I'm a transplant from Detroit, and have been here for almost three years.
Left turns are ... interesting. Case and point:
- Kirby & Westheimer: when you have a SOLID GREEN 🟢 light, you yield to opposing traffic on your left turn. Look it up on Google Maps if you don't believe me. I live right near this intersection so I see, with alarming regularity, near-miss accidents all the time because this is the most confusing signal arrangement I've ever seen.
BUT! Just down the road at
- Kirby & Alabama: when you have a FLASHING YELLOW 🟡 light, you yield to opposing traffic on your left turn. The reason I'm calling this out is, literally from one major road to the next, there's no consistency in how traffic signaling works. It's like whoever showed up for work that day picked their personal favorite to program the signaling.
In Michigan, it's very simple: on a left, solid green means you have the right of way, you're not yielding to anyone. Again, on a left, a flashing yellow means you can go but look out for opposing traffic. And of course, red means stop. There is no other light signaling for left turns. And more importantly, EVERY. SINGLE. INTERSECTION. WORKS. THE. SAME. WAY.
Whereas in Texas, I'm double checking every light to make sure I'm not in the wrong before I make my next move.
I understand, TX government is all about Republicans intentionally making it difficult/breaking things to create their evidence that "government doesn't work," but this is legit, peoples lives at hand. Is there anything we can do to force our government to at least get it right on traffic signaling?!
And I'll add here that, while I don't excuse it, I can draw the dots between the inconsistent left turn policy and how some of y'all absolutely refuse to use the left turn lane (where there is no traffic signal) and will instead, turn left from a traffic lane (even though those bright yellow lines are RIGHT THERE). The number of times someone has nearly caused a wreck on Alabama because they, I guess, "don't recognize" the two yellow lines making the turn lane, is insane. I see it at least once a week. But with no flat rule on how left turns work, I guess I can see why they'd think of it as optional.
ETA:
And why do y'all SPEED through parking structures and parking lots then get on the road and go 2mph?
Final ETA
I've got the clarity now, that I think I needed.
- A solid green, and a flashing yellow, technically mean the same thing: unprotected left
My point is very straight forward: why not use one, instead of both?
- Michigan could use both protected and unprotected greens for lefts but we don't. We ONLY use protected greens. Green always means go. Yellow always means caution. Probably for exactly the reason I just called out above: you don't need a solid green AND a flashing yellow to communicate the same signal, just use one for absolute clarity.
So if you're looking up something akin to "does Michigan follow the same road rules as every other state?" I can see why some of you think you know what you're talking about. But having driven on Michigan roads from the age of 16 to about 38, and driven all throughout Canada (been to Toronto several times on my motorcycle and in my car), the Midwest, and Northeast, *if* we do unprotected greens in those parts of the US or Canada, they're very few and far between. Just like y'all have traffic signals on freeway entrances (ahem, some freeway entrances because clearly, being inconsistent is the way it's done here), that's another thing WE. DO. NOT. DO. You gun it and get in where you fit in. So even that is foreign to me. Just because it's on the books somewhere does not mean it's in practice in a given state.