Flashing Yellow Arrow, Dual Lefts, Omaha Arterial
It is 6:15 p.m. on a weekday and you are the first car in the inside left-turn lane of a divided arterial in Omaha, waiting to turn onto an expressway on-ramp. Two left-turn lanes serve this movement, each with its own signal head. Yours displays a flashing yellow arrow; the through lane on your right has a steady green ball. A white dotted line curves left across the intersection to mark your path. Oncoming traffic is a solid platoon of six vehicles at roughly 45 mph, and the largest gap you can see is about three seconds. The display in your lane changes from flashing yellow to steady yellow, and the driver behind you taps the horn. Your front bumper is still at the stop line, so you have not entered the intersection. The crosswalk is empty.
1. What exactly does the flashing yellow arrow permit, and is a three-second gap enough here?
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A flashing yellow arrow is a permissive left-turn display: you may turn left, but only after yielding the right of way to oncoming traffic and to any pedestrians in the crosswalk. It is not a protected turn and it does not mean 'turn now while the arrow is lit.' The steady green ball beside you governs the through lane; it tells you nothing about your left-turn permission, which comes from your arrow.
Three seconds is not enough. A left turn across 45 mph traffic consumes several seconds just to cross the oncoming lane, and you also need the oncoming driver to see you and not have to brake. A gap that requires the other driver to lift off the throttle is a gap you should not take. At 45 mph the oncoming cars cover about 66 feet per second, so a three-second hole closes faster than your turn can clear it.
So the arrow is permission subject to a condition, and the condition - a safe gap - is not met. You wait. The horn behind you carries no information: that driver cannot see what you see and is not the one who would be hit.
2. The display has gone to steady yellow. Do you pull into the intersection to wait, or stay at the stop line?
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Stay at the stop line. You have not entered the intersection, and entering on a steady yellow to wait for a gap you cannot yet see puts you in the middle of the box when cross traffic is released.
The reason is sequencing. Your flashing yellow has ended, so the oncoming platoon is about to get a longer green or their own protected phase, and cross traffic will be released immediately after. A vehicle sitting in the intersection becomes an obstacle to that release and a collision waiting for the first impatient cross-street driver. Blocking an intersection is also its own violation.
If you had already entered lawfully on the flashing yellow and were waiting inside the box, the answer would be different: you would complete the turn as soon as it is safe and clear the intersection, because Nebraska expects a driver who has lawfully entered to finish the movement. But your front bumper is at the line and your path is not open, so the correct choice is to stop, stay behind the line, and take the turn on the next cycle.
3. What is the white dotted line for, and what is the risk of the two left-turn lanes?
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The dotted white line is a lane-line extension: it projects your lane's boundary across the intersection so you hold your lane through the turn, the same way the dashed lines on the approach separate the two left-turn lanes. Follow it and do not drift outside it.
The risk with dual lefts is the two vehicles turning side by side. The driver in the outer left lane has a wider arc and tends to cut toward the inside lane at the end of the turn; the driver in the inside lane tends to drift outward. Both converge on the same destination lane. If you start in the inside lane, finish in the inside lane, and expect the other car to be exactly beside you through the whole arc - check your right mirror before you commit and again as you unwind the wheel. Do not change lanes inside the intersection to reach the ramp lane; complete the turn and change lanes afterward where the lines permit it.