Hook Turn

[wrack]

I live in Melbourne and it's been a while since I have driven in city so when I was driving in the city over the weekend I needed to make a hook turn.

Anyways I am there waiting for the lights to go green so I can make the turn and I see a hire car registered in Sydney trying to turn right but never realizing that the intersection was not a normal right turn but a hook turn (turn right from the left lane).

So I see the driver waiting for the traffic to get clear by stopping the middle of the road and everyone behind the car is honking madly. I know it was an honest mistake of the driver since that was a unique road rules not many places have.

So I was wondering which cities around the world have hook turn (or anything else you call it). I am attaching an image to illustrate how it is done.

[kylejn]

Cities/countries with hook turns, from Wikipedia:

Melbourne, Victoria - Melbourne's Central Business District contains 13 hook turn intersections, with others scattered throughout the inner city area.

Adelaide, South Australia - Hook turns are permitted by buses at the intersection of King William Street and North Terrace.

Northeastern Illinois - Palatine Road is a heavily traveled east-west surface road with exterior one-way frontage roads and interior grade-level "express lanes", and all turns (both cross streets and driveways) are taken from the frontage roads with their own traffic signal cycle at Windsor Drive, Schoenbeck and Wheeling Roads. Motorists must pay close attention to the lane usage signs as they are strictly enforced by local police (i.e. entry into the express lanes from the frontage roads prohibited at Windsor and Schoenbeck.)

Beijing - Some intersections require all turns to proceed from outside lanes.

Taiwan - In Taiwan there are some intersections where a hook turn is signed as required, but only for motorcyclists and non-motorized vehicles (like bicycles); automobile traffic proceeds as usual.

Germany - Cyclists are permitted to do hook turns, as they are usually obliged to keep on the rightmost lane of the road. Bike lane and track layouts often encourage this turning behaviour. Alternatively, cyclists may change to the correct lane for turning left directly shortly before an intersection.

Japan - Bicycles must perform hook turns when turning right. Motorbikes and mopeds with engine displacement under 50cc are required to perform hook turns when turning right from a road with three or more lanes of traffic in the same direction. Larger motorcycles and automobiles generally do not perform hook turns.

In the Netherlands, where segregated cycle paths are the norm, cyclists turning left are often obliged to perform what might be considered a hook turn: when the light goes green they cross the side road, but they then have to wait for the lights to change again before they can cross the road they were originally on.

In Amsterdam, there is at least one instance of a hook turn being required within a single cycle path: cycles turning left from Van Baerlestrast into Willems Parkweg are required to wait in the right-hand lane of the cyclepath for the lights to change, while those going straight on pass them on their left.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_turn

[CrashG]

Here in the US we don't have hook turns, I also believe that in most (if not all) states here it's illegal to make a right turn from the left lane (unless it is a two lane road with one lane for each direction of travel of course).

[wrack]

I guess the main reason in Melbourne to have the hook turns is (as far as I can tell) the trams lanes sharing one of the driving lane. If a car were to make a right from the right lane then it would cause the trams to stop thus causing delays in public transport.

[Adster01]

Hook turns are a total freak out for anyone not used to them. I visited my brother down in Melbourne, and I was like WTF are you doing!!

[wrack]

Yes they are weird but those who are used to it, it's just like a normal turn.

[ozgeek]

Whoa. Doesn't look hard than it sounds. Basically pretend to "park" along the side of the road in the intersection until the lights facing you turn red.

[wrack]

Ofcourse it is not hard for those who have done it once, I just saw an out of town driver getting confused that's all.

[+John. Subscriber¹]

That'd get to me for the first couple of goes.

[Golferjim]

I have never heard of such a thing, not to mention for obvious reasons my country isn't on that list.

But I have been driving for little over 2 years now and I have never heard of it, I would like to experience one of them just for the sake of reading about it and having never done one.

I probably would have freaked out also coming up to one of them in a crowded city :pinch:

[ozgeek]

I have never heard of such a thing

Me too and I've been driving for nearly 8 years but then again I have never driven into the other states yet.

[Golferjim]

Oh well, when the day comes its going to be very interesting!

Have to start a new thread posting experiences through a hook turn.

[ChrisCanada]

Never seen one of those and I live in Canada. We don't have anything too weird, although we do have roundabouts and roundabouts are mentioned nowhere in the tests you have to take to get a drivers license, which leads to alot of confused people.

[wrack]

Haha...roundabouts are fun, especially big ones with multiple lanes.

[Si_]

I've never even heard of a hook turn... and I can imagine it would confuse the hell out of me the first time I ever have to make one

[qdave]

this looks pretty cool. too bad that we dont have them in toronto :p

[wrack]

You can always try without having it and just say my car just slipped under the iced road :p

[Rohdekill]

How can that even be legal??!! Wait in the intersection until the light changes?? Here in the states, that would get you an immediate ticket. In several countries it would get you a ticket in the mail as the camera catches you.

I'm glad no such thing exists in the states. People here can't even comprehend turning into the proper lane.

[Stetson]

How can that even be legal??!! Wait in the intersection until the light changes?? Here in the states, that would get you an immediate ticket. In several countries it would get you a ticket in the mail as the camera catches you.

I'm glad no such thing exists in the states. People here can't even comprehend turning into the proper lane.

I would imagine that in places that have these types of intersections it is therefore legal :p

Basically it looks like you're waiting outside of traffic for an opportunity to turn rather than blocking / slowing traffic that wants to go straight.

[Rohdekill]

I would imagine that in places that have these types of intersections it is therefore legal :p

Basically it looks like you're waiting outside of traffic for an opportunity to turn rather than blocking / slowing traffic that wants to go straight.

But you're also blocking the traffic lane when the light immediately turns as your car is now perpendicular to traffic going in the direction you'll last turn onto. I can see a lot of people being ****ed off if the guy/gal is not paying attention and chatting, texting, eating, etc..

[the_architect]

I always hate doing that when i'm in Melbourne! Luckily the first time I done it I followed the person in front of me to work it out.

[wrack]

Yeah it's legal because it helps trams go straight smoothly and thus not blocking the public transport.

[carmatic]

But you're also blocking the traffic lane when the light immediately turns as your car is now perpendicular to traffic going in the direction you'll last turn onto.

yeah but what about when you didnt turn right before it goes green, like the majority of the time...

[wrack]

Then you get honked :p

[CrashG]

Here in the US we made it even easier, turn only lanes. :p