In no cases. A steady red means you must come to a full stop before proceeding, if the law allows that. A right turn on red requires a full stop, check for ability to turn safely, then turn. You cannot drive through the red. Yes people regularly keep moving while performing a right on red, and to do so is illegal.
You can perform a left turn on red only if you are turning from a one way to a one way and you are in the proper lane that allows for a left on red. You cannot make a left on red if the road you are currently traveling is two way (there is oncoming traffic lanes), even if the road you wish to turn into is a one way, unless specifically permitted by local law.
In Beaverton, Oregon, most of the left hand turn reds have been turned into blinking yellow left hand turn arrows, which alleviates this problem, for the most part. There is the issue of someone trying to take a yellow left while the someone in the oncoming lane is making a right turn onto the same road. I’ve seen lots of the left hand turners nearly cut off the other driver.
Just about all of the intersections with left turn arrows where I drive also have signs at the intersection that read “Left turn on green arrow only.” Not all intersections are like this though. Some allow left turns any time there is a green light, and also have a staggered red light system so cars may continue to turn left on the arrow while cross-traffic has a red light.
Quite honestly, it was a lot less confusing before arrows were introduced, and for the life of me, I don’t understand why that is. Arrows should be easier to understand.
One thing that drives me nuts with the new arrows is the protected right turn. These are used at intersections that would otherwise be “no right turn on red,” except now they can append “except on green arrow” which helps clear the traffic a little bit faster during the perpendicular traffic’s protected lefts, so that’s not the part that drives me nuts. This is: the next step after a protected right is a normal green light, so everyone that’s parallel to you in your direction of travel will get the green signal. Essentially, your protected right is unaffected. However, in every, single case that we have these new protected rights, the arrow works as such: it turns green, allowing you to advance. At this point, it turns yellow, and then red, and then the main light turns green and the arrow turns green again. What the hell is point of making the right turners stop in the first place? And it’s not for pedestrians. Remember, the green arrow is a protected turn. Pedestrians are red at this point.
Not disputing Rumor’s cite, but why would you be able to turn on an arrow. To me a red arrow is specifically telling you not to turn whereas a red ball would be the stop and turn within the parameters of the law.
In my town, a lot of “left turn signals” have appeared in the last few years. They’re coupled with a sign that reads something like: “LEFT TURN SIGNAL - YIELD to oncoming traffic”.
Basically, at these intersections, the other lights for the general traffic will at times turn solid-red, while the left turn signal stays solid green (not a green arrow). When that happens, traffic going straight must stop, but cars in the left turn lane may turn when oncoming traffic is clear. At that time, oncoming traffic will have a green light and a green left turn arrow. It seems to help clear the turning lanes quite a bit in between cycles.
I doubt that counts as “going through a steady red signal”, since there’s a special light that allows you to proceed when traffic is clear, but if you want to nitpick, there is technically a solid red signal at that intersection, and you do get to go; it’s just that the red isn’t for you.
AFAIK, Red Arrow = don’t turn, unless you’re already inside the intersection.
(Which according to my state’s law, could equal 0.00001 micron beyond the crosswalk – but good luck arguing that in traffic court!)
You can make a U-turn on red (including red arrow) in Arizona as long as you don’t break the curb line (it’s our definition of “entering the intersection”). A lot of intersections here were clearly designed to allow this. I don’t know where/how/why you could ever make a full-blown left turn on a red arrow, though. That doesn’t make any sense to me. It wouldn’t completely defeat the purpose of the arrow.
In California you cannot turn either right or left against a red arrow. Cite. Which only makes sense - otherwise why bother to put in a red arrow. The only right red turn arrow I know of is at the intersection where David Halberstam was killed, which is fairly nasty.
I know of at least one intersection on Maryland 235 in St. Mary’s County where there is a sign saying a left turn on red is allowed when the red arrow is flashing.
[sigh] That’s NYC, not New York State. NYC is a tiny little fragment of the geographical land mass of one of the country’s largest states (although it does have about half the population of the whole state). NYC has its own set of laws that don’t always correspond to state laws.
I’m from New York. Not New York City. All y’all south of the Mason-Dixon (where I currently am) should make a note that New York does not equal “City Slicker.”
You can lose the snark. I’m pretty sure we’re all aware of the difference between New York State and New York City.
I guess, I should have worded my post more specifically as a question but you answered my query anyway, I was wondering whether NYC was still enforcing this rule.
It used to be a violation to turn right on a red light anywhere in the province Quebec but they changed that few years ago, the city of Montreal being the only holdout. This is a pain, especially when travelling from downtown to the suburbs and back as you need to be aware of where the city limits. ie. driving up to Laval, or going to Mirabel, etc.
Ok, so the obvious question is brought forth from this.
Why??
Why have a left turn red arrow? There are many left turns at intersections that do not have red arrows and people seem to know how to navigate them properly.
The left turn red arrow leads to situations like the OP’s where you COULD turn and everythign would be fine, except you CAN’T because you are not allowed to.
What problem is this stupid arrow trying to solve?
