Turning Left on Red Is Part of Driving Culture

Crunch. Another driver has tried to turn left after the light turned red, and someone going the other way (probably a newcomer to Los Angeles) thought that green actually meant “go.”

Turning on the red is so much a part of the driving culture here that police officers routinely wave scared newbies through their first such maneuver, while frustrated drivers piling up behind them honk their horns and wave their arms.

Why, asks Liz Bennett of Los Angeles, do they do that?

“They hang about in the crosswalk until the light goes red, and then lunge through with at least one -- sometimes two -- equally ignorant drivers hanging on,” she complains.

“If you would do a feature explaining the correct way to make a left turn, you would make the world a safer place.”

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Question: Is it legal to turn left after the light has turned red?

Answer: Yes and no. According to driving instructions published by the state Department of Motor Vehicles, it is illegal to “enter an intersection, even when the light is green, unless you can get completely across before the light turns red.”

But turning left on a red light is so much a part of the way people drive here that L.A. traffic planners count on people to turn left after the red to keep traffic flowing.

John Fisher, assistant director of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, points to another section of the motor vehicle code that allows drivers to continue through an intersection if the light turns red while they are in the middle of the street.

This means, he said, that drivers can turn left on red as long as they move into the intersection while the light is green or yellow.

Recognizing traffic flow and safety concerns, the city has begun adding left-turn arrows to a number of the most congested intersections.

New signals are planned for another dozen crowded crossings, including Beverly Boulevard at Fairfax Avenue, Compton Avenue at 55th Street and Melrose and Normandie avenues.

Traffic planners are willing to put in left-turn arrows in less obvious trouble spots at residents’ request, but only at intersections that traffic studies have proved to be unsafe without them.

The culture of turning left on red, Fisher said, grew up in L.A. because the roads and traffic signals were installed before left-turn arrows were common.

Back then, in the 1950s and earlier, traffic flow was much lighter. So there was plenty of time between cars to turn comfortably while the light was still green.

Now, traffic is so heavy at many intersections that drivers wait for the last car to go through on the yellow light, and whiz through their turns after that.

Newer cities, he said, those built in the 1960s and 1970s, don’t have that problem -- their signals were put in with left-turn arrows.

Fisher insists that the red-light turn is safe.

“Cross traffic has this natural two-second delay,” he said. Drivers “take their foot off the brake, they put their foot on the accelerator.... By the time they accelerate, you’ve already turned left and you’re on your way.”

Besides, he said, those left-turn arrows can slow down traffic if nobody wants to turn left. “We’ve made a science of it,” he said.

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Fred Feldon, math department chairman of Coastline Community College in Fountain Valley, wants to know whom to contact to complain if signals don’t work or hold up traffic because they are not programmed properly.

Q: Is there a regional agency or hotline that can take calls reporting problems with traffic signals?

A: No. You have to call the transportation department in the municipality where the signal is located.

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Mark Dotson of Los Angeles raises the further question of why lights on major arterials throughout the city are not better synchronized.

“We have the worst traffic-light system I know of,” he writes. “Was our system built in Bedrock by members of the Flintstone family?”

Q: Are traffic signals in Los Angeles synchronized?

A: About half of the major arterials in the city have synchronized signals, but they don’t always speed up traffic. Sometimes the lights are used to slow the traffic down.

Deputy Mayor Brian Williams, who advises Mayor James K. Hahn on transportation issues, said that while lights on Wilshire Boulevard, Olympic Boulevard and other main streets are generally set to speed the flow of traffic, there are times when traffic planners deliberately turn the system red as a way to keep traffic from backing up at a particularly congested intersection.

For example, he said, some streets are timed so that drivers hit green lights during the morning commute, but red lights in the afternoon. At other times, the city may slow the traffic on a street where an accident has occurred in order to keep cars from clogging up the area.

Signal synchronization projects planned for the San Fernando Valley might have to be put on hold, however, as the state wrestles with its budget crunch. The state had agreed to fund four major projects aimed at coordinating Valley traffic signals, including a $2.2-million project along Victory Boulevard that was completed last fall.

But Gov. Gray Davis has said that the state should hold off from spending any more on congestion relief until the economy improves. Davis’ budget proposal does not include funding for the remaining two L.A. projects, along the Sepulveda Boulevard corridor and around the Ronald Reagan Freeway.

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If you have a question, gripe or story idea about driving in Southern California, write to Behind the Wheel c/o Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, or send an e-mail to behindthewheel@latimes.com.