I live in Hollywood, and as a freelancer have worked all over Los Angeles over the past several years.
One thing I’ve noticed is that there are plenty of left turn lanes, but the vast majority – easily 90%+ – have no left turn signals. We’re talking major surface streets intersecting with other major surface streeets, with cars backed up in the turn lane 10 at a time, and only 2 able to go through once the light turns yellow.
Every other major city I’ve lived in solves the problem with left turn arrows. LA doesn’t, for a reason I can’t fathom.
If necessary, I can give intersection examples, but to be honest it’d be a waste of time. It’d be more effective to list intersections that DO have turn signals, as they are very rare. (And many intersections with turn signals only activate them for certain hours of the day. Other times, they revert to normal green lights, even when the streets are swamped with cars.)
The traffic engineers that designed the system must have been recruited from the Boston area because we have the same problem. I cannot fathom why that may be and have often thought (or screamed) that it is one of the most retarded designs I have ever seen. Like you say, we have busy intersections with traffic back up trying to turn left and only one or two cars can make the turn at any given light cycle and even they have to do it quickly after the light turns.
The mind boggles and I have no idea why someone would design something like that.
Is this true in all of the LA area or just in the older sections? Where I live, the intersections without left turn signals are usually in the older parts of town. Left turn signals are mostly found in the more recently built-up sections.
I’m not native to LA but have been out there a few times, and I figure that they didn’t bother with left turn signals because nobody pays any damn attention to the regular signals anyways.
Seriously, when I first drove in LA I always wondered why I was always the first one off the line when the light turned green. Then someone trying to make a left-hand turn almost creamed me and I figured it out. Do they teach prospective drivers in LA to wait ten seconds after a light turns green before they go, or is that trait Darwinian in origin?
::: Reads OP:::
::: Scratches head:::
::: Re-reads OP:::
HUH?
::: Walks out in front of house, and looks up the street at major intersection. Sees green arrow light:::
HUH?
don’t know just where in LA you are, but there are plenty of green arrows in LA.
Some, not plenty.
When I first lived in LA my boyfriend (who also had just moved here) asked the guy at the DMV who was giving him his driving test why there were so few turn arrows, and the guy said with a straight face, “They’re too dangerous.”
Guess he never saw 3 or 4 cars darting through turning left on the yellow…
There are lots of streets with left arrows (aka protected left turn signals) in Los Angeles. I would say given the size of the city, that Los Angeles may have more of them than any other city.
However, the Hollywood area is older and the streets are narrower and it’s harder to set them up. A left arrow doesn’t exactly speed up traffic. It creates another cycle. You get:
N-S Green
E-W Green
N-W, S-E Left arrow
Another popular combo is the left arrow that just lasts for 2-3 cars and then the rest of the left turn people have to go it on their own.
Come to the San Fernando Valley sometime. You can turn on left arrows all you want.
Or you can just keep going further west and find a ton of them.
OK, this is from memory, just throwing a few out there.
Beverly Hills – Santa Monica has a stretch in front of the police station with lots of left turns. Onto Canyon, Beverly, etc. About 8 streets in a row, all with left turn lanes, not a single light. The entire stretch of left turn lanes backs up every rush hour.
Hollywood & Vine – major left turn lane for cars in that area. Always backed up. No arrow.
La Brea to Sunset, no arrow.
Not an issue of narrow streets – these are all intersections that have the dedicated lanes. And I realize they make cycles last longer, but they also allow cars to turn safely.
Asylum – the reason the cars make a left turn after the light turns red is because there’s no other choice. Hence the reason for this thread.
A significant number of the traffic signals are controlled by a central system called ATSAC. I would assume that the busier intersections have the timing controlled through this system.
However, I would be very surprised if Los Angeles didn’t have the most left turn arrows of any U.S. city.
I have noticed that the several times I have driven in LA, especially driving from Culver City to Venice Beach. Which is not in the city of Los Angeles specifically. Looking at Google Maps, it seems like there was no left turn arrow from Lincoln Blvd onto Venice Blvd. Two very congested streets, IIRC.
A good chunk of Hollywood is represented on the L.A. City Council by Tom LaBonge (5th District). His office would probably know about about the left turn arrows also. http://www.lacity.org/council/cd4/cd4ci1.htm
It is recognized that there are many intersections in the city that need these signals, and they are being installed as the budget allows under the general traffic improvement program. I think they added around 50 intersections in the current batch. The powers that be are aware of the issue and it is more of a budget thing than anything else. Anyway, relief is on the way.