might otherwise be able to gazumph the space.