Q: I travel all over Orange County and can get frustrated by those dedicated left-turn signals. So many times they are red with no oncoming traffic. Then many times it turns green as oncoming traffic arrives. But I noticed that Fullerton allows a left turn with a yellow signal allowing a cautious turn when there is no oncoming traffic. Why don\u2019t more cities have this option?<\/p>\n
\u2013 David Mitchell, Tustin<\/p>\n
A: Irvine put them in, too, a half-dozen or so years ago, and so did other cities across the country. Monterey Park has \u2019em as well.<\/p>\n
It comes down to preference.<\/p>\n
Some cities just prefer staying with the old-school green ball \u2014 with those taking left turns knowing they can go when it is all clear.<\/p>\n
Anaheim is one of those.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth (lights) try to find the same goal, to improve traffic flow,\u201d said Mike Lyster, a city spokesman. \u201cThere are strong cases to be made for either. \u2026 We have continued with the green ball for consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not using the yellow flashing arrows does not restrict the chance to turn left in Anaheim, he said, as drivers can do the same on a green light.<\/p>\n
Because Anaheim, with Disneyland, the Angels and other nifty attractions, pulls in a lot of visitors, the city wants to ensure those from far away are not confused by its traffic lights.<\/p>\n
Two decades ago or so, Fullerton was part of a national test of those yellow-flashing signals, which try to tell drivers: \u201cYou can make a left here, just be real careful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, in late 2009, the feds gave approval to them, and that style of traffic signal started spreading somewhat throughout the country.<\/p>\n
Some such traffic signals are accompanied by a sign that says, \u201cLeft turn YIELD on flashing\u201d and has a yellow arrow illustration.<\/p>\n
At intersections with a different signal head for the left-turn lane than the one for the other lanes, some traffic engineers find the yellow flashing arrows less confusing for drivers and believe they promote more traffic flow.<\/p>\n
Q: Hi Honk. Many times, when approaching a red light, I want to turn left. But the left-turn-only lane is full, and I end up blocking a lane of traffic. I worry that an inattentive driver is going to slam into me. This does not seem particularly safe. But is it legal? And if an accident were to ensue, who would be at fault?<\/p>\n
\u2013 Mike Foy, Westminster<\/p>\n
A: Under California law, that would be a violation, said Sgt. Alan Aoki of Westminster\u2019s finest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a nutshell \u2026 no person shall bring a vehicle to a complete stop upon a highway so as to impede or block the normal flow of traffic,\u201d he said in an email. \u201cAs far as being at fault if a collision occurs with this situation, that would depend on the totality of the circumstances, i.e. other drivers\u2019 actions preceding the collision, other contributing factors. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cMy suggestion would be to proceed to the next signal and make either a legal and safe left turn or a legal and safe U-turn to get back on track.\u201d<\/p>\n
HONKIN\u2019 FACT: From Los Angeles City Hall, it is 2,777 miles to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum<\/a> at ground zero, a 42-hour drive, much of it on the 40 Freeway, according to Google Maps.<\/p>\n So far, and yet so close.<\/p>\n To ask Honk questions, reach him at honk@ocregister.com. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com\/tag\/honk<\/a>. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q: I travel all over Orange County and can get frustrated by those dedicated left-turn signals. So many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,138,3159,62821,100,136,1967],"class_list":["post-460573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-driving","tag-honk","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}