Potential Good News for Silverdale Traffic
Thursday, June 11th, 2009Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/psblogs/public_html/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
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I’m not sure this will have much impact, but I see some good news in the announcement that the county commissioners have approved a project to set the left turn arrows at several Silverdale intersections to blink yellow rather than to be solid red at all times when the green arrow is not in force.
At times when traffic is light, the blinking yellow arrows will allow people in left turn lanes at 10 intersections to make their turns when there is no oncoming traffic. With the lights as they are now, drivers must wait for a green arrow even when there are no other cars on the road. It’s similar to the decision made by the city of Bremerton several years ago to convert many of its traffic signals to flashing red after 6 p.m. on weekdays. That recognized that there was no justification to having people wait at red lights when there was no other traffic around.
Silverdale is different. There is more traffic, more hours of the day, than in downtown Bremerton. But, still, there are times when being required to wait for a green arrow justs wastes time and gas.
It’s interesting. Some people, I’m sure, will objet to this change because they think there will be more accidents. That’s certainly possible, and the county certainly should monitor the results after this change to make sure that the result isn’t carnage on Silverdale streets.
But I remember moving to Washington 20 years ago and being surprised that every controlled intersection had green-arrow lights. In Illinois, where I grew up and lived for 35 years, most traffic signals were simply red, yellow or green. Most did not have green arrows for left turns, and drivers in a left lane preparing to turn left simply had to wait for oncoming traffic to clear to make their turn. In some busy intersections, green arrows gave left turners opportunities to turn that they would never otherwise have. But the majority of intersections simply allowed left turns on green, yielding to oncoming traffic. So I don’t think there’s anything inherently dangerous about allowing left turners to turn after yielding.
We’ll see.
— Jeff
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
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