Q: What am I supposed to do when the person who has the right-of-way is “polite” and tells me to go? If something goes wrong won’t I be responsible? I’d rather they just go.
A: A few years back a PEMCO insurance commercial captured what you and many other folks have felt about the too-polite driver. You might remember it; two deferential drivers at an intersection alternating between gesturing to each other to go and inching forward after accepting the other driver’s offer. To really drive home the point, it ends with a jogger getting to the crosswalk, where they all have a three-way polite-off. The title of the ad: “4-way stop you go, no you go, no you go guy.” Maybe you’ve been there. Maybe that’s you.
Yes, of course it’s good to be polite. But can it be illegal? To answer that we need to understand right-of-way. To keep things simple, let’s consider a four-way stop. The law states that when two drivers approach an intersection at approximately the same time, the driver of the vehicle on the left shall yield right-of-way to the vehicle on the right.
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