Right on Red: The Culture War Comes for Traffic Lights

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by Bruce K

Little known traffic law (and I hope they changed it), but here in Massachusetts it is legal to make a left turn on red if the street you are entering is one-way.

Specifically, Massachusetts allows left turns on red if you turning from one one-way street onto another one-way street. This is legal in most states (38 out of 50). 5 states (Alaska, Idaho, Michigan, Oregon and Washington) allow left turns on red from either a one-way or two-way street onto a one-way street. In all cases, you are required to make a full stop before starting the turn.

As noted, turning on red tends to cause more pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions. But interestingly, states that have adopted "Idaho stop" laws (which allows cyclists to treat stop signs like yield signs) have actually had reductions in cyclist crashes.

[fried bake]

Originally Posted by Peter P.

The number of drivers who are oblivious to the "No Turn On Red" signs amazes me. Are they illiterate or selfish?

Guilty as charged. I moved to a new city with lots of these 9 years ago and for the first month or two I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. Still a weird one to me, but I (mostly) get it now.

[unterhausen]

I think pedestrians are mostly trained to expect illegal right turns on red around here. It's a survival skill that most people pick up pretty quickly. The people that have trouble with it are motorists. There is one intersection that features regular crashes, many which are fairly severe, even though the speed limit is only 35mph. I think the problem is the road design, there is a divided slip for the right turn lane. You still have to stop on red, especially if someone is speeding towards you, but this seems to have escaped the notice of a fairly large percentage of the populace. It's not too surprising to see a car that almost got slammed into the ihop dining area.

At the intersection closest to our house they got rid of one of the slip lanes. I didn't really notice that the crashes there involved right turning traffic, but I support getting rid of the slip lane. Still has a right turn lane, but people seem to understand that they have to stop at a red light in a straight-on configuration

Funny thing is they have had to spend a lot of money getting rid of rural stop signs, because motorists are constantly blowing through those and dying. Many have been replaced with stoplights, which are ignored by right turners. Can't win.