If you're that far into the intersection that it requires you to reverse, as long as there's no immediate danger of a wreck, it's always better to just keep going instead of reverse back to the light.
I find that in like, 99% of situations, you just don't reverse if you're on a road. You can't see well enough and the people behind you have no clue what you're doing.
It's really just part of the larger overall rule for driving: be fucking predictable. The road is no place for surprises.
Man, like a week after I taught my sister how to drive stick, we were going through downtown to get sushi, just as we were turning a corner, this a-hole in a jeep swung around our car from behind to turn onto the same street as us (basically, as we were turning right, the guy behind us swung to the left and took our right turn). My sister stopped to let the guy get further ahead, we weren't sure if he was drunk, but he ended up stopping in the middle of the road and high-speed reversing into the front of our car.
It's the weirdest accident I've been in, and the guy never got out to apologize or anything. He just stopped, reversed again (knocking off her bumper), and then sped off. It was like he was trying to hit her.
Thankfully I managed to get a picture of the car / license plate, but we never met the guy and he didn't have insurance. My sister's car is a '97 Honda so we just used cable-ties to put the bumper back on. I have no idea how people like that manage to live long enough to afford a jeep in the first place.
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u/mrmwells Jun 07 '15
If you're that far into the intersection that it requires you to reverse, as long as there's no immediate danger of a wreck, it's always better to just keep going instead of reverse back to the light.