The in basket: I see that Bremerton has added a flashing left turn arrow to another intersection, the one at 11th Street and High Avenue.

I’m among the fans of the flashing yellow lefts, which reduce the amount of time a driver must wait to turn left, compared to left turn signals that are red after a green cycle ends.

I was told the city didn’t have the money to add any more of the signals, after they installed them on nearly all of those on Sixth Street, which they were able to pay for with utility money. Sixth was the designated detour when 11th Street was disrupted by sewer replacement work in 2012, allowing for use of wastewater money for the signals.

I was  curious if the appearance of one at 11th and High signaled more use of them in the city.

The out basket: The flashing yellow at 11th and High isn’t the major reduction of wait times that the others were, because it replaces a green ball light and sign saying left turners must yield on green. So left turns were permitted while oncoming traffic had the green light all along.

Jim Orton, operations manager for city public works, says. “That intersection really needed the flashing yellow (the yield on green ball is not as intuitive as the arrow). We used some parts from other projects to get this in, so the only costs really were labor.

“It is our intent to standardize our left turn pockets with flashing arrows rather than the green ball but this will be done over time.”