Drivers Get It Straight About Turning Left

Two Encino readers, Janet Wolf and Annette Seydel, had questions about last week’s Traffic Talk column, which dealt with left-turn signals. In it the California Highway Patrol and the Department of Motor Vehicles said that a red arrow is a red arrow and no left turns are allowed, but the Department of Transportation said drivers can make a left turn when the arrow is not showing or is red as long as it is safe. They found some confusion with the two opinions.

Here is a further explanation of the law from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, 1997 California Driver Handbook, Page 27:

The only left turns that can be made against a red light are onto a one-way street.

A car may turn left onto a one-way street where traffic moves left if there is no sign that prohibits the left turn. If the light is red, be very careful to yield to pedestrians, bicycles or vehicles moving on the green light.

There are no turns allowed against a red arrow. Neither a right nor a left turn is allowed against a red arrow.

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Dear Traffic Talk:

For those of us who have to travel on Burbank Boulevard, the ride between Lankershim and the Burbank city line at Clybourn is awful.

I have lived in this area for 49 years and I don’t remember that part of Burbank Boulevard being repaved or resurfaced. There are potholes and cracks along that route. When will something be done to fix Burbank Boulevard between Clybourn and Lankershim?

Irehne Cagan, North Hollywood

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Dear Irehne:

Burbank Boulevard and Clybourn Avenue to Lankershim Boulevard are all part of the city of Los Angeles Bureau of Street Maintenance Resurfacing Program 1998-99, bureau director Gregory Scott said. But the resurfacing is on hold until June 1, 2000, when sewer repairs in the area are due to be completed.

Scott said that even though a street is listed in the resurfacing program, it must receive a construction clearance by utility companies maintaining structures on or beneath the street. If a utility company has work scheduled affecting the roadway, street resurfacing will be deferred until the utility work is completed.

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Dear Traffic Talk:

I live near the intersection of Woodman Avenue and Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks. When Bloomingdale’s was being expanded, they were required to provide traffic abatement measures around the mall.

There was already a two-lane left arrow from northbound Woodman onto eastbound Riverside, and for some unimaginable reason they chose to shorten the time the arrow remains green after Bloomingdale’s opened.

The result is that on peak shopping days, vehicles coming off the Ventura Freeway heading to the mall constantly block traffic on surface streets because too few cars get through each green arrow. Can this light be reset to its previous timing?

Dawn Charouhas, Sherman Oaks

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Dear Dawn:

The signal has been increased by four seconds after an evaluation by the city’s Department of Transportation, spokesman Brian Gallagher said. The green time for the northbound left-turn signal was reduced to provide extra green time for the new eastbound left-turn signal that was added last year.