Someone who is both as brilliant as they
come and who has a very analytical mind told me years ago that the best way to
improve traffic flow in any urban environment would be to ban all left turns by
vehicles, but especially by cars.
The reason is pretty simple: far too many
car drivers just do that turn very badly, far too often by impeding more
efficient traffic flow either in front of their car (by unnecessarily cutting
off a lane) or more often, behind them (for example, by not moving out far
enough to allow a 2nd vehicle to make it through that same yellow
light).
He’s right, of course, but there may be an
even better reason to ban left turns, namely pedestrian safety.
According to a computer-based simulation
study from Oregon State University, which is available online at http://bit.ly/kZJkWs, researchers determined
that “4-9 percent of the time, drivers making a left turn don’t even bother to
look and see if there are pedestrians in their way.”
Yikes!
Bottom line: if you’re crossing the street,
even in a crosswalk, and you see a car turning left into your path, watch out
for your life.
