Era of the flashing yellow arrow
Posted at 10:31 AM on September 8, 2010
by Bob Collins
(5 Comments)
Filed under: Bridges and roads
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is unveiling new traffic signals in a city where drivers consider red lights to be mere suggestions -- Woodbury.
The new flashing yellow turn signal is intended to warn drivers that oncoming traffic has a green light. MnDOT says studies show the flashing yellow arrow is safer.
The first use of the new signal begins today at the Interstate 94 and Highway 95 interchange in Woodbury. MnDOT tested the idea at the intersection of Highway 110 and Highway 149 in Mendota Heights.
Comments (5)
The travesty of an intersection at 7th & Montreal & Lexington in St. Paul needs one of these desperately.
I was about blanket-indict the driving skills demonstrated in Woodbury, but the I-94/MN95 intersection getting the flashing yellow arrow isn't (arguably) really in Woodbury, at least no the part so worthy of derision.
It is about time! Red turn arrows are really only needed for a few hours each day, AM and PM rush hours. Nothing burns me more than waiting at an empty intersection for the lights to turn.
Maybe it's a problem with wood-themed suburbs. Here in Maple Grove, the full stop before turning right on red is purely a suggestion. Most don't even seem to slow down. I have started to wonder if the law changed and I missed it.
I suspect that the flash and color change for the turn light will get about as much respect as the full on red these people are coasting through.
The flashing yellow arrow requires a yield not a stop.
Red arrows have been used to prevent permissive turns up until now to prevent a hazard called "yellow trap." Google it. The Flashing Yellow Arrow system prevents yellow trap without preventing permissive turns.
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