Originally Posted by NaBlade

Need your opinion on this. I was on a 4-lane street coming up to a major intersection (2 lanes going each direction). I normally avoid busy streets but got caught on this one. The area was totally unfamiliar to me, not having ridden it.

About 200 yards from the intersection, I saw that the street widened to accomodate a new 3rd lane on the right that was an exclusive right-turn-only lane (road was painted with arrow). Needing to go straight through the intersection, I positioned myself in the center lane but did not take control of it. As I neared the intersection (about 25 yards away), I realized to my dismay that the lane I was in, which was now a center lane, was BOTH a through-lane and a right-turn lane, as indicated by signs hanging over each lane above the intersection.

Shoulder-checking a few times, I maintained my position through the intersection in the middle lane. One car narrowly passed within inches of me and almost hooked me as he made his right turn from the center lane. By this time I was officially in the intersection but still inside the area if you imagined where the center lane turns right and connects to the center lane of the cross street. Almost immediately, another car behind honked continuously at me, obviously wanting to make a right turn. He could not and I made it across, but I knew I made a mistake somewhere. Should I have controlled the center lane at the time I saw the lane markers? In the future (knowing what the center lane is now), should I slide over to the left most lane, which is an exclusive through-traffic-only lane? What else could I have done?