(Laguna and Van Ness are parallel N/S streets, maybe you meant a different intersection?) Not to detract from your point, though. A lot of the Market St. inter

(Laguna and Van Ness are parallel N/S streets, maybe you meant a different intersection?) Not to detract from your point, though. A lot of the Market St. intersections are deathtraps because of the diagonal grid-cutting nature of that street. You get really weird 5-way intersections that are confusing to navigate by drivers, illegal Uber/Lyft pickups, and mentally ill people (esp. near Civic Center) wandering aimlessly into the street. Hopefully the recent car ban will fix these issues. The delayed lights are actually intended to address a pedestrian safety issue (see starting at slide 21 here: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/68919 https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/68...). I'm not aware of any spike in deaths, but it's possible there were unintended consequences as you described. IMO unprotected lefts at signals and right-on-red are inherently unsafe, but they're too integral to American driving culture to change at this point.