What the heck is a blinking yellow left turn arrow?

[Vic]

Same as an unprotected green. Proceed with caution, oncoming traffic has a green light and the right-of-way. The difference is that blinking yellow left arrows are for left turn only lanes that also get a protected green arrow every rotation. So now if you miss the green arrow, you don't have to sit there and wait the whole rotation if there's no oncoming traffic. So it's a good thing.

 

[Mo0o]

Flashing yellow: caution (same as unprotected green)
Flashing red: essentially a stop sign

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Wow that is indeed weird.

I was on a bus (good thing as I would of been confused) and I actually saw a red AND green at the same time. WTF? Aparantly it means go, because the bus never stopped.

Like, it was red AND green on the same panel, not like, red for one lane and green for the other, it was the same light panel, both the top and bottom were lit.

I've seen those instances, where they are indicating the protected direction of traffic:

i.e.:

[Red]
[Yellow]
[Green]
[Left Green]

Where Red and Green are solid, but Left Green is off, indicating that left turn is prohibited but you can continue driving straight ahead; also when Red and Left Green are solid, indicating that you are only permitted to turn left.

I've never seen a traffic light that only had 1 each of Red/Yellow/Green have multiple colors lit, except during some kind of failure/exception that occurred as I was approaching an intersection.

 

[BoomerD]

http://www.michigan.gov/docume...urnSignal_179966_7.pdf

 

[imthebadguy]

hahaha at reading the title i knew you were from michigan

 

[Red Squirrel]

Originally posted by: GeekDrew

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Wow that is indeed weird.

I was on a bus (good thing as I would of been confused) and I actually saw a red AND green at the same time. WTF? Aparantly it means go, because the bus never stopped.

Like, it was red AND green on the same panel, not like, red for one lane and green for the other, it was the same light panel, both the top and bottom were lit.

I've seen those instances, where they are indicating the protected direction of traffic:

i.e.:

[Red]
[Yellow]
[Green]
[Left Green]

Where Red and Green are solid, but Left Green is off, indicating that left turn is prohibited but you can continue driving straight ahead; also when Red and Left Green are solid, indicating that you are only permitted to turn left.

I've never seen a traffic light that only had 1 each of Red/Yellow/Green have multiple colors lit, except during some kind of failure/exception that occurred as I was approaching an intersection.

That's the only time I've ever seen 2 solid colors here, is during a failure. Usually after a power outage. One side will usually be flashing yellow and the other side flashing red / yellow, if I recall. It means you have to treat it like a 4 way stop, but nobody actually does that, it's more like "go through as fast as possible and hope nobody else is doing the same".

During that black out where they were completely off, there was quite a lot of accidents lol.

 

[xcript]

Turn left for free pancakes.

 

[SoulAssassin]

Originally posted by: imthebadguy
hahaha at reading the title i knew you were from michigan

Michigan needs to figure out how to make a left turn. And this is from a guy who grew up in Jersey...the land of circles and jughandles.

 

[notposting]

Been seeing more in Detroit metro area.

I think it is a more precise method of saying "go if you can, yield to the green traffic going straight the opposite way" while also not *technically* requiring a stop before proceeding like a blinking red would imply.
The blinking red is equivalent to a stop sign--but if you're on a busy road and the traffic coming at you has a break in it, are you going to stop at the line and then go? Only if you want to be rear-ended.

Also MI is getting into roundabouts. Maybe they figure that will distract us from the fucking craters in the roads (and from our inept politicians).

 

[Fayd]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: NSFW

Originally posted by: ironwing
Proceed with caution, yielding to avoid an accident. Usually it means that traffic coming from another direction has a green so watch out.

That's what the blinking red is for???

blinking red = stop before proceeding?

the confusion is why they started blinking yellows. It makes more sense to me.

blinking yellow is yield, blinking red is stop sign.

what's so hard about this?

 

[wwswimming]

exercise great caution before voting for a liberal democrat ?

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: wwswimming
exercise great caution before voting for a liberal democrat ?

what about a conservative democrat or a liberal republican?

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: GeekDrew

Originally posted by: wwswimming
exercise great caution before voting for a liberal democrat ?

what about a conservative democrat or a liberal republican?

or...<gasp> a "compassionate conservative?"

 

[Beanie46]

Originally posted by: BoomerD

Originally posted by: GeekDrew

Originally posted by: wwswimming
exercise great caution before voting for a liberal democrat ?

what about a conservative democrat or a liberal republican?

or...<gasp> a "compassionate conservative?"

That's an oxymoron......and anyone who believes in such is a moron themselves.....

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Vic
Same as an unprotected green. Proceed with caution, oncoming traffic has a green light and the right-of-way. The difference is that blinking yellow left arrows are for left turn only lanes that also get a protected green arrow every rotation. So now if you miss the green arrow, you don't have to sit there and wait the whole rotation if there's no oncoming traffic. So it's a good thing.

:thumbsup:

They had been putting a lot of these around the Beaverton area before I left. It was nice.

 

[AlienCraft]

The answer to one of Adam Carolla's favorite rants, "Red Left Turn Arrows"?

I'll take Radio Trivia for $200., Alex.

 

[Itchrelief]

Originally posted by: Vic
Same as an unprotected green. Proceed with caution, oncoming traffic has a green light and the right-of-way. The difference is that blinking yellow left arrows are for left turn only lanes that also get a protected green arrow every rotation. So now if you miss the green arrow, you don't have to sit there and wait the whole rotation if there's no oncoming traffic. So it's a good thing.

Around these parts there is a separate solid green used for the left-turn lanes to indicate unprotected turns. Caused a little bit of confusion when the signals were all switched to this type (before you could not make unprotected turns from left-turn lanes that had the green arrow). The blinking yellow arrow probably causes a lot more confusion because people will think the light may turn red soon and not proceed into the intersection.

I guess the blinking yellow allows the reuse of the old signal lamp assemblies, though.

 

[alkemyst]

wow driving 15 years and a flashing yellow is cause for a post? Are you counting time actually steering the car when not on your father's lap?