Navigating Through Intersections

City driving can be dangerous because of blocked visibility, congestion, distractions, comfort zones, and intersections. Some of these dangers are avoidable but dealing with intersections is a requirement for driving in any city. Forty percent of collisions and twenty-five percent of fatalities happen in intersections. Safely navigating through intersections can save your life.

Here are a few ways to properly navigate intersections:

1. Obey any signals or signs at intersections, which may include: traffic signals, turn signals, stop signs, and yield signs.
2. At intersections without signs or signals: yield the right-of-way to any vehicle to your right and only proceed when the roadway is clear enough to pass through the entire intersection safely.
3. Before making a right turn on a red light, come to a complete stop at the intersection and make sure traffic is not approaching from the left.
4. Before turning left at an intersection, drivers must yield to on-coming traffic.
5. Give right of way to the street that has the most lanes. (For example, 2 lane roads should yield to 3-lane roadways.)
6. When driving on an unpaved road, drivers should yield to traffic on intersecting paved roads.
7. At intersections with crosswalks, pedestrians should be given the right-of-way. The only time a pedestrian would not have the right-of-way is if they entered a crosswalk with signals stating, “do not walk.”

This information and more can be found by taking a Texas defensive driving class at the Comedy Driving Texas Defensive Driving School. Take our "Course Tour" for more details.