Regional Boards > Mountain West
Protected Left Turns in Tucson AZ
Roadwarriors79:
--- Quote from: JKRhodes on October 24, 2022, 01:18:17 AM ---Stayed in Chandler, AZ over the weekend and noticed several intersections with four aspect FYA heads and permissive left turns for dual left turn lanes near the mall.
I figured most cities in the valley would be distancing themselves from "tucson permissive dual lefts", not adopting them.
--- End quote ---
Most valley cities do not do what Tucson historically does, at least not all the time. Most of the dual lefts in Chandler that have FYA are on time-of-day phasing. Other than a few intersections in Peoria, most of the valley has stuck with standard protected dual left signals.
JKRhodes:
--- Quote from: Roadwarriors79 on October 24, 2022, 07:40:00 PM ---
--- Quote from: JKRhodes on October 24, 2022, 01:18:17 AM ---Stayed in Chandler, AZ over the weekend and noticed several intersections with four aspect FYA heads and permissive left turns for dual left turn lanes near the mall.
I figured most cities in the valley would be distancing themselves from "tucson permissive dual lefts", not adopting them.
--- End quote ---
Most valley cities do not do what Tucson historically does, at least not all the time. Most of the dual lefts in Chandler that have FYA are on time-of-day phasing. Other than a few intersections in Peoria, most of the valley has stuck with standard protected dual left signals.
--- End quote ---
That’s a good point. I was also in Tucson recently and noticed most intersections on the east side had gone to 4-aspect FYA with TOD phasing. Traffic was heavy enough at the time that many of the left turns never saw a permissive phase. By my observations there is only a handful of five aspect permissive/protected dual lefts remaining in Tucson. One intersection (I wanna say speedway and alvernon) had a 5 aspect signal with dual lefts for one street and a four aspect FYA head with TOD phasing for the other road. Odd to see a partial upgrade. So I guess what I find appealing is that we’re going to start seeing a little more consistency across the map as the FYA with TOD becomes more widely implemented.
Tucson still isn’t without its quirks; they have the five aspect signal with FYA for right turns on red which has historically meant yield to u-turns on the cross road which has a green left arrow and no restrictions on U-turns. During my most recent trip, traveling down the newly widened stretch of broadway between country club and Euclid, I noticed this aspect was also displayed during the through green phase. Not sure what the meaning was other than “right turns yield to pedestrians” which is already implied during a green through phase.
There’s a 5-way intersection downtown with a 5 aspect left turn signal and a FYA for lefts, which is used to indicate that oncoming traffic has a red, but you still need to yield to pedestrians.
I feel bad for Tucson drivers constantly having to deduce the meaning of their local FYA signals.
machias:
--- Quote from: JKRhodes on October 24, 2022, 08:42:56 PM ---
--- Quote from: Roadwarriors79 on October 24, 2022, 07:40:00 PM ---
--- Quote from: JKRhodes on October 24, 2022, 01:18:17 AM ---Stayed in Chandler, AZ over the weekend and noticed several intersections with four aspect FYA heads and permissive left turns for dual left turn lanes near the mall.
I figured most cities in the valley would be distancing themselves from "tucson permissive dual lefts", not adopting them.
--- End quote ---
Most valley cities do not do what Tucson historically does, at least not all the time. Most of the dual lefts in Chandler that have FYA are on time-of-day phasing. Other than a few intersections in Peoria, most of the valley has stuck with standard protected dual left signals.
--- End quote ---
That’s a good point. I was also in Tucson recently and noticed most intersections on the east side had gone to 4-aspect FYA with TOD phasing. Traffic was heavy enough at the time that many of the left turns never saw a permissive phase. By my observations there is only a handful of five aspect permissive/protected dual lefts remaining in Tucson. One intersection (I wanna say speedway and alvernon) had a 5 aspect signal with dual lefts for one street and a four aspect FYA head with TOD phasing for the other road. Odd to see a partial upgrade. So I guess what I find appealing is that we’re going to start seeing a little more consistency across the map as the FYA with TOD becomes more widely implemented.
Tucson still isn’t without its quirks; they have the five aspect signal with FYA for right turns on red which has historically meant yield to u-turns on the cross road which has a green left arrow and no restrictions on U-turns. During my most recent trip, traveling down the newly widened stretch of broadway between country club and Euclid, I noticed this aspect was also displayed during the through green phase. Not sure what the meaning was other than “right turns yield to pedestrians” which is already implied during a green through phase.
There’s a 5-way intersection downtown with a 5 aspect left turn signal and a FYA for lefts, which is used to indicate that oncoming traffic has a red, but you still need to yield to pedestrians.
I feel bad for Tucson drivers constantly having to deduce the meaning of their local FYA signals.
--- End quote ---
I've lived in Tucson for a little over 18 months. I'm still blown away with how signals are configured here. Tucson really loves its FYA. Some signal installations aren't even in sync, so each FYA is flashing at its own pace. And the dual lane left turns where there's very little sight line to oncoming traffic is especially interesting. The city really does its own thing when interpreting the MUTCD. And don't get me started on the awful overhead signing the city installed a year or two ago.
Roadwarriors79:
Tucson having a lot of "quirks" is pretty accurate. Even more noticeable since the other agencies in the area (Oro Valley, Marana, ADOT, Pima County DOT) all tend to be more conventional. Keep things simple whenever possible.
Something loosely related, I always wondered how Tucson, which seems to hate most freeways and highways, managed to get a state highway number that actually makes sense (AZ 210) while the Phoenix area seems to have a bunch of random numbers for their newer freeways.
Roadwarriors79:
Speaking of left turns, it looks like for the Grant Road widening, the intersections at Swan and Country Club are going to remain conventional intersections after widening. So the only other "Michigan lefts" planned in this corridor are at Alvernon and Campbell.
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