Left Behind
One of the things we most look forward to when going back to the Chicago ‘burbs for “spring” “break” is making left turns.
In Illinois, center turn lanes are so rare that they’re marked with double arrows to show that turning traffic can move in both directions. Intersections where left turns require a left arrow are similarly few and far between. We know, it sounds like total chaos - a choice of turning left OR going straight. Somehow, drivers handle it.
That’s how it is in WI, too. I don’t think they’d be able to handle the decision-making process here, though, if the annarboridiots in my apartment complex who manage to hit each other in the parking lot are any sort of example…
posted by Sara on February 22nd, 2004 at 8:23 am eMaybe thats why IL drivers are so annoying? As a born and half-bred Wisconie (my mom’s from OH), I have a natural distain for any car bearing an IL license plate….
Anyway, not to make up for my dislike of crazy, Illinois drivers, I’ve been thinking about that and I guess WI is like that with the turn lanes and stuff…. but there is always that go-straight-or-turn arrow marker, so its not TOTALLY chaotic.
posted by Ursula Arnold on February 22nd, 2004 at 10:52 am eI’ve driven around in IL and WI before but don’t remember this particular feature. OK, dumb question: let me get this straight: In a two-way, four-lane street, the people stopped at an intersection in the “inner” lane have the option of turning left OR going straight? Doesn’t that cause a big backup as the go-lefters wait for the go-straighters from the opposite direction to get through the intersection? Just wondering, cluelessly.
posted by Laura on February 22nd, 2004 at 11:59 am eWe do have some left turn lanes and turn arrows - the difference is that you can still turn left after the arrow goes off.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on February 22nd, 2004 at 12:32 pm eAh. Well, that doesn’t sound as chaotic as I thought. One of Michigan’s answers to this situation as you know is the apparently unique-to-MI “Michigan Left.”
posted by Laura on February 22nd, 2004 at 12:45 pm eRight, but the so-called “Michigan Left” only works on suburban boulevards with wide medians. Plenty of those in Wayne/Oakland/Macomb; not so many around here.
Ann Arbor has plenty of four-lane streets with no special turning lane. Washtenaw from Hill to Stadium, for example; Packard from Stadium to Eisenhower; Huron/Jackson from downtown to Maple. On all those streets, the left lane is often blocked by cars waiting to turn left, so the right lane is faster.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on February 22nd, 2004 at 1:22 pm eI live in Illinois and I see left-turn lanes all the time.
posted by John Honkala on February 22nd, 2004 at 6:52 pm eApparently, they don’t teach that you should pull forward into the intersection if you are trying to turn left. If you do that, the cars behind you can get around you, and there is no back-up. Way back in the day, we learned this in driver’s ed, but the fine art of polite left-turning appears to have been lost.
posted by Anna on February 22nd, 2004 at 7:21 pm eGoing straight???
Never.
posted by GLF on February 22nd, 2004 at 8:11 pm eAt least you don’t have to deal with the “Pittsburgh left” which is the guy on the other side of the intersection from you gunning it to get through his turn before you take the right of way going straight.
posted by Alex on February 22nd, 2004 at 11:12 pm eI dunno. As a Michigan-to-Wisconsin transplant, I find these lanes really irritating. Years and years of their presence still hasn’t allowed the Sconnie drivers to master negotiating these intersections.
posted by RDS on February 23rd, 2004 at 3:40 am eRe the “Pittsburgh left”. In Boston, the practice of someone making a fast left turn at a traffic light before the opposing traffic gets into the intersection is called “beating the green.”
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on February 23rd, 2004 at 8:31 am eI, too, lived in the ‘burgh. I thought it was quite a quaint custom, a bit more intentional on the part of the oncoming traffic than the Boston version, as in, “you are supposed to let the first guy in the left lane turn left,” not as in the Boston version, “I’m going to be an aggressive dick and try to pull one over on the oncoming guy. Let’s play chicken!”. The left-turn custom is a necessity in Pittsburgh, where they, too, have not been versed in pulling into the intersection so that you can make a quick turn when the opportunity arises and so that the people behind you can pass. The only real problem is that when you move to Pittsburgh they don’t tell you that, and the first few times it happened I almost slammed into the left-turner.
posted by Anna on February 23rd, 2004 at 9:39 am eI’ve never seen a huge problem with the lack of left turn lane on, as Larry mentions, Jackson/Huron west of downtown. I’ve recently been thinking Plymouth Road could be reasonably narrowed by one lane (from 5 to 4) for most of its length, perhaps also dropping the speed limit from 45 to 35 to reduce the chance of not noticing the guy in front of you turning left and slamming into him. As long as we’re irritating Plymouth drivers (with ped signals and whatnot), we might as well make lots of changes at once and not give them the chance to complain about all of them individually.
posted by Murph on February 23rd, 2004 at 1:44 pm eI don’t understand what you guys are whining about this time. First of all, there are plenty of lights in A2 where you can make a left turn on without a left turn signal. Secondly, which roads are you saying are hindered by the center lane. Main? Plymouth? Washtenaw? Huron? All those are pretty busy roads and the only other option would be to expand to a 6 lane road (or 4 in Main’s case). If you just got rid of the center lane, we’d be looking at some serious traffic problems on those roads (and Main and Washtenaw are already pretty bad during rush hour).
posted by James on February 23rd, 2004 at 2:57 pm eChrist, that town must be boring. You people are talking about turn lanes….
Doesn’t anybody have an itch or an ache they can moan about? Some bursitis? A stangely shaped mole?
posted by DetrOIt on February 23rd, 2004 at 4:51 pm eThis subject merits a close examination, DetrOit. I hafta say, though, you know you have a popular blog when the topic of turning left ignites a 17-comment discussion…if I tried this on my own little blog, all you’d hear would be the sound of tumbleweeds rolling past on a windswept plain bereft of comments…at any rate.
posted by Laura on February 23rd, 2004 at 8:38 pm eI have a strangely shaped mole, but I don’t think we should talk about it.
posted by mole-d on February 23rd, 2004 at 10:31 pm eI have a metal plate in my head… does that count?
posted by mucho gusto on February 24th, 2004 at 12:46 pm eNot to quibble–OK, to quibble–but one’s mole/metal plate doesn’t affect everyone, but everyone drives–and has different tastes; one man’s interesting topic is another man’s dreck. OK, I’m done.
posted by Laura on February 24th, 2004 at 8:05 pm e