It can happen near driveways. It can happen at parking lot entrances. It is more than likely to happen at intersections. If there is one scenario a responsible motorcyclists should study, practice and be prepared for, it is the dreaded left turner.
Left Turner Defense
Why left turners and not right? If a right-turning vehicle enters the road in front of you, then proceeds across multiple lanes in an attempt to reach the leftmost lane, that’s certainly something to look out for. There’s never a time when you don’t need to watch for a vehicle turning right — but it’s the left-turning vehicle that gives us the most grief.
Left-turning vehicles always cross traffic, often across more than one lane. The typical scenario involves an oncoming vehicle turning left in front of your motorcycle. These drivers are searching for gaps in traffic to make their move. The obvious problem is the size of the motorcycle and rider. The typical driver is accustomed to judging the speed and distance of full-sized automobiles and can usually predict how much time they have to complete the turn. A motorcycle’s smaller profile often gives left turners a false sense that they have more time — especially during the (less than) one second they focus on you.
Left-turning vehicles that have already steered their front wheels toward their intended path rarely give you any notice before crossing and almost always accelerate quickly in busy traffic. Even if the left turner’s wheels are straight, once they commit to crossing your lane, their initial path is directly toward you — which increases the closing speed and decreases your reaction time. Often, the left turner is also holding up traffic behind them, which adds to the urgency to “go.”
As motorcyclists, we need a strong understanding of traffic — to the level of a PhD, preferably. Our learning starts with riding our three tracks effectively. As we know, a motorcyclist is entitled to the entire lane, and each lane can be divided into three tracks (Track One, Track Two, Track Three).
As previously mentioned, our size is our biggest disadvantage, but it can also be an advantage — allowing us to move within the lane more freely than a car. There are track positions for blocking vehicles behind us, for seeing and being seen, and for momentary positioning to create a buffer from oncoming hazards.
As you might imagine, the “temporary buffer” position is the most effective against left turners. On a typical two-lane road, with one lane traveling in each direction, your likely position would be Track One, which either blocks the lane from intrusion from behind or gives you a superior “see and be seen” position for oncoming vehicles. In this scenario, it’s vital that the motorcyclist recognize the left turner and perform a Track One to Track Three shift (buffer move) to give both you and the left turner more time to react.
Several motorcycle safety books and magazine articles note that a Track One to Track Three shift provides cross motion to your silhouette. There may be truth to this: an oncoming motorcyclist moving laterally from one track to another creates more side-to-side motion — and therefore greater visibility — than one who stays in Track One.
If you’re in the left of two lanes traveling in the same direction and recognize an oncoming left turner, it’s best to shift to Track Three once again.
If you’re in the right of two lanes traveling in the same direction with an oncoming left turner, the Track One to Three shift is vital. In this situation, you may also have a vehicle in the left lane beside you turning left, which can completely block your profile from the view of the oncoming left turner while you’re in Track One. Many riders have been hit when drivers quickly check the inside lane for cars — only to collide with a Track One motorcyclist hidden in the blind spot of the vehicle in the left lane.
Beyond track positions, there are other ways to defend ourselves. Covering the brakes and clutch reduces reaction time. Watching the front wheels of a left-turning vehicle is also critical — their angle and distance from the yellow line are often the first indicators that they’re about to move.
High-visibility clothing (Hi-Vis) helps you get noticed. Considering that a left turner studies you for less than a second to judge your speed, bright clothing tends to occupy more of their focus. The same goes for lighting. Most modern motorcycles come with good LED headlights and DRLs, but there’s nothing wrong with running your high beams during the day.
You might think a murdered-out matte black motorcycle looks sharp — and it does — but is a bright yellow bike more visible? Absolutely. Depending on your motorcycle’s color, aftermarket handguards can serve double duty: keeping your hands warm and protecting your brake and clutch levers. That’s also a lot of forward-facing real estate where you can add visibility to an otherwise invisible motorcycle.
We need our rider radar on at all times out there. We hope this chat helps at least one rider — if it does, it was worth it.
