Left Turn Questions

Factual Questions
1

Calling traffic engineers!

So recently my township upgraded a particular intersection. It was a high volume road (with no stop signs) which had a low-volume road intersecting it. Up till now, that low volume road had stops signs, and it was business as usual. Pull to the stop sign, wait till it’s safe, then go.

BUUUUUT, the people who wanted to make a left turn OFF of the high-volume road, ONTO the low-volume road, had a bitch of a time because of all the opposing traffic.

So, in comes the traffic light. This is much safer in this situation, I’m not bemoaning that. What chaps my ass, and leads to this question is this:

Both directions on the high-volume road received newly paved and painted dedicated turning lanes. But only ONE direction received a turn arrow. There’s always plenty of people waiting to make the turn from BOTH directions. I can see the traffic volume is skewed heavily in favor of the direction which received the turn arrow, but, if they weren’t gonna accomodate the other turners why put a turn lane in?

Now when I sit there trying to turn…I can’t do it any easier than before. Meanwhile the other direction gets to turn on their arrow. What on earth could be the reasoning here? Are the extra bulbs in the traffic light for the turn arrow that espensive? Is it the sensors in the road whic cost too much? I see no other reason. They were already doing the work. Why NOT put an arrow in both directions? Even if it’s only gonna be disabled until such a time as it is deemed necessary?

2

I’m sure the lack of the turn lane and light was not malice aforethougt against you.

3

I am sure it is all based on traffic counts. Of course, somebody could have screwed up. Have you complained? At least the left turn lane keeps you from blocking the through lane as in the other thread.

4

I’ve not complained, I don’t care enough to get into some kind of debate with an elected official or with some traffic engineer with a soft ego.

I’m just curious as to WHY the other turn arrow would not be put in, since it is quite obviously able to be put there. There’s absolutely nothing stopping it’s installation. In fact, it would help. All the necessary components are there, yet they chose to not use one. It’s just one more bulb on the already installed traffic light. Even if it utilized the exact same timing as the other turn arrow it would work. And as I said, traffic flow damn near needs it NOW, and definitely will in the near future.

It just seems wasteful, because now when it is absolutely needed, they 'll need to shut down the intersection or at least severely impede it in order to put in a turn arrow that should have been there all along.

Makes me think of the PennDOT crews who lean on their shovel for 6 of the 8 hours they work because they don’t want to “work themselves out of a job”. Like saving work for later…or something.

So any traffic engineers out there? Or shovel-leaners?

5

I agree, it was probably calculated on traffic flow. Very unlikely to be an oversight. You can try contacting the city, but I doubt they’re going to change it now.

To deal with it, make a right turn, U turn, and go straight through the light instead of taking the left. It’s going to be way faster, especially if the left-turners have to wait for multiple light cycles to get through.

6

OK, this is only a guess, me being neither a traffic engineer nor familiar with your area.

For the sake of discussion, I’m going to pretend that the high-volume road you mention goes north/south, and that the secondary road goes east/west.

Maybe the traffic engineers (or local politicians) figured it like this:

—Southbound traffic on High Volume Road is always heavy. It goes into downtown or some other busy area.

—Secondary Road heading east is always busy…maybe it goes to the beach, to Home Depot, or it’s the way all the commuters get to the highway.

—Northbound traffic on High Volume Road is usually lighter than southbound.

—Secondary Road heading westward just goes to a few homes and the local cemetery, and isn’t well traveled.

Therefore:

  1. Let’s make a dedicated left-turn-only lane for the large amount of southbound High Volume Road drivers who want to head east on Secondary Road to get to the highway.

  2. We also have to deal with a lot of people on High Volume Road who want to continue south into downtown. Therefore, we need to keep their light green as long as possible.

  3. There are some people who go north on High Volume Road, and want to turn onto Secondary Road westbound to visit the cemetery. While they wait for an opening to turn left, they’re messing things up for the other northbound drivers…so let’s give them a left-turn-only lane too so there’s a safe place for them to wait.

  4. As mentioned in #2, there’s a heavy traffic load on High Volume Road southbound, so we can’t afford to make all those people stop just so the two guys in #3 can go left. The drivers in #3 will sadly just have to wait for an opening.

Again, I don’t know your area, but I suppose that’s how the engineers might have thought it out. Doesn’t mean they’re right—I’m sure they overlook stuff all the time. Maybe a large new housing development was just built along Secondary Road westbound that they didn’t take into account.

And you’re right, they probably should have at least installed a left-turn arrow at that point, even if it would stay deactivated until needed.

Another thing is the town might not have been responsible for financing the improvements—there may have been state or federal “grants” involved. That would probably involve constructing the intersection to a certain standard that even the local politicians had little control over.

Anecdotally, in my father’s small town, there’s a secondary road that leads to the main highway. There was only a small Stop sign, and no street lighting, and occasionally people would go through and crash.

When the locals complained asking for just some better signage, next thing you know a big fancy expensive intersection was all built up, with left-turn lanes, and yet another red light for people to wait at.