January 11, 2011
Life Without Left Turns
I once was hit while making a left turn. The driver of a car coming in the opposite direction ran the red light, striking the rear of the minivan I was driving, and spinning it 180 degrees. I walked away, badly shaken. My mom’s minivan was totaled.
I still hate making left turns.
A restricted-crossing U-turn, or superstreet, in Troy, Michigan (courtesy Dept. of Transportation)
I’m not the only one. UPS minimizes left turns for its delivery trucks to save on fuel. (And it works, as the Mythbusters demonstrated last year.) In the 1960s, the state of Michigan designed an intersection known as the “Michigan left” that prevents people driving on side streets from making left turns onto a multi-laned divided road; if they wish to go left, they’ll first have to go right and then make a U-turn. And superstreets, or restricted crossing U-turns, which are found in some other parts of the country, such as North Carolina, work in a similar way, preventing left turns. It’s never really caught on, though, since it seems to be a big inconvenience.
However, a new study from North Carolina State University says that superstreets are actually more efficient than traditional intersections. The researchers collected data from three superstreets in North Carolina that had traffic lights and looked at travel time for both right and left turns as well as passing straight through. They also examined collision data from 13 superstreet intersections in that state that didn’t have traffic lights.
“The study shows a 20 percent overall reduction in travel time compared to similar intersections that use conventional traffic designs,” says NCSU engineering professor Joe Hummer, one of the researchers who conducted the study. “We also found that superstreet intersections experience an average of 46 percent fewer reported automobile collisions—and 63 percent fewer collisions that result in personal injury.”
A life without left turns is starting sound better and better.
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What is interesting is the US’s failure to embrace european-style “traffic circles” (“roundabouts” in the UK). These seem to be by far the most efficient way to route traffic…
I was in the car with my now ex husband, and my son, me in the passenger seat, my ex driving, and my son, not yet 4, behind the driver’s seat that day, and we were t boned at over 50 mph because of left turns. 3 lanes of oncoming traffic at a standstill, traffic was heavy, 2 lanes stopped at the traffic light on both sides of the intersection. in order for us to see if we had right of way to make the U turn, we had to go out in the intersection and peer into the 3rd lane. the vehicle that hit us, on my side of the car, while we were stopped and looking, was travelling into the sun, hampering their visibility, and accelerating, already at roughly 50 mph. the driver hit the firewall of my car, right at my feet, caving the car in about 2 feet, and continuing to smash it in on me, throwing me into the wall of the car, as well as around the car like a ragdoll from the waist up. why? because the seat hinge for the back of the car seat i was sitting in gave way and collapsed. i had no back support, so i was flopping around from my hips up. between my head smacking the side of the car, and being thrown around like that, i was the proud owner of a major head injury, and dead clinically for 2 minutes. no respirations, no pulse. a husband panics at that point, they don’t think to do CPR necessarily. i suddenly come back, we have no idea why, and i got to spend a total of 4 and a half weeks defying medical diagnoses. i wasn’t supposed to live, then i would be a vegetable, then i would never be able to take care of my kid or be able to be home alone, go back to college, or drive. i finished 6 years of college before taking a hiatus for health reasons, all the while still studying, and now i’m preparing to move to los angeles, alone with my kid, to work and go back to school.
left turn lanes have laws that place blame on the driver who made the left turn. the driver can’t see if they have right of way without doing what we did. we were cited. the person who hit us was truly the one in the wrong. speeding, poor visibility, etc. 3 rights make a left. if it prevents what i had to go through, do it. put in a roundabout. no one should have to go through what i did.
[...] can read more about superstreets in Grist or on the Smithsonian’s blog. In the meantime, sing along with [...]
[...] Never make left turns. Via Boing [...]
what about roundabouts?
J. Edgar Hoover would have been thrilled withthis study. One of my favorite bios of the former FBI director was by an ex-agent named Joseph Schott. The book was called “No Left Turns.” And yeah, Hoover used to forbid his drivers from making left turns when he was in the car, according to Schott. It seems he had been in an accident once when a driver was making a left turn. He also didn’t like sitting in the left seat, which he allegedly called “the death seat.”
