The right of way in a certain situation

[newjerseyrunner]

I remember having this conversation before with other people and was shocked to find that how you do it depends on your culture. I drew the situation in on my whiteboard.

In the USA, it's customary to pass in front of each other (the purple line,) in France, it's customary to pass each other first, then turn (red.)

 

[russ_watters]

In an ambiguous situation such as this I defer to the following rule regardless of local law, "The vehicle with the greater mass/velocity always has the right of way"

In the Navy, we call that "The Law of Gross Tonnage".

 

[russ_watters]

In the USA, it's customary to pass in front of each other (the purple line,) in France, it's customary to pass each other first, then turn (red.)

The purple is my preference (I'm from the USA...). The reason it makes more sense to me is that if you are both following the purple path, then your timing doesn't matter. If you are following the red path, then your course and timing both matter. It is a more complicated scenario to deal with and therefore I would think more likely to result in an accident.

 

[collinsmark]

I wonder if we can somehow invoke sailboat rules.

• The car on the starboard tack (the wind direction is from the "right" side of the car) has the right-of-way.
• If both cars are on the same tack, the car to leeward (downwind) has the right-of-way.

 

[1oldman2]

I wonder if we can somehow invoke sailboat rules.

Anything but the "Damn the torpedoes" approach, that's getting to common on the road these days.

 

[Pepper Mint]

I just made a diagram of my situation on a dry erase board . I'm not much of an artist lol, but you should still be able to get the point from my diagram. CLick on the picture of the thumbnail to expand it. You really need to expand it. If you don't, you might misinterpret me again.

View attachment 102266

I find the idea to install a traffic light for people to cross the streets usually not at the critical crossroads or whereabouts is a good solution that can be applied in this case (that is, you just press the button and wait for 5 seconds after the red light is on and the cars from both directions will stop, you then can walk from BurgerKing to McDonald or vice versa).
Other than this you may have to follow the rule, no crossing is allowed, and drive on your right side until you can make a U turn.

 

[Mondayman]

It seems that where I'm from this awkward situation is avoided by not designing exits this poorly.