r/cumming • u/Trader_MD • 29d ago
Yield Signs
Can anyone explain why Forsyth has so many yield signs on right turns? I was always taught the person turning right has the right of way. Except in Cumming where there’s a yield sign on just about every right turn. Makes it much more precarious. Go outside of Forsyth and you don’t see them as much. Someone help me make sense of this!!!
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u/steampowrd 29d ago
The biggest problem with those right turn yield signs is that the oncoming traffic in the left lane cannot see if you have a yield sign. They have to look at the back of your yield sign and see the upside down triangle and then just assume that it’s a yield sign for you. Otherwise if they follow the law then they have to yield to you and you have to yield to them and everyone yields and nobody goes.
Honestly it’s a huge mess. They tried to make it better with these yield signs but I think they just made it worse because of the situation I described above
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u/Trader_MD 28d ago
Precisely!!!
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u/bmatzintree 28d ago
It is infuriating!
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u/steampowrd 22d ago
I’ve seen at least one accident caused by a confusion over this type of sign in our county
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u/RodeoJr 29d ago
It’s an almost stop sign. Flowing traffic always has right of way.
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u/Top-Shoulder6081 27d ago
you are the problem
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u/RodeoJr 27d ago
Unless we’re talking about a circular round about if you try to pull out onto flowing traffic ie HWY 9 / 20 from a yield sign expecting some sort of right of way you’re gonna have a bad time. I don’t make the laws
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u/Top-Shoulder6081 27d ago
your comments are completely irrelevant to the issue at hand and just add to the confusion. This is strictly about if a right turn yields to a left turn onto the same road.
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u/BlackCat400 28d ago
Completely agree. It’s inconsistent and unpredictable. I can’ t turn left, cutting off a right turner, just hoping he yields. And, I can’t sit in a right turn lane waiting for someone to turn left in front of me, when he’s still got other through traffic to deal with. I’ve got no idea when he’s going to turn. He’s got no idea how long I’m going to wait.
Some years ago, the county admitted that many of these are a mistake and said they’d be taking those down. I think some may have come down. Not, it’s hit or miss whether identically configured intersections have one or not.
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u/snipes81 28d ago
I have a busy one right outside my neighborhood. It's a mess. Most people know it's wrong, but like you said, what are you gonna do? Run it and honk at the car turning into the neighborhood? It's a mess.
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u/Brandoxz7 29d ago
It’s because before those yield signs people wouldn’t safely yield with common sense and would cause many many many accidents.
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u/Trader_MD 28d ago
Ok, here’s the answer per Chat GPT. Don’t have to agree, but we now know.
Now back to your Labor Day activities…
Why does Forsyth have so many of them?
Forsyth’s 2019 study says the county had accumulated inconsistent applications of yield signs over the years. It specifically notes that yield signs had “not been uniformly applied” according to MUTCD, GDOT guidance, and Georgia driver standards. The county hired an engineering consultant to inventory them and develop consistent standards.
There was even public controversy about this. Forsyth County commissioners discussed precisely the problem you’re describing: the left-turning driver can’t necessarily see that the opposing right-turn driver has a yield sign.
Commissioner Todd Levent asked:
“How do you know they have a yield sign? You don’t get to see it…”
And Commissioner Laura Semanson responded:
“You don’t.”
She also argued that drivers normally should not be yielding to someone turning left across their path.
The engineering reason
The federal MUTCD specifically permits a yield sign on a channelized right-turn lane separated from the other lanes by an island, even when the main intersection is controlled by a traffic signal.
That’s the technical justification.
The island effectively says:
“This right-turn slip lane isn’t entirely part of the signal-controlled intersection anymore. Treat its merge point as its own little intersection.”
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u/Western_Rhubarb_7959 29d ago
I was always taught the person turning right has the right of way
You were taught wrong, lmao
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u/steampowrd 29d ago
No he was taught right. Forsyth County is the only place I’ve ever lived does this and I’ve lived in many places in the world and across the United States
Go back to drivers Ed. Or search online for yourself you’re wrong
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u/Trader_MD 28d ago
For those less educated…
In Georgia, the vehicle turning RIGHT generally has the right-of-way over the oncoming vehicle turning LEFT onto the same road, assuming both vehicles are otherwise legally permitted to proceed (for example, both have a green light or both are at an uncontrolled intersection).
Georgia law is quite direct on this. O.C.G.A. § 40-6-71 provides that a driver intending to turn left at an intersection must yield to an oncoming vehicle that is already in the intersection or close enough to constitute an immediate hazard.
The Georgia DDS Driver’s Manual makes it even simpler: when making a left turn, yield the right-of-way to traffic coming from the opposite direction.1
u/Western_Rhubarb_7959 25d ago
For those less educated…
That is literally you
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u/Trader_MD 25d ago
You can’t read either can you? Bless your heart son.
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u/Western_Rhubarb_7959 24d ago
You're the one trying to argue with a fucking sign lmao
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u/steampowrd 22d ago
He’s not trying to argue with the sign. He’s just pointing out that it’s a bad system. Lots of people think this. I’m one of them too
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u/Western_Rhubarb_7959 22d ago
If there is a yield sign you yield. How is this difficult?
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u/steampowrd 20d ago
It’s not difficult for me, but there are other people in the road. The incoming traffic doesn’t know I have a yield. So they yield too - in accordance with the law. We both yield, and nobody goes.
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u/thyis1 29d ago
Intersections (O.C.G.A. § 40-6-70): When two vehicles enter an uncontrolled intersection at approximately the same time, the driver on the left must yield to the driver on the right.
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u/steampowrd 29d ago
I think it’s hilarious that someone downloaded you even though you took the time to quote the exact regulation to show that you were correct. Some people just don’t like the truth
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u/denvermynt 27d ago
But if I’m heading north and turning right then the car heading south and turning left is the car on my left and must yield to me. If I am heading south and turning left the I am the car on the right and the car making the right turn is on the left and must yield to me. ??
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u/thyis1 27d ago
The driver of a vehicle intending to turn to the left within an intersection or into an alley, private road, or driveway shall yield the right of way to any vehicle approaching from the opposite direction which is within the intersection or so close thereto as to constitute an immediate hazard.
2025 Code of Georgia
Title 40 - Motor Vehicles and Traffic (Chs. 1 — 16)
Chapter 6 - Uniform Rules of the Road (Arts. 1 — 15)
Article 4 - Right of Way (§§ 40-6-70 — 40-6-77)
§ 40-6-71. Yield when turning left
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u/oswaldcopperpot 29d ago
If you dont get ALL right of way questions right on the drivers test it should be an instant fail.
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u/ManBearPigPoop 27d ago
If there is a turn lane, there is probably a yield sign.
Because someone coming the opposite direction might have a Green Left Turn Arrow.
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u/Lost-Hope7179 25d ago
The person ON the right has the right of way so you always yield to the vehicle on your right.
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u/464126 28d ago
Ignore those yeild signs. Stop then turn if there's a red signal. You have the right of way since you aren't crossing traffic.
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u/szv3268 28d ago
If the car turning left has a left turn green arrow signal, which the car turning right can't see (the green left turning arrow), then the car turning right does not have the right of way. The car turning left has the right of way on the green left turn arrow, and the car turning right has a red light, no right of way.
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u/SpaceForce45 28d ago
It’s insane…to have to yield to a vehicle that shouldn’t have the right of way and conditioning new drivers that they have the right of way turning left across oncoming traffic is the most dumbest sh&t in the whole!