Flashing Yellow Lights Will Replace Green Left-Hand-Turn Arrows

Say good-bye to waiting for a green light to turn left at a busy intersection.

Nothing is worse than sitting at a very busy intersection in the middle of the night waiting for the light to turn green so you can turn left. We have all been there.

We start our 5 minute wait by looking around to see if anyone is going to watch us pick our nose. Then we realize no one is around. We pick. After the first few minutes of waiting you start counting how many times you actually could have turned, but didn't because it was a red light.

Then you start contemplating just running the light. As you start to take your foot off the brake, because you just can't handle waiting for another ten minutes when no one is around, you have a vision. Your vision is of you getting pulled over by a police officer hiding in the bushes. In your vision, you ran the red light. So instead, you wait for another few minutes and finally the arrow turns green and off you go.

All of this will soon be changing. Flashing yellow lights will replace green left-hand-turn arrows.

According to WIFR, a four-year study and was conducted, using yellow arrows for left turn lanes.

The results speak volumes. The study found that yellow arrows make intersections actually safer for traffic. Accidents did not increase with the yellow lights, but actually improved by 20 percent. It's better for drivers, which makes them less irritated because of the waiting involved with standard lights. It also reduced emissions because drivers aren't sitting and idling.

Seems to be a win-win situtation.

The Illinois Department of Transportation that oversees northern Illinois will start putting yellow arrow signals at state road intersections soon!