Flashing Yellow Arrow at a Wide Night Intersection
At 9:40 p.m. you are westbound on a four-lane arterial in Omaha, approaching a signalized intersection with a dedicated left-turn lane. The through light is solid green. Your left-turn signal is a flashing yellow arrow, and a sign reads Left Turn Yield on Green. You want to turn left onto the southbound street. Oncoming traffic is steady: a pickup is about 180 feet away at roughly 45 mph, and a second car is behind it. A pedestrian in a dark jacket is walking in the crosswalk on the street you want to enter, moving from your left to right. Your front bumper is at the stop line. The pavement is dry, but the intersection is wide and the pedestrian is partly in shadow. You have a passenger and a green light for through traffic.
1. What does the flashing yellow arrow require, and what should you check before turning?
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A flashing yellow arrow is a permissive left turn: it does not give you a protected right-of-way. You must yield to oncoming vehicles and to pedestrians in the crosswalk. First check the pedestrian: they are moving from your left to right and are partly shadowed, so make sure they have cleared your intended path, not just your bumper. Then measure the gap. The pickup at 180 feet and 45 mph is closing at about 66 feet per second, so it reaches the intersection in under 3 seconds. A left turn across two oncoming lanes takes longer than that. Waiting behind the stop line is the safer choice; do not start the turn just because the through light is green.
2. The arrow changes to solid yellow as the pickup passes, and the second car is still approaching. What should you do?
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A solid yellow arrow means the left-turn phase is ending; it does not mean accelerate to beat the red. You are still at the stop line, so the correct action is to remain stopped if you can do so safely. The second car still has the right-of-way if it is proceeding through the intersection on a green light. Entering on yellow to wait in the middle would put you in that car's path and risk blocking the intersection. If you have not entered, stay put and prepare for the next green or arrow.
3. Suppose you had already entered the intersection on the yellow and oncoming traffic cleared only after your light turned red. What now?
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Once you have legally entered the intersection on a green or yellow, you should complete the turn when it is safe rather than stop in the middle or reverse. But the key is that entering should happen only when you can clear the intersection; the yellow is not a license to sit in the box. If the light turns red while you are waiting, watch for a final oncoming vehicle and for pedestrians, then finish the turn promptly. Do not assume the red stops all cross traffic instantly, and do not back up.