A light bulb goes off: Try flashing green

Re “New Signals to Light Way for L.A. Left Turners,” April 26

The sad state of affairs regarding the left-turn situation in L.A. has puzzled me ever since I moved here nine years ago. Why does it have to be so painful to attempt a left turn at a busy intersection? Good people of Los Angeles, you should know there is a very simple solution to this problem, and it doesn’t require installing expensive new signals: flashing green at the start of the green cycle giving priority to left-turning cars. All it requires is a reprogramming of the software governing light cycles. This solution has been in use for more than 30 years in eastern Canada, and it works. Save the money to fix the potholes.

RENe GARIePY

Pasadena

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Four years to install left-turn signals? I must have misread that. That must have read four months. But alas, no, it’s four years. Plus, the mayor’s white-gloved traffic controllers are adding to the problem. An intersection that used to take 15 minutes to get through now takes 40 minutes with their aid. To many like me, the mayor’s campaign promise to get traffic moving is the only criterion we’ll use to rate him. So far he’s suggested a simple solution that he says he can’t implement during his term of office and made the problem worse with the white-gloved controllers. And this is the man who wants to take over our school system? Let’s hope not.

MARTY MERICKA

Los Angeles