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Today was my first encounter with what is supposed to revolutionize the left turn arrow. Apparently there has been some frustration with sitting at a red arrow when the road is obviously clear. UDOT hopes to tackle this problem with the new 4 light option in the left turn lane. At the top you have a regular red arrow. Next a yellow arrow, and then another yellow arrow beneath that flashes. Of course the bottom is still the solid green arrow.

Whats confusing is that when the yellow arrow is flashing, does that mean that it is about to turn red or that you should hurry and go since you aren’t going to be protected. Absolutely wrong. The yellow arrow flashes during the entire set that the green or red arrows aren’t on. When the light is about to turn red, it switches to a red arrow. If that doesn’t confuse you to death, here is a flash example of how it all works. Hopefully this educates some of you driving around 8th south and 8th west in Orem. I really don’t want to get slammed into cause someone thought they needed to hurry through the flashing arrow.

Summary:

Solid Red Arrow = Stop. No left turns allowed.

Solid Yellow Arrow = Prepare to stop.

Flashing Yellow Arrow = Left turns allowed, but first yield to oncoming traffic and pedestrians.

Solid Green Arrow = Left turns allowed. Proceed with caution.

If you really want to learn more about this “solution” and see more videos on how it works better, visit http://projects.kittelson.com/pplt/LearnAbout/Learn1.htm

http://orem.org/pdf/news/flashingYellow.pdf