Left-Turn-Only Lane, Two-Way Left-Turn Lane, and Red Curb in Hagåtña
Midday in Hagåtña you are in the left lane of a one-way three-lane street approaching a signalized intersection. Painted in your lane is a white left-turn arrow, and a vertical sign on the mast reads LEFT TURN ONLY. You wanted to continue straight for two more blocks. On your right, the middle lane narrows into a painted hatched island, and beyond it a two-way left-turn lane is marked with a solid yellow line on the outside and a broken yellow line on the inside; a driver ahead has pulled in and is waiting to enter a bank lot. At the right curb, red paint runs past a fire hydrant. Your passenger asks whether you can stop there just for a minute to use the ATM.
1. You are in the left-turn-only lane but wanted to go straight. What are your options, and what must you not do?
Read the worked answer
You cannot legally or safely go straight from that lane. The white arrow is a regulatory pavement marking and the LEFT TURN ONLY sign repeats it; together they mean the lane's only permitted movement is the left turn.
The real judgment is what to do next:
- Take the left turn, then reroute at the next block. Two blocks of detour is a cheap correction.
- Do not swerve right across the solid white line at the intersection to rescue the mistake; right-lane traffic is there, and a late lane change at a signal is a common crash pattern.
- Do not stop in the lane to think. Stopping on a green with a queue behind you is its own hazard.
If you truly needed to go straight, the correct moment to change lanes was before the solid line and the arrow began - usually several hundred feet back, where the broken line ended.
2. May you use the two-way left-turn lane to get around slow traffic or to travel for a block? What is the marking pattern telling you?
Read the worked answer
That lane has one job: left turns. The marking pattern - solid yellow on the outside, broken yellow on the inside - identifies a two-way left-turn lane shared by traffic from both directions.
- Enter it only when you are close to your turn, and use it to slow and wait for a gap in opposing traffic.
- Do not use it to pass, to merge into faster traffic, or as a travel lane. Some drivers treat it as an express lane; that is how head-on crashes happen, because a driver coming the other way may be using the same strip.
- Check for opposing vehicles already in the lane before pulling in, and do not stack behind another left-turner if that puts your car outside the marked area.
The driver waiting for the bank lot is using it correctly. What you must not do is copy the position without the turn.
3. Can you stop briefly at the red curb to use the ATM, and how do curb colors and the hatched island sort out?
Read the worked answer
No - and the reason is the paint, not the errand.
- Red curb: no stopping, standing, or parking at any time, even with the engine running and a passenger inside. It typically protects a fire lane or hydrant access.
- Hatched island: not a driving, stopping, or parking area; it separates traffic streams.
- White curb: passenger pickup and drop-off. Yellow curb: commercial loading. Blue: reserved disability parking.
Stopping on red at a hydrant blocks the one thing the paint exists to protect; a minute is exactly the excuse that becomes five. If you need the ATM, find a legal space or a white loading zone and walk.
Also look for a sign repeating the curb restriction. Curb paint fades under Guam sun and rain, so a NO STOPPING sign can still be in force where the red is worn away.