Despite the fact that some people seem to have low opinions of this strategy, I use it regularly. The intersection between the nearest
7-11 and
Burger King is on the main street (a divided street with 3 lanes on each side). When I'm coming home from 7-11, I have to turn left across this street. On the near side, there's a traffic light a few blocks down, and on the far side it's about 10 blocks to the nearest traffic light (in the direction opposite of the oncoming traffic), which means a break in traffic on both sides is rare (but this is only from my experience - I dont sit there and record the traffic patterns)
Before I learned this move (from someone in real life), I would wait there, sometimes seemingly for 5 minutes and more, to be able to safely turn (even stopping at the center was difficult, as there were two other lanes of traffic that could, and frequently did, do left turns through this intersection). However, doing a Michigan Left is much faster: it's usually not long until traffic opens up enough for me to do a right turn, then I just do a
U-turn and i've saved myself a few minutes.
So, although this move seems stupid, remember it for the next time you're stuck trying to do a left turn (this move is actually more useful in the city).