Where's My Safe Left Turn

Tuomo kvetches (again): And now that I’m still in a negative place… It can’t be just me, but I find turning left in the Lower Mainland to be next to impossible. People complain about congested traffic all the time, but I am convinced that part of it has to do with the way intersections and turns to the left in particular have been handled. All other things being equal, if it weren’t, then how come my commute home, which involves several more turns to the left than on my way to work, can take well over five minutes longer?

For one, I hate it when the flow of traffic comes to a grinding halt just because someone has to turn left against on-coming traffic. With no way around this driver, everybody has to wait until there is a gap in the traffic flow for the driver to get out of the way. Hello? More turn lanes, anybody?

Ok so what really gets me the most though are turns to the left that offer turn lanes AND lights… but which are still never on or only for like a fraction of a second. You still end up waiting most of the time till the last moment, preventing drivers behind you from turning and/or moving on. Even better yet, the one or two drivers that do manage to squeeze by at the last moment do this despite the risk of blocking and/or avoiding on-coming traffic… So how does this improve general traffic flow and safety?

Here are just two examples of badly timed or managed intersections for left turners that I can think off the top of my head:

* When turning north from the Langley By-pass on to 200 St, the light (!) allows only few cars to proceed at a time from the turn lanes

* In Richmond, when turning left to Lansdowne Road from Garden City Road, the left-turn light is hardly ever on. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I could turn left at a green light; most mornings I vie for that precious gap in the on-coming traffic

Ahhh... now that I have this off my chest, I guess I can move along in my life :-)