Flashing Yellow Arrow, a Set-Back Stop Line, and a Late Pedestrian
You are westbound at 6:10 PM in July on a four-lane road, waiting to turn left at a signalized intersection. Your left-turn lane is controlled by a signal head displaying a flashing yellow arrow. The through-traffic signal for your direction is red. The stop line is painted 12 feet back from a marked crosswalk, and you can see the rectangular loop detector cut into the pavement behind that stop line. Beyond the crosswalk, a pedestrian has just stepped off the far curb and is walking into the crosswalk from your left, moving slowly. The arrow continