In areas where there isn’t a dedicated U-turn lane, you have to use the left-turn lane if you want to make a U-turn. You just have to work with what’s available since not all roads are wide enough to have a separate U-turn lane.
I used to complain about drivers in front of me making U-turns and causing me to miss the light. In some cases, it can even lead to rear-end collisions. But then I found myself doing the exact same thing…
So what’s the proper etiquette here? What do you all do? Wave? Honk? (Probably not a great idea where I live since everyone honks anyway.)
I look for lane positioning to see if the person in front of me is doing a u-turn. We have mostly 2+2 and 3+3 roads and almost everyone drives these big clunky SUVs and massive trucks. They’ll turn from the furthest right part of the left turn lane and still need the whole road and the merge lane to spin around. Conversely, people turning left tend to sit in the middle or on the left of the lane. The bigger problem is many don’t realize that a u-turn must yield to all other movements.