Questions and Answers About Your Commute : When Signal Is Just a Blinking Distraction

I find it very annoying to follow a car mile after mile on a freeway with its turn signal constantly blinking.

I have been told that it is illegal to install any device that will cancel a turn signal after a certain length of time.

Can this be true? If not, why don’t car manufacturers use such a device?

Mort Dover

Glendale

Dear Reader:

It’s frustrating to come upon a vehicle that has a turn signal on and appears, to paraphrase comedian George Carlin, to be “going around the world to the left.”

There’s nothing to prevent a timer or other device to be installed in a car that would shut off a signal after a certain amount of time, according to officials with the California Highway Patrol and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The only requirement is that a turn signal must still be able to be shut off either manually or when an automobile’s steering wheel is rotated back to its starting position.

Let’s hope some car manufacturers out there are reading this.

Dear Traffic Talk:

I thought that all protected left turns have a green arrow to distinguish them from left turns against opposing traffic that are typically indicated by a green light. I understand this policy is to inform and educate drivers.

The northbound motorists at Vineland Avenue and Ventura Boulevard just see a green light, although there is no opposing traffic. While this is not necessarily unsafe, uninformed northbound drivers wishing to turn left hesitate.

Shouldn’t there be a left turn arrow at the northwest corner facing south?

Allen Rubenstein

Studio City

Dear Reader:

As you probably know, things have changed at that intersection since you wrote your letter.

Traffic was originally handled by a three-way traffic signal, which allowed only one direction of traffic to be moving at one time. Vehicles turning left across another route had no need to worry about opposing traffic. This is a common practice for intersections that aren’t aligned in a clear, four-way configuration.

These days, northbound and southbound traffic flow simultaneously on Vineland Avenue and are interrupted periodically to allow vehicles from Ventura Boulevard to pass through the intersection. Drivers wanting to turn left and cross another direction of traffic aren’t in a protected lane, so they still see a green light rather than a green arrow.

Brian Gallagher, a city transportation engineer, said the traffic flow was changed several months ago so more vehicles can pass through the intersection.

“The previous operation was very inefficient,” Gallagher said.

Drivers should also be aware of a more recent change at the intersection, Gallagher said. Vehicles driving south on Vineland Avenue who wish to turn left onto Ventura Boulevard can now do so only from the inside lane--not from the middle lane.

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Traffic Talk appears Fridays in The Times Valley Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic in the Valley. Please write to Traffic Talk, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, Calif. 91311. Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted. To record your comments, call (818) 772-3303. Send fax letters to (818) 772-3385.