Hmm. You can’t turn left in General Pinochet’s cadillac. Guess he was ahead of the game this time.
Our society has finally arrived when the Smithsonian starts quoting Derek Zoolander.
Trying to interpret the photo accompanying. It sort of looks like you could turn left if you were coming from the left edge of the picture intially.
The “superstreet” is essentially a spread-out roundabout (or traffic circle, take your pick), a great innovation that is very slowly catching on here in Canada. Why they are not used more, or invoke dislike, is anybody’s guess. No traffic lights to maintain, no waiting!
My first car was a 1972 Volkswagen Beetle, which would have been swell, except that it was 1982 and this old beater had the floor missing from under the gas pedal, so Fred Flintstone would have been completely comfortable driving it. I drove it across country from the Midwest to New York and on the way, my little bug lost the ability to turn left.So where ever that I wanted to go, it had to be on the right. Or I had to make a lot of right turns to get left. I guess I was ahead of the times.
Rohan – We have roundabouts in my city, and they cause more accidents than the regular intersections. The city council thought they’d be a good idea to keep traffic flowing through these intersections, but then forgot to tell people how to drive around them. Now years and countless news stories later, trucks still drive up over the curbs and walkways trying to cut across them, people still try to turn left in them, and others think they have to stop at every road entry point. Then there are my favorites: the ones who drive into it, then out at the next street, turn around and drive into it again, then back out at the next road, etc. You can have the best idea in the world, but if you don’t tell people how to work with it, it becomes the worst.
It will never catch on here in the deep South. They hate all things progressive and ignore no turn signs anyway. The Bubba cops won’t enforce anything and any suggestions are met with why don’t you go back where you came from.We had this design in New Jersey in the 1960s by the way.
Years (late 1960′s)ago NJ started to eliminate left turns, cross streets and traffic lights on many highways. You have to go to an intersection with an overpass or has a traffic light controlled jug-handle turn. No lefts only right turns.
I was back last year on business found that trip that used to take an hour or more in bumper to bumper traffic now took about 30 minutes, during the same time of day that I had used the same road in past. No new lanes, or alternate roads were added.
Are there no large trucks on these superstreets?
i live in PA, but work in NJ. the jug handles are awful. they should be completely eliminated. now, the superstreet idea, i could get behind that.
I have used and don’t like roundabouts. They do have some improvements for heavy inner city traffic, like pull off areas for busses and cabs, and a lane for bikes, etc. I am stii waiting for trains and traffic never to use the same pathways i.e. no more RR crossings, etc.
Aside from the issues already mentioned, I think that superstreets can be implemented in less width.
Just what we need, more reasons for roadway expansion. The safest (and often fastest) option is to ditch the cars.
These new innovatons in traffic technology all have at least one fatal flaw: They go against the flow. I’m talking about the standard traffic flow pattern that each of us has come to expect, found in driver’s license manuals and driver’s ed courses. Travelling state to state should be smooth, without having to brace yourself for the next “freak-show” intersection(Google Image Search: Diverging Diamond) you might come to.
I save gas, lives, and nervous energy on these new highways by avoiding them altogether. If I get to where I can’t execute a simple left turn safely, I’ll turn in my keys.
You know what works similarly to this and has been proven everywhere in the world?
Roundabouts.
They’re smaller, too.
Roundabouts have already solved this problem, as mentioned above. The problem in the states is that there are so few of them that drivers do not get used to them, and end up fearing them, believe it or not. Left turns in traffic are the motorcycle drivers nemesis.
Roundabouts? On a highway? Can I have what you all are smoking? At least we will never have kids driving in groups in the roundabout, blocking access… Oh wait! we have that here now that we have roundabouts. Roundabouts are a good idea, but goes against the american “king of the road” mindset. I do like the idea of no left turns, ironically enough, the cityhas made the access to some lots require islands blocking left turn access…
I think the problem with anything new, as noted above, is that no one thinks to educate the drivers.
I live in an area with multiple municipalities that have all experimented with traffic circles. Unfortunately, they’re all different. Approaching one, you don’t know if taking the outer lane means you must take the first right, the second right (eg: continue on the road you started), or none of the above.
We’ve had left-turn yield lights for over a decade, and there’s still a portion of the population that stops behind the white line and waits for a green arrow.
Some people are spatially unaware. We have many intersections with dual left-turn lanes. Certain drivers don’t grasp the idea that if you need to turn right after making your left turn, that you need to be in the right left-turn lane.
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[...] without left [...]
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While working at AT&T I was required to attend driver training, the policy at that time was if the employee was in an accident while making a left turn the employee is at fault, whatever the circumstances. Employees were instructed that under no circumstances were employees (while driving a company vehicle) allow to make a left hand turn.
In traffic engineering control of left turns is usually called access management. Left turns are certainly a problem no matter how convenient they are most of the time. Over 25% of fatalities are at intersections and over 50% of all accidents. There are over 4,000 roadway injuries and 100 deaths each day in the US. Safety must be improved. We are losing too many of our friends and their contributions to society. Over the last 30 years there has been a national effort to manage left turns better. Left turns out of the driveway are more dangerous than left turns in. In most of Europe and much of Asia, it is considered bad engineering to allow a non-controlled left turn on an arterial, but not in the US. There are now over 2,000 modern roundabouts in the US. With a few location exceptions of poor design or uninformed drivers, these achieve 60 to 95 % injury reductions and almost eliminate fatalities while still providing for turns in all directions as well as safe u-turns. Old traffic circles are not as safe and operate completely differently from modern roundabout designs. As we get older our ability to make safe left turns diminishes for a number of reasons. Clearwater Florida, with the highest percentage of elderly in the nation, has fully embraced roundabouts as the safest intersection for their community.
NEVER have been able to turn left. Not even on my bike as a kid. ??? I am left handed, which some find odd given my aversion to turning left. Also, I was also broad-sided while turning left in my car several years ago. I am so happy to read this information. I feel “normal” for the first time in my life! Thanks Doup.
That would be life without right turns for the rest of the world on the other side.
[...] to find out that we would all get to our destinations more quickly (and be safer in the process) if left turns were eliminated. Or, presumably, right turns here in [...]
[...] Zielinski, writing on the Smithsonian blog, argued that life without left turns would be much safer. Converting that to the UK road system would mean dropping right turns instead. [...]
[...] random. Designing streets sans Louies actually helps save on fuel, Smithsonian Magazine's Surprising Science blog reports. The article points out that the trend has never caught on nationally, "since it seems to be a [...]
I have had 40 years experience driving approximately 25,000 miles per year on roads equipped with left hand turn lanes,round-abouts,and jug-handle turns. I personnaly have nevr experience any difficulty or accident driving any roads designed with these features. I have never witnessed an accident that could be blamed on the use of these features. I believe that road safety and acccident prevention is the responsibilty of vehicle drivers. However, I have noticed that the State of New Jersey which has utilized extensively the round-about and the jug-handle turn on local roads is now in the process of eliminating round-abouts and jug-handle turns with a better roadway design that elevates cross over and turning lanes. This feature is usually reserved for major highways instead of local roads. Based on the description of the super-street I’m inclined to belive that the intersection safety study may be flawed and should be reviewed before investing billions of dollars in road infrastructure changes that may not necessarily improve either safety or traffic flow.
I honestly don’t get the concern here. Left turns, like any other driving maneuver, have a simple rule – if you can’t see well enough to proceed safely, don’t.
The posting above about the woman turning left who said pulling out into traffic was necessary to see really highlighted this. It is *never* appropriate to pull into oncoming traffic to “see if it is safe”. If you have to do something risky just to get good sight lines, don’t turn left at that location.
I think it’s awesome that the name of the professor trying to think of ways to prevent unnecessary fuel usage is named “Hummer.”
this is so so so old. Have you ever seen Brasilia ? No traffic lights. Just right turns, Everywhere. And this was designed in the 50s.
Ahhhh, Familiar debate. Here in NE Wisconsin and Wisconsin in general we are seeing more and more roundabouts being put in.
I say about time. The first time I encountered a roundabout was in the UAE and it seemed perfectly clear to me, hit the inside lane for lefts, middle lane for straight ahead, and outside lane for rights, yield to those in the roundabout and signal & clear out the blindspot before exiting. Don’t stop unless to avoid an accident or due to stoplight (some of the rondabouts did have stoplights at entrances and in the roundabouts themselves, some of the roundabouts were huge with maybe 10 roads feeding in & out of them).
Once in a whle I found it annoying I was unable to make a left turn but it was no big deal. The roundabouts here in my area are designed so large vehicles can get their wheels up on the center, but yes, I’ve heard of people trying to counter the flow to try to make a left turn and other such things.
I really hate to arbitrarily stop.
That said, roundabouts are not for every intersection, consideration must be given to traffic patterns and the like.
As far as the creeping-sneaking peak to make the left it is hard to be able to predict if you have to. No oncoming traffic is attempting a left and you enter the turn lane and by the the time you reach the front there is a semi or a big vehicle of some sort.
Where I live, I know the good, the bad, and the ugly left turn intersections and drive so as to completely avoid the ugly, use the bad only if it will buy me a lot (in terms of time or access to a place I want to go to), and comfortably use the good.
If you turn into oncoming traffic without being able to see if anyone is coming and there is an accident, it is your fault. My parents were driving in the left lane of a two-lane road, at legal speeds, and they were hit by a woman who had been “let in” by a car stopped in the right lane. She couldn’t see if there were any cars in the left lane, but she decided to trust the person who let her through, and hit my parents’ car. The “helpful” driver didn’t stop after the accident that he helped cause. If you can’t see DON’T TURN THERE. And don’t assume that someone who is letting you into traffic is looking to see if there are other cars coming.
Living in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where many of the major streets had bus-exclusive lane down the middle of the streets, and no-left-turns were implemented to keep cars from unnecessarily having cars cross the lanes of the buses. They also use fly-overs when necessary. It works phenomenally during peak hours, but after 11P when the buses stop it can be pretty annoying. It does seem to tame the traditional Brazilian aggressive driving habits, at least somewhat.
[...] Life Without Left Turns [...]
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I was stopped at a red light when i realized i needed to make a left turn onto a left turn lane only i crossed between the white n yellow opening an seen a semi truck with left turn light on coming from the left turn lane only lane towards me , as i was going into the left turn lane only he was braking hot,,,, he hit me in the drivers door an drug me. he had been in the left turn lane only for blocks . I felt i had a clear sight of him an thought he was going to turn left before the intersection which was about 3 or 4 car lengths he was going about 45 miles an hour using the left turn lane as his own lane. i got a found at fault for failure to yield , i dont understand he was going that fast down the left turn lane only from one light to the next an i turned where it was clearly marked left turn lane only exit , i live in michigan an we were on a 4 lane highway with a left turn lane only lane an he was driving down it for his only personal lane , wonder someone else had to go into the left turn lane only lane an couldnt be cause he had it taken over i find there should be a law somewhere where it states he has to turn like i did where it was clearly marked not hauling down the center lane am i right or not>>> the crash report states i pulled into the left turn lane only in front of him yet i have picture of his braking which was from the trailer crossing over into the oncoming traffic 3 or 4 cars to the light,, he shouldnt have first off i think not been using that lane as his. secondly going that fast down the left turn lane only lane while traffic was stopped an he had been traveling that far from the left turn lane only from one light to the next,, please help i would appreciate it ty…
Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three rights make a left (at least in NYC).