yet another traffic question.

Yes, I searched. How do you search something like this?
On a thoroughfare in my town the median is about 1.5 lanes wide. All grassy and nice, I must admit. When you make a left turn onto another street, you can easily fit aimed down that street with room left over. And there is my question;
Is it legal to complete the turn against a red if clear? There is a signal.

                                              c
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                                            l    l
                                            l    l

____________l l
southbound
____________l l
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median
____________l l
northbound , make a left here>
____________l l
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mangeorge :stuck_out_tongue:

Forgot the place-keepers.
Sorry. All the “little” els should line up.
Use your branes, mangeorge

I’m probably just not following the sceario correctly, but how could it be possible to make a left at a red light?

I think I get this. You are on a divided highway. You have a green light and turn left. The moment you swing around to the left, you are now facing another traffic light, which is red, because you are now perpendicular to the traffic that still has the green. The OP wants to know if you can just drive across that lane of traffic since you began your turn on a green light.

The answer is no, you are now facing a red light and you must obey it.

Not sure I follow. Are you talking about the red indication for the westbound traffic. In essence, stopping mid-intersection because you are facing the westbound red?

no, you didn’t. The normal text won’t display them. If you want to use text art, you need to put it in a code box.

Was your drawing supposed to look like this?



                          c
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                        l    l
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________________________l    l____________ 
southbound
________________________l    l____________
                        l    l
median                  l    l 
________________________l    l____________
n.b., make a left |here>                                  
________________________l    l____________
                        l    l
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As for your question… are you asking, “if my car is where ‘|here>’ is, and the light is red, can I turn into the space in the median?”

If you are, please explain to me how that is any different from turning left on a normal road against the light. I would say it’s a pretty clear ‘no’ to the reworded question above.

Depends. Traffic lights are tied to a painted stop line. If you are over that line, you don’t have to obey it, even if the traffic light is physically in front of you (an example of this is turning left at a light-controlled intersection [with no median] but with no arrows on the lights. If your car is over the line waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear, you can still move off on the red).

In this case it would depend if there is a stop line painted in line with the western edge of the median (in which case, yes he’d have to stop), or if it’s way back on the eastern side of the intersection for westbound traffic (in which case he wouldn’t).

Yes, the eb/wb traffic has the red. I don’t know for sure about the line, but I’ll have a look.
Now I have to learn how to do a code box. Thanks, JAG. That’s how it was supposed to look.

It depends on where the stoplights are.

If there is one at ‘y’ in the above diagram, then NO, you don’t have to stop after turning left.

If there is one at both ‘x’ and ‘y’ (probably operating together), then YES, after you turn left onto the street, you still have to stop at stoplight ‘x’.

[There is an example of this just a couple blocks from me, with a parkway in that median area. (Minnehaha Pkwy & 28th Ave S.) I often have to stop twice to make it thru that intersection. But it’s quick, and the view of the parkway is relaxing.]

Aha! I think I know what you are getting at. Allow me to reorient your map, and add a few things… (btw, the command in VB is a simple [ code ] w/o the spaces.)



                     |  | |   M   |  ^ |
                     |  | |   E   |  | |
                     |  \/|   D   |  | |
_____________________|_   |_______|    |__________
  Cross Street            R            |
_____________________|     _______  G ____________
                     |    |   I   |your|
                     |    |   A   | car|
                     |    |   N   |here|



(I’ve flipped the road 90 degrees for convenience.)

You are at a green light, at a stop line on the road, and want to turn left. Once you turn left, you now face a red light. What do you do? You keep going, unless there is a white line on the road in front of you. As has been mentioned upthread, the lights are ‘tied’ to lines. So long as there is no new line, I would assume that the light you see refers to the drivers to the right of your original position.

Dangit! On preview, I see that t-bonham@scc.net has beaten me to it. Well, it’s too pretty to throw out so I’m posting anyway. :stuck_out_tongue:

Sometimes there’re signs at intersections in my area that remind the less bright amongst us that yes, you should complete your left turn through such an intersection after ensuring that traffic is clear. In most cases these days, though, you have “no left turn” at such intersections, and have to do a Michigan left.

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southbound
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l ^ lNow here facing red light on cross street?
median If so, wait for light to be legal or call
__________________l l______local police dept.
northbound , make a left here> red light
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Is this the situation in question and does it answer the ? ?

The drawing will not format like your original, How do you get spaces to stay put?

I assume you are making a left turn from north bound divided highway into a two or four lane cross street and that you a facing a red light from the west bound lane where you are in the median of the divided highway.
I would obey the light which is controlling you movement lacking any official information to the contrary. Better no ticket that to get one to save the litght time.

cough