Many busy intersections in Minnesota have arrows that allow people to make left turns. At certain times of day these arrows are imperative to allow people to make the turn. You would wait forever as traffic heads in the other direction. But, what of the cases where the arrow is red, the forward light is green and there is no oncoming traffic? The red arrow still means stop.
Many people see the open traffic as a way to make the arrow a yield arrow. In Eagan, technology is being added to stop these turns. The plan is to add a blue light , so that police officers down the street can see that the red arrow is being violated. So the officer can be on the left side of the street and monitor who is breaking the law.
The lights will be installed at three of Eagan’s busiest and most dangerous intersections: eastbound Yankee Doodle Road at Denmark Avenue, westbound Yankee Doodle at Pilot Knob Road and southbound Pilot Knob at Duckwood Drive. There have been over 300 accidents at these intersections in the last four years.
It’s an interesting idea. Although it seems that education and maybe a yellow light at certain times of the day might make for less violations. It will be helpful to see if writing more tickets will reduce the collisions.
