Curious About Pesky 'No Turn On Red' Signs

WBZ

We've all experienced it. You're sitting at a red light, the traffic is not so bad, but there's a sign that says "No Turn On Red."
And that has Bill from Quincy seeing red. He posted this question on our Curiosity Web site: "With all the concerns about greenhouse gases, I'm curious why we still have No Turn On Red intersections?"

And Dan from Reading adds, "These signs are forcing motorists to waste thousands of gallons of gas each day."

We wanted to find out if there's any rhyme or reason to the placement of those no turn signs, but as David Wade discovered, it all depends on how you look at the intersection.
Sometimes the intersections that prohibit right on red don't seem to make sense.

One driver stuck at a corner says, "I'd like to take a right now, but I'm waiting here, there are no cars, no nothing!"

And another admits, "I find myself sneaking through a lot of them."

SO MANY INTERSECTIONS WITH 'NO TURN ON RED'

We went to the intersection of Western Ave. and Everett St. in Brighton. It's a 4 corner intersection. On 3 of the corners "No Turn On Red" signs keep you waiting, but on the fourth corner, right on red is allowed. Go figure.

And on Arsenal St. in Watertown a corner near the Arsenal Mall is marked no turn on red, but a half mile up the same road on the other side of the mall, turning right on red is A-OK.

SAFETY IS KEY ISSUE

"It boils down to safety," says Sgt. Joe Deignan, who is Watertown's traffic guy.

David Wade asked him, "Some would say you're almost playing it too safe, and you're plopping signs down everywhere. What do you have to say to that?"
Sgt. Deignan says, "I don't necessarily agree with that. There are a lot of intersections in Watertown that don't have 'no right on red.'"

He disagrees because he's actually read the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which is the "bible" for intersection signs. Authorities look at a number of factors when deciding whether to allow a turn on red or not.

SAFETY FACTORS TO CONSIDER:

• Sight lines
• Can you clearly see around the corner
• The number of pedestrians who cross the street
• The presence of a school or other institution nearby
• The number of accidents at the intersection.

And yet, with all that, sometimes it still seems that sign placement doesn't always make sense.

At another busy 4-way intersection in Boston, there's a school, plenty of crosswalks and plenty of cars, yet you can turn right on red.

BUT IT WASTES GAS & TIME

Some people complain that when you can't turn on red, you end up sitting in your car, wasting gas and polluting the air.

"You're just idling for 30 seconds, but so is the guy behind you, and so is the woman behind that," says Ben Wright from Environment Massachusetts.

He wants the signs to come down whenever safety allows.

But Watertown's Sgt. Deignan responds, "I think the safety of the people that are using the streets, particularly the pedestrians, and to prevent motor vehicle accidents, that's the number one priority. Not wasting gas."

CAN THOSE SIGNS COME DOWN?

Once the no turn signs go up, are they there forever? No, says the state's Highway Commissioner Luisa Paiewonsky. "We re-time signals all the time, we take down signs where they turn out not to be appropriate," she says.

The signs are also in effect 24 hours a day, so you may be sitting there late at night with no other cars, and you still are supposed to wait. David Wade asked Commissioner Paiewonsky "So even when I'm driving to work at 3am you want me to stop, even at 3 am?"

She said, "I do. Would you please do that? It's for everybody's safety."

If you're sometimes frustrated sitting at a light, there is a way to make up some time. Did you know that it is legal to turn "left" on red? It is if you're on a one way street, turning onto another one way, if there's no sign prohibiting it.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

There is a bill before the Mass. legislature that could bring down some of the No Turn on Red signs. It calls for a comprehensive study to try and find intersections where the signs are no longer needed.

If there's an intersection on a state road where right on red isn't allowed, you can complain about it by calling the state's Highway Department at 617-973-7800.

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