Addendum: On sharing a street corner

As long as I'm thinking about it, a note. You know those signs you see on trailer doors--THIS VEHICLE MAKES WIDE RIGHT TURNS? They mean it.

The hardest thing about making a sharp corner is getting the trailer wheels past the curb (or shoulder, or building corner, or...). If you cut your wheels too soon, angry pedestrians and the policemen who work for them will be the least of your worries. So you try to get the back wheels as far forward, and as far to the center of the road, as you can--the better to get the back of that thing around.

Time was, drivers would swing HARD toward the center of the road, especially on right turns (the curb is closer then). Get the trailer wheels WELL clear of the curb before you (almost) swivel around them. (This is commonly called a "jug handle" turn. Imagine the path the steering wheels go and you'll know why.) But sooner or later, some clever soul behind him would save a little time by cutting inside the trailer. At which point one of two things would happen:

1. The driver would continue his turn and crush the clever soul between the trailer and the streetlight. This would make the driver unpopular.
2. The driver would see the danger and stop, blocking all traffic in both directions until the clever soul--and all the clever souls that followed him--were gone. This would make the driver unpopular.

Eventually the maneuver itself became unpopular.

Nowadays, we're taught to go straight out into the intersection as far as we can, and then turn even sharper to swivel around the curb. (This is commonly called a "buttonhook" turn. See above for the reason.) By keeping the trailer wheels in the right lane, it cuts down on the number of clever souls. Instead, as often as not, it forces the driver to pass through the space occupied by the car to his right--the one waiting to turn left when the light changes. This innocent bystander now has to back up. Along with everyone behind her. Thus those entire lanes of stopped traffic that suddenly back up a car length--I know you've been in one.

This makes the driver unpopular, but the alternative seems to be worse. So I sit in my cab stare down upon little old ladies until they back up and let me by. It requires a certain mindset to be really comfortable with this job, I guess...