Originally Posted by
bluefoxicy
.....I had to bail on the turn--instead of stopping, he was planning on running the stop sign while passing me illegally in the lane of opposing traffic through an intersection while passing a park about a block and a half away from a middle school on a school day in a calmed residential zone.......
Slightly off-topic, but this is exactly why I often won't turn left on a bicycle in traffic. Instead I proceed across the intersection and then stop on the far side and reorient my bike to cross with the cars on the following light.
All you have to experience is one car passing you sideways in the opposing traffic lane (on his way all the way around) as the driver realizes that you were turning left, and that he is about to slide backward back into your (his?) lane ahead of you, and off the road into a pole. "Cars don't kill cyclists, drivers do...", whether their actions are legal or not.
I have found that drivers will attempt to pass you in their lane, in your lane, or in the opposite lane, regardless of what is "legal". That is why I always get a kick out of threads that start out "Is it really legal to....".