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Turnabout on Red

Some places are rethinking the right-turn-on-red rules.

All too often at certain intersections in San Jose, California, drivers have stepped on the gas when a green left-turn arrow came on, only to find that although the light had turned, they couldn't. That's because cars from the other side of the intersection were making right turns on a red light. The drivers with the right of way were backed up in the middle of the intersection, waiting for it to clear of those who should have stopped at the red light. San Jose officials finally got fed up with the traffic chaos and posted signs forbidding right turns on red. "We're trying to reestablish the right of way at intersections," says Henry Servin, senior transportation engineer.

The number of places reconsidering the right-turn-on-red rule is slowly growing. Opponents of the right turn on red, conceived in the 1970s as a fuel-saving measure, long have considered it a disaster for pedestrians, particularly children and the elderly. Drivers often are so intent on looking for a break in the traffic to the left they don't notice pedestrians trying to cross from the right. Cars block intersections as drivers pull up and look to the left to see if they can pull into the traffic stream. Some drivers don't completely stop at the red light, rolling through it in what has come to be known as a "California stop."

As a result, "No Right Turn on Red" signs have been popping up at intersections in more places. Some officials say they are responding to requests for a better quality of life. That includes the ability to cross the street without doing battle with two-ton vehicles.

One of the major reasons for the change is that people are doing the turns badly. "In San Jose," says Servin, "we're discovering motorists are not exhibiting the proper behavior they used to at intersections." Drivers are supposed to approach a red light, come to a complete stop, look in all directions and then proceed if there is no traffic in the intersection. That's not what's happening.

The city gets a fair number of calls from older residents who complain that they can't cross the street. "They say, 'It looks like this guy is going to run me over,'" Servin notes. So San Jose has been banning the turns at "significant" locations, such as freeway ramps and multiple-lane intersections.

Drivers in Palo Alto, California, can no longer make a right turn on red at 10 intersections near schools during school hours. Following recommendations from a study on school-commuting safety, the city posted signs to protect the safety of children walking or biking across the street.

The state of California has gotten into the act, too. Last year, the state clarified the proper procedures for right turns on red. Prior law instructed drivers to yield to traffic that was "lawfully using the intersection" but didn't explain how drivers should proceed safely. Traffic citations were thrown out in court because the court couldn't establish what law had been violated. The California Organization of Police and Sheriffs introduced a bill that is now law that specifies the proper way to yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic at an intersection.

In other jurisdictions, officials have tried--without success--to get more restrictive about right turns on red. After the federal government upgraded and widened part of U.S. 81 through the middle of Grand Forks, North Dakota, signs prohibiting right turns on red were posted at four intersections. "As soon as they went up, my phone literally rang off the wall," says Dan Jonasson, city traffic engineer. "People had been turning on red forever and now there were signs up." The city council debated the controversial matter last summer and the signs were removed.

New York City is an oddity in this area of traffic law. It is one of the few places where no one is allowed to make a right turn on red unless a sign at an intersection specifically permits it. Last year, Councilman Jerome O'Donovan, a Staten Island lawmaker, tried to flip- flop the law in his borough and allow drivers to make the right unless signs forbade it.

The borough already allowed right turns at about 100 of its 400 intersections. The chamber of commerce believed the right turn on red would help reduce congestion on main business roads. But city transportation officials and then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani felt the change would be dangerous for pedestrians and cars on busy roads. In November, Governor George Pataki vetoed the proposal.

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