More traffic woes

German traffic rules have one big difference compared to the U.S.: in most cases, cars coming in from a side street that the right of way. That means, as you drive along what in the U.S. would be a relatively main street, you have to check at every cross street for oncoming traffic (on your side of the road). It's called Right before Left. There are exceptions to this where posted, but by and large it accomplishes the goal of keeping traffic speed down within the town.

Sometimes it works too well. Here's the scenario:
Car 1 (me) wants to make a left turn.
Car 2 approaches from the opposite direction. Of course Car 1 yields to oncoming traffic.
Car 3 enters the intersection from the side street opposite me. Car 2 yields to Car 3 - it's Right before Left, after all.
Car 2, however, wants to cross the intersection - and so has to yield to Car 1, the oncoming traffic.

So now we have a loop - Car 1 yields to Car 2, who yields to Car 3, who yields to Car 1...

There is a moment of shared discomfort between the drivers until someone waves another through and the deadlock is ended.

I would think this is just me, but I've seen it happen twice in the past week and I was in a different position each time. Melanie may remember how in 1998 this rule, then unknown to her, almost caused a low-speed accident but did cause a minor heart attack in my new husband.