This is about U.S. traffic signals. We have an intersection of two streets: east-west 10th Street and north-south York Boulevard (not the actual street names), and a video camera pointed west on 10th Street. The video shows that, when the signals change, 10th Street’s green lamps light and walk signals turn to “walk” at the same time.
If only westbound 10th had a green light while eastbound 10th still had a red signal for a few seconds, as happens at the start of a signal cycle at some intersections, would the westbound walk signals be showing “walk” or “don’t walk”? Stated another way, can I presume from the “walk” signals changing at the same moment as the green lights that both directions of 10th Street have green signals?
No, you cannot make a presumption about the light controlling eastbound traffic on 10th. Without a green left arrow, a car westbound on 10th wanting to turn left onto southbound York must yield to both pedestrians and eastbound traffic. And, yeah, that’s a tough spot without more information.
This is odd traffic light behavior, unless westbound 10th has a protected green left-turn arrow, to turn south onto York, during those “few seconds.” What I’ve seen, in such cases, is that the pedestrian crosswalk on the north side of 10th (not affected by that left-turn arrow) would show “walk” more or less simultaneously with the stoplight for westbound 10th turning green, but the crosswalk on the south side of 10th would not show “walk” until after the left-turn arrow ends.
There’s a left turn lane but no arrows, strictly three-light traffic signals.
a car westbound on 10th wanting to turn left onto southbound York must yield to both pedestrians and eastbound traffic
Interesting you said that. A car westbound on 10th left-turned onto York Blvd. in front of a vehicle going east on 10th. The driver of the turning car is suggesting that eastbound 10th still had a red signal while the video clearly shows he had a green for westbound 10th.
Without more evidence, it’s impossible to say if this is accurate or not. As I noted, if there’s no left-turn arrows for 10th at that intersection, it’d be very unusual programming of those lights for westbound 10th to get a green light, while eastbound was still red.
If the car turning left does not have a green arrow, it must yield. That doesn’t depend on what lights other traffic has or doesn’t have.
Remember, right of way isn’t something you have, it’s something you yield. And left turners generally have to yield, and specifically in this situation definitely needed to yield.
This sounds to me like the driver in question got a ticket, and/or caused a collision, due to their left turn, and is trying to argue that they were not in the wrong. Again, barring more evidence, and a very unusually-programmed traffic light at that intersection, I strongly suspect that that driver is full of crap.
It would not surprise me to learn that the driver was impatient, and “punched it” as soon as they had a green light, figuring that they would get through their turn before eastbound traffic got very far into the intersection, and/or they just didn’t care, and assumed that eastbound traffic would yield to them, rather than running into them.
There’s some interesting traffic light behavior that I’ve seen lately. I doubt it has anything to do with the question in this thread, but it seems related.
Anyway, the behavior is that the pedestrian signals get a “walk” a couple seconds before the light turns green for vehicles. During those couple seconds, the lights are red in all directions.
I mostly notice this in one of the closest traffic lights to my house. That intersection has turn signals for the main road (a state highway), but none for the side road. I notice this only on the side road (crossing the main road), because that’s the way I’m going. I don’t know if it also works that way on the other direction. But I’ve seen it on one or two other intersections.
That’s become common in high density zones where I live in California. It gives pedestrians a chance to start crossing to delay impatient cars from turning before yielding.
Also becoming common is blinking yellow left arrows. Used where the through lanes still have red and the oncoming traffic has green arrows.
I don’t know about elsewhere, but here (Washington County OR) the blinking yellow turn signals are not restricted to just when through traffic has red. They’re on their own pattern, starting about three seconds after the oncoming traffic gets a green and going through the entire green light. Or maybe they start later, depending on how much oncoming traffic is backed up at the light. It’s rare for traffic lights around here to not have the blinking yellow arrows. I understand we were an early adopter of that.
A car westbound on 10th left-turned onto York Blvd. in front of a vehicle going east on 10th. The driver of the turning car is suggesting that eastbound 10th still had a red signal while the video clearly shows he had a green for westbound 10th.