I ran into an interesting situation last night... that somewhat kills the ability to use the "proper proceedure."

Is this the right street?

Sure, if you know you need to turn left on the next block, you can set up and get into the proper turning lane. But in my case I only had a rough notion of the area, I knew the names of the streets, but had not been down that way ever. So I am in the right lane, come up and lo and behold, it is the street I need and it is a left turn. (the google maps actually showed it as straight thru, which also added to the confusion)

So now I am on the far right, there is moderate traffic... the only thing I can do is go straight across and then stop at that corner, turn left like a ped and cross again. However, I stupidly positioned my self beyond the corner and was almost hit by a driver making a right turn. Those hybrids just don't make any noise...