Las Vegas’ new yellow blinking left turn signal lights confusing

It used to be so simple when yellow meant slow and not go!

Yellow blinking left turn signal lights confusing

The new yellow blinking left turn signal lights are just confusing.

As kids growing up, we were taught that a red light means stop, green means go and yellow means slow.  Right?

Not if you live in Las Vegas.

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In an effort to improve traffic, or so they say, drivers can now legally make a left turn when the light is yellow and flashing.

When I first one of these lights, on my regular daily traveled route, I thought the light was malfunctioning.

Turns out is wasn’t.

The yellow flashing lights are a new addition to the traffic light system and and can be downright confusing.

Why?

Well, in this instance, yellow does not mean slow.  It means go. Like a green light.

Motorists are allowed to go through the intersection after making sure the intersection is clear.

But wait, the solid yellow arrow still exists.

If the light is a solid yellow, then you are supposed to go slow as that mean the light is about to change to red.  Got it?

Blinking yellow go; solid yellow stop.

You have to wonder who in the heck dreamed this up.

Green means go so you wouldn’t put a flashing light there that means stop because that would confuse motorists.

A red means stop so you couldn’t have a flashing light red mean that you do not have to stop. It is universally understood that if a red light is solid or flashing, it means you must stop.

Yellow means slow but somehow the new yellow code dictates that a flashing yellow is OK to go.

Why not just go with a different color?

Wouldn’t it be far less confusing to introduce a new color scheme into the mix and assign that a meaning.

Let’s say for example, you have a flashing pink light.

That looks nothing like the other colors and can be assigned a different meaning.

It will be interesting to see the accident statistics.  The new yellow blinking left turn signal lights are being rolled out on a controlled schedule so the impact on accidents will not really be able to be accurately analyzed until they are in regular use on a larger scale.

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