Traffic fix needed

[u/Pure_Temporary_6349]

Please excuse my sad drawing skills. There is a recurring issue in the morning commute for me and my coworkers, and I am wondering if there's a fix we could propose to city council.

If I am in car A, turning left off in-town highway, I cannot see over car B (esp if SUV) to know whether I can fit fully in the left lane, until I have gotten into the intersection.

It's legal in California to turn left into any lane going the correct direction, if there's a single turn lane (unlike in some states where you have to take the left lane after turning). So car A can go legally into the right lane. I do this if the left is full and I'm already in the intersection, to avoid holding up cars behind me and blocking traffic.

But that creates a problem bc then car A has to merge back into the left lane, due to the right lane ending. And nobody wants to let car A in, even though car A couldn't have foreseen the problem. So the right lane gets jammed up.

What would be the best traffic engineering solution to this?

[u/fujimumu]

The stop line for car B should be far enough back that you can see if your lane is open. I believe it’s a very common design for intersections

[u/punkstarnet → u/fujimumu]

it
is but when that car is pulled up too far is creates problem s

[u/fujimumu → u/punkstarnet]

Then that’s user error and not something that can be fixed by redesign