Flashing Red After the Storm, a Two-Track Crossing, and a Misused Center Lane
It is 10:20 p.m. in July. A thunderstorm has knocked out power along a suburban arterial in Dover, Delaware. You approach an intersection where the signal heads are dark except for a single red light flashing on each approach. A car waits in the opposing left-turn lane, and a cyclist is stopped on the cross street to your right. Beyond the intersection the road crosses a railroad line at grade: there is a crossbuck, a 2 TRACKS plaque beneath it, no flashers and no gates, and a stop line painted about 20 feet before the near rail. For the next half mile the center of the road is a two-way left-turn lane marked by two yellow lines - solid on the outside, dashed on the inside. A van behind you swings into that center lane and uses it to overtake a slow car ahead of you, then cuts back into your lane. The pavement is still wet, and streetlights along this stretch are out.
1. What does the flashing red signal require at this intersection, and how does it differ from a flashing yellow or a completely dark signal?
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A flashing red means the same thing as a stop sign: come to a complete stop behind the stop line or crosswalk, yield to vehicles already in or approaching the intersection, and proceed only when it is safe. At an intersection where every approach flashes red, the practical rule is order of arrival, with ties resolved in favor of the vehicle on the right - so watch the cyclist stopped to your right, and the opposing left-turner, who may believe the gap is theirs.
Compare the other cases:
- Flashing yellow means proceed with caution - no full stop required - but you still yield to anyone with the right of way, such as pedestrians in the crosswalk or vehicles already inside the intersection.
- A completely dark signal is not a free-for-all. Treat it as an all-way stop: stop, then proceed in order, yielding to the right and to anyone already committed.
Tonight the streetlights are out and the pavement is wet, so your stop should be early and gentle, and your scan should include the cyclist, the left-turner, and pedestrians who may be crossing outside the crosswalk because the signals are down.
2. What do the crossbuck and the 2 TRACKS plaque require as you approach, and what would change your plan mid-crossing?
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A crossbuck is the railroad equivalent of a yield sign: it means yield to trains. With no flashers or gates, nothing forces you to stop, so you must do the checking yourself - slow down, look both ways, and at night roll the window down briefly to listen over your engine and any audio. The painted stop line 20 feet back shows where you would stop if a train appeared or if you needed to re-check before crossing.
The 2 TRACKS plaque is the critical detail: a second train can come from either direction, and a train on the near track can hide one on the far track. Never assume that because one train has passed the crossing is clear - and never stop on the rails, even in traffic, even if the vehicle ahead has stopped. Wait on the near side until you can clear the entire crossing in one move.
Mid-crossing changes: if flashers were present and began to flash, you would stop at least 15 feet before the nearest rail and stay until the lights stop and gates are fully raised. If your vehicle stalled on the track, the priority order is: get everyone out and away from the tracks, then call for help - do not stay in the car.
3. The van used the two-way left-turn lane to pass. Explain what that lane is actually for and why its use was both illegal and dangerous here.
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The two-way left-turn lane - marked by two yellow lines with a dashed line on the inside - is a shared left-turn refuge for both directions of traffic. It exists so drivers can pull out of the through lane, wait, and turn left into a driveway or side street without blocking traffic behind them, and so opposing left-turners can use the same space at different times.
What it is not:
- Not a passing lane. Using it to overtake, as the van did, is illegal in Delaware and is exactly the maneuver that produces head-on crashes, because an opposing driver may be sitting in that same lane waiting to turn.
- Not a travel lane. You may not drive along it for distance; you enter it shortly before your turn and leave it as you complete the turn.
- Not a merge lane or a place to queue for a light.
To use it correctly: signal, check for opposing traffic already in the lane, enter, and complete the turn without lingering. Tonight the risk was compounded - wet pavement, dark streetlights, and a driver ahead who could have braked at any moment - which is why the van's maneuver was not just a violation but a reasonably foreseeable head-on collision.