This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
This year I had reason to have to sit through traffic class. The instructor was a Sandy police officer and he started out the class with this question:
What's the number one cause of accidents? The answer was "left hand turns." He said they will ticket the person making the left hand turn in the accident 99 percent of the time.
That was informative as I now am more cautious making a left hand turn.
I was in my hometown, Tucson, this past week and it has a great idea on turn signals I think we should adopt. At intersections that have a left hand turn signal, the arrow comes at the end of the light, not at the beginning of the light as it is here.
Here is what I found: no pressure. You know you are getting through that light, so you don't have to take a chance turning in front of the oncoming car. The driver behind you at the light also knows they will get through the light, so no pressure for them either to try to nose out further into traffic to make sure they get through.
This is an idea the traffic control planners should consider.
David T. Lancaster
Murray