Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Just a minor quibble: "Control" is exactly the term to use. People can try to sneak around me on a left turn or even when going straight but if I'm positioned in the middle of the lane, they can only "try".
I say influence because I sometimes have people ignore my signals to hang back because a car is coming the other way or that I'm about to make a left turn. This always happens on 2-lane roads. I'm far left in the lane, looking back, sticking my left arm out, but they pass anyway like impatient a-holes. But that's pretty rare compared to how most people behave.