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I've been driving in the US for 16 years. The "left turn on green" is still the most non-intuitive part about driving here. As a driver, when you have a green
by ozgune 5y ago
I've been driving in the US for 16 years. The "left turn on green" is still the most non-intuitive part about driving here.
As a driver, when you have a green light, you need to pay attention to giving priority to incoming traffic and pedestrians crossing the street, while also maintaining your calm with cars lining up behind you. It's way more intuitive that when you have a green, you can go.
- worker767424 5y agoAdding a blinking yellow left arrow could help.
- Skunkleton 5y ago"blinking yellow left arrow" is the same thing as not having a protected turn at all.
- rootusrootus 5y agoNot quite. Yellow blinking left arrows are always for a protected left turn lane. So when blinking, it does become more like an unprotected 'turn left on green' type of light, but you don't have the straight-through traffic coming up behind you, since you're on a dedicated turn lane. And the yellow flashing arrow is usually timed so that it happens at the safest time to make an unprotected left.
- giantg2 5y agoNot always. There are mixed lanes that also have arrow lights from the turns.
- rootusrootus 5y agoThat's fair. Not anywhere in my state. But road design isn't 100% consistent across the US.
- worker767424 5y agoBut it cues your brain that it might not be safe to turn left.
- bagacrap 5y agothis is a change that's already rolling out nation-wide
- kelnos 5y agoThat's a little confusing, though, isn't it? A blinking regular yellow light means "you have the right of way, but proceed with caution". But this blinking left arrow would mean "you don't have the right of way, so proceed with caution". The distinction may sound subtle, but is quite large.
- itronitron 5y agoIn a few US cities they have what is called a 'lag left' where the left turn lane gets a green left arrow for several seconds after the straight lanes turn red. This has the benefit of having left turns occur when pedestrians should not be crossing the side street at the cost of some spectacular head on collisions when drivers run the red light.
- kube-system 5y agoThere are some intersections like this in my city, but I've seen some drivers blow straight through the red light in the straight lanes because, presumably, they are barely paying attention but see a green light in their peripheral.
- usefulcat 5y agoI have seen that quite often (green arrow after red for straight lanes) and had assumed that was pretty common, but I don't really know for sure. Regarding collisions due to people running red lights: at least when waiting to turn left chances are very good that you will see the oncoming vehicle since you're already pointed towards them. That seems much better than being first in line at an intersection when the light turns green; in that case anyone running the light may well be coming from the side. I lived in Dallas for a few years and after a few near misses I learned to always look before proceeding after the light turns green.
- seoulmetro 5y agoYou can fail a driving test in Australia if you don't look whilst being first at the lights on a green light cycle. Of course most drivers might do this for a week after getting their license then ignore it. Like a lot of good rules.
- kelnos 5y ago> at least when waiting to turn left chances are very good that you will see the oncoming vehicle since you're already pointed towards them. That's only true if there are no oncoming cars lined up to turn left in front of you. Even just one car waiting can obscure an oncoming car coming around them to run the light and crash into you as you turn.
- wccrawford 5y agoStop lights will never be smart enough to tell you when you can "just go" until they're good enough to drive the cars for you, and then that choice will be taken from you anyhow. Drivers must always pay attention to what's going on around them. Trying to simplify their decisions will just end up with more people getting hurt as drivers claim they had the right because the light said so.
- abfan1127 5y agosimplifying decisions can also lead to extremely inefficient traffic patterns.
- interstice 5y agoOther countries have a green arrow and here we also have a system where the green arrow goes blank when pedestrians are allowed to cross aka ‘give way’. Not that it stops pedestrians crossing whenever they like or people running reds, but it does take some of the stress out of driving.
- Kim_Bruning 5y agoHere's a link to some traffic light systems that you can trust most of the time. But nothing is perfect, so you're still required to pay attention yourself too, of course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knbVWXzL4-4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knbVWXzL4-4
- rootusrootus 5y agoI agree. Left turns on green are an invention that works great in rural American small towns where traffic volume is low. Most of the places I've lived transition to protected signals as the density of the area goes up, but sometimes it can take years for the funds to be allocated, and in that time it can become a pretty confusing intersection. In a proper city I think they make no sense at all.
- tafda 5y agoNot everyone would call Los Angeles a proper city, but it's dense and there are very few protected left turns. As thrilling as passing against oncoming traffic on a two lane road.
- throwaway0a5e 5y agoDisagree. Left turns on green are a compromise that prevents people from going through the green 50yd past the intersection and banging a u-turn, which is exactly what they'll start doing if you don't let them turn left at the intersection but do let them legally turn left into businesses and whatnot across the street. Divided roads mostly don't need left on green since they mostly have dedicated turn lanes.
- stevbov 5y agoThis is for California, not sure about other states: Note that whether you have a solid green or a green arrow matters. A solid green means you can turn left, but you might have cross traffic. A green arrow means you're protected and as long as other people are obeying traffic signals, you shouldn't run into other people. Lots of drivers don't understand this. Lots of drivers also don't understand a red right arrow (as opposed to a red solid circle) means you cannot turn right on red. Most "no right on red" intersections have both the arrow and a sign (and many drivers ignore both).
- rootusrootus 5y agoThis varies somewhat based on locality. In Oregon, for example, there is no special significance to a red right turn arrow. If a right turn on red is not permitted, there will be a sign.
- echelon 5y ago> Note that whether you have a solid green or a green arrow matters. A solid green means you can turn left, but you might have cross traffic. A green arrow means you're protected and as long as other people are obeying traffic signals, you shouldn't run into other people. This is the same in the southeast, and I assume the rest of the US. Recently "flashing yellow" [1,2,3] has been introduced to mean left turns must yield to right of way traffic. These are gradually replacing solid green signals. [1] https://www.txdot.gov/driver/signs-and-signals/flashing-yellow-arrows.html https://www.txdot.gov/driver/signs-and-signals/flashing-yell... [2] https://durhamnc.gov/1140/Flashing-Left-Turn-Arrow-Information https://durhamnc.gov/1140/Flashing-Left-Turn-Arrow-Informati... [3] https://www.penndot.gov/TravelInPA/TrafficSignalsManagement/Documents/Flashing%20Yellow%20Arrow%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf https://www.penndot.gov/TravelInPA/TrafficSignalsManagement/... (PDF)
- GatorD42 5y agoThis is confusing, generally a blinking yellow when going straight means slow down but you have right of way. A blinking left yellow would be different from a normal blinking yellow.