After reading this one, I can't get the picture of one of those old remote control cars that only turn when backing up, and only turn the one way.

Anyway...
Making Only Right Turns May Shorten Trips

At United Parcel Service, they've figured out a way to save millions of dollars in fuel savings, officials said.


With 88,000 trucks on America's roads, one small change -- making only right turns -- has made a big difference.
Not that the sophisticated mapping software that made that possible, or the number of stops per outing, had anything to do with it.

5 On Your Side went on a test ride to see how it is done.

The first test was almost a minute and a half longer with right turns.
The second test was an active teenager. What?

5 On Your Side said the test proved that:
In real life, a right turn is a good guideline, but shouldn't be a rule.
If you can, plan ahead so that all the stops are approached from the right.
If you can't, go the shortest distance.
Amazing, I would have never guessed that.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Dr. Suess did a story about a Left-turning Zak and a Right-turning Zak that were forced to car-pool together...or something like that

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PW -- Plant Whisperer

We used to have a boss down at the bus yard who instructed us to make three rights instead of a left to save something indeterminate...

Yuh huh...suuuuuuuuure, pal...with a busload of screamin' first graders, I'm gonna spend more time with 'em than absotively posilutely necessary?

He may have been qualified to shuffle papers, but he couldn't shift gears to save his theoretically mortal soul...

Glad I don't work there no more...

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"If a tree is cut down in the rainforest, and is used to make paper to print a book, and the book is really bad, and there's nobody that will read it, do you still hear a sucking sound?"
Charlie in Dayton, A.AsC.

Usually when I have to drive in a big city, I do the three right's to make a left because of the traffic--easier that trying to get into the left turn lane...

The rest of the time I plan routes to take advatage of the usaul traffic patterns where i live...

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"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." — Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

441!!!! :)

One of my pet peeves is that arrowed-left-turns usually come before the straight, whereas in the natrual order of things (no left-arrow), the left-turners go after straight. The arrowed-left before the straight gives an unnatural advantage of 1-left-turn over 3-right-turns.

The 1-left-turn should compete with 3-right-turns on a level playing field

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PW -- Plant Whisperer

Is it a contest? Can I win cash and valuable prizes?

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

In Tucson we have "trailing" left-hand turn green arrows. When the light turns green (in your favor) there is a green for straight and a solid green for the left-turn, which can be taken if clear. When the light turns red, the left-hand green arrow come on. Works pretty well, although people moving here from other areas of the country find it confusing...

Yes that is confusing... what if the green goes unsold, does it get cheaper?

Oh; do you mean solid? Anyway, how does that differ than the green-arrow on when the red light is on?

I think I like Canada's idea better, where the green blinks when it is the only green.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Sorry. Fixed the typo.

Trailing green arrows allow straight traffic to flow and, most likely, the left hand turns to complete before the red. When the light turns red and there are no left-turners detected, the left-turn green arrow does not come on. The key difference is that if you have a leading green arrow and there is one car waiting, you get the green arrow for that one car.

So what you are saying is that when you have a green straight and arrow, then you have the "exclusive" at the intersection (no oncomming traffic)?
Do you also have green, with no arrow?

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Sorry. I'm not making it clear...

When the light is green the left-hand turn light is solid green, meaning you can make a yielding left turn.

If there are no cars waiting to make left turns when the light turns red (for 'straight' traffic) then the light turns red - no green left-hand turn arrow.

If there are cars waiting to make left turns when the light turns red (for 'straight' traffic) then they get a green left-hand turn arrow.

The only difference here, from most signals at intersections, is that the left-hand green arrow comes after the green instead of before. This allows for the possibility of not needing it - if all left turners clear the intersection while they have the 'yielding' green.

This is the reason most people get confused. Most everywhere that I have driven, a green arrow of any kind at any times means you have exclusive rights to that thouroughfare (no oncomming traffic).

Other than that, we have all sorts. Turn before, turn after, all lanes exclusive, etc.
They all work equally well, or not well, depending on the circumstances, number of lanes, sight lines, etc.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Sorry again. I'm still not making it clear.

When I said 'solid green' I meant a solid green-filled circle. When the green 'arrow' is on then you have exclusive use, like you expect.

Ok now. I'm finished explaining the Tucson traffic-control light system. It's just too boring to spend this much time on...

Maryland is getting rid of lights or at some intersections, going to roundabouts.

They took a little getting used to, but to be honest, they're actually rather nice for keeping things moving.

Hopefully we won't see monsters like Piccadilly anytime soon, though.

That's exactly what Tim is saying happens. I don't think he's being unclear at all. In most places, the left turn arrow goes on before the standard green light for all traffic. In Tucson, the standard green light comes on first. If there was too much through traffic and someone is still waiting to make a left turn when the light turns red, the left turn only light comes on so they can turn before the the perpendicular traffic is allowed to go.

We've actually got an intersection here where the turn signal for southbound traffic (turning east) comes on before the northbound green light, but the northbound turn signal (turning west) comes on after the southbound green light.

It's southbound straight and left turn, then southbound straight and northbound straight, then northbound straight and left turn. I think the east- and westbound are the same way, but I very rarely go through that intersection eastbound or westbound.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

If all else fails, you could go the way of this man:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1770

Of course you can. Just send in a 3" by 5" postcard with your name, address, and major credit card numbers and expiration dates to us. Be sure to attach the prize logo found on specially marked boxes. Please allow 6 to 10 weeks for delivery. Contest deadline is two weeks from today's date.

Meanwhile, at intersections, for me the NYC rule applies: the right of way belongs to whoever takes it.

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