Right Turn Yield on Green?

[ne11931]

 Does this make any sense?  I grew up in this area and am used to the former MDC bizarre road signage and road alignments but this one is totally weird. I don't travel this road every day but  I believe the traffic signal is constantly green, so why not make it constantly red and allow a right turn on red? It is no wonder Massachusetts insurance rates are so high. Who would be at fault if there was an accident here?



https://goo.gl/maps/GhNr6

[Big John]

Looks like a candidate for a right FYA instead of the green ball.

[M3019C LPS20]

Looks like a candidate for a right FYA instead of the green ball.

That would sound ideal.

Different areas of New York City have right turn traffic signals that show the flashing amber arrow on the bottom. Though motorists are required to yield to pedestrians during the "WALK" phase.

[Pete from Boston]

Too bad, my work took me to that intersection frequently until Friday.

There could be a very, very long thread of just MDC signing, um, innovations.

(For the uninitiated, the Metropolitan District Commission was an ancient Massachusetts parks, water supply, and roads agency that was lousy at running the roads it owned up until its dissolution by Mitt Romney in the year he did anything here.  Its non-standard, deficient, and decrepit signs are the stuff of legend.)

[SidS1045]

Too bad, my work took me to that intersection frequently until Friday.

There could be a very, very long thread of just MDC signing, um, innovations.

(For the uninitiated, the Metropolitan District Commission was an ancient Massachusetts parks, water supply, and roads agency that was lousy at running the roads it owned up until its dissolution by Mitt Romney in the year he did anything here.  Its non-standard, deficient, and decrepit signs are the stuff of legend.)

...and its successor agency, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, has not improved things to any significant degree.  The mere thought of MDC/DCR's method of signing rotaries makes me laugh hysterically.

[Pete from Boston]

Some of their signs have shown improvement.  Some.  However, this may be due to transferring some roads to MassHighway.  I don't remember how all that worked out

[riiga]

Just put up a yield sign instead and remove the traffic light altogether.

[jeffandnicole]

The traffic circle could actually have originated during the days when Right Turns on Red were not permitted.  Due to the location of the right turn lane, it was probably deemed necessary to have their own traffic light.

Since right turns here have their own turning channel, the person turning right on green would be at fault in an accident because they are mandated to yield.  Most traditional intersections would simply have a yield sign here, which results in the same thing - traffic turning left onto this street are given the right of way, and traffic turning right must yield.

You can't make it a consistent red ball/arrow, because in most cases one doesn't absolutely need to turn right on red if they don't feel it's safe to do so, and some vehicles are not permitted to turn right on red.

I'm not sure how this one signal translates into high car insurance rates though. 

[1995hoo]

The traffic circle could actually have originated during the days when Right Turns on Red were not permitted.  Due to the location of the right turn lane, it was probably deemed necessary to have their own traffic light.

Since right turns here have their own turning channel, the person turning right on green would be at fault in an accident because they are mandated to yield.  Most traditional intersections would simply have a yield sign here, which results in the same thing - traffic turning left onto this street are given the right of way, and traffic turning right must yield.

You can't make it a consistent red ball/arrow, because in most cases one doesn't absolutely need to turn right on red if they don't feel it's safe to do so, and some vehicles are not permitted to turn right on red.

I'm not sure how this one signal translates into high car insurance rates though. 

I think this is correct. I had to pan around the area to understand the location and that's when I saw it's a channelized right turn with a separator island. I've seen some other places where that kind of turn has its own traffic light, usually with a "No Turn on Red" and a green arrow instead of a permissive ball. Otherwise I've usually seen no light coupled with a Yield sign, as "jeffandnicole" suggests.

In any case, the presence of the separator island is what causes the person turning right to have to yield to someone making a left turn–because the island is there, the person going left from the opposite direction is already going straight on the road to which you're turning by the time he encounters the right-turner, and a right-turner therefore must yield to someone who's properly going straight on that road who doesn't have a red light or stop/yield sign.

It's a strange way of doing the signals there, that's for sure.

[freebrickproductions]

That intersection reminds me of some kind of mix between NYC and New Jersey.

[Pete from Boston]

Old maps will explain better, but that intersection was the end of Soldiers Field Road until the 50s or 60s.  Westbound traffic proceeded south and then west on Leo Birmingham Parkway to circumvent the Brighton Abbatoir (whose site amusingly now contains a McDonald's).  This probably explains why LBP is seemingly overbuilt where it parallels the Mass Pike.

The current setup is a reworking of that situation to accommodate the through highway underneath.  It's a confusing mess, even speaking from having lived right by it for five years. 

[KEK Inc.]

A yield sign would work there; however, you should always yield right on green for pedestrians and bikes. 

[theline]

Do it like this, in South Bend: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.663137,-86.235094,3a,75y,180h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1spdaX0kYGTLnE6Arta1AiQg!2e0?hl=en