Lincoln Ave. Turn Signal Changed for Reasons of Safety, Liability

Dear Street Smart:

Recently, a couple of changes were made to traffic signals on Lincoln Avenue in Anaheim, and I don’t understand their purpose. Sometime within the last year or so, the left-turn signals on Lincoln at Brookhurst and at Gilbert became protective/permissive, where there is a left-turn arrow for the turners, but once the left-turn phase has been completed cars can still turn left on the through-traffic green light if the traffic is clear. This was ideal, since being stuck in the left-turn lane, waiting for an arrow, meant sitting through the entire phase of the lights for through traffic and then for cross-traffic. At Brookhurst this is a major time investment.

Well, recently, the traffic construction crews came out and changed these lights back to the way they were, with just a short left-turn arrow phase of the light for turners. If you miss it, or aren’t one of the four or five cars who turn after the arrow turns red anyway, you’re stuck there until your light comes around again in about five minutes or so.

Why did this happen? I use both of these intersections a few times every day and I don’t remember seeing any accidents. It must have cost a lot of money to do this work, which was essentially undoing work done last year, and the only purpose I can see being served here is to create more of an inconvenience for people who want to make left turns. As I mentioned above, turning left onto Brookhurst from Lincoln now involves either a significant wait, breaking the law or a whole lot of luck. As for Gilbert, I don’t anticipate ever turning left on Gilbert again.

Bill D. Consoli, Anaheim

James Paral, Anaheim’s principal traffic engineer, agrees with you that protective/permissive left turns are real time savers, and the city plans to expand the number of these turns in the future. But in the case of Lincoln Avenue at Brookhurst and at Gilbert, the good old safety element won out.

The two intersections you refer to were part of a group of intersections in Anaheim that were outfitted with protective/permissive signals, Paral said. As with any changes made to signal operations, city traffic planners monitored them closely for a time after installation to check their effectiveness, he said.

“Unfortunately, we came across finding that the acceptable availability of gaps for turning left became quite reduced especially during peak periods,” Paral said. “For safety and liability reasons, we had to take those operations out and go back to the protected-only turns,” he said.

Translation: There is too much through traffic on Lincoln during morning and evening rush hours to safely allow motorists to turn left on a green light without an arrow. And because there currently is no way to make protective/permissive signals work only part of the time, they had to be removed.

Paral said his office has fielded a number of calls from commuters unhappy about the switch back to protected turns, but if the protective/permissive signals had remained, accidents would have increased.

“Granted, it was probably a nice convenience, but we had to look at all the factors,” Paral said.

Dear Street Smart:

One morning about 8:15 a.m. I was driving west on Alicia Parkway in Mission Viejo and observed what appeared to be a dangerous situation that I had previously thought was not possible.

I was stopped at a red light on Alicia at Trabuco Road approximately six to eight cars back from the intersection. Once the light turned green on Alicia, the cross traffic on Trabuco continued through the intersection for what seemed like 10 to 15 seconds after the light change.

Because of my proximity to the intersection, I could not be absolutely positive, but from the heavy volume of traffic continuing through the intersection on Trabuco and the length of time it continued, it appeared that the signals could have been green in both directions.

Can you verify this? And to whom would I report this type of situation should it occur again?

Patricia Buckley, Trabuco Canyon

Electronic traffic signals come equipped with a device called a “conflict monitor,” which keeps a check on the lighting sequence, said Shirley Land, traffic engineer for Mission Viejo. If there is a glitch, the conflict monitor automatically makes the signal lights flash red or yellow.

Land said a failure of that system is extremely rare, and what you most likely witnessed were drivers running the red light on Trabuco Road. But Mission Viejo’s traffic signal maintenance department does depend on community input, and any concerns or questions can be directed to that department by calling (714) 582-2489.

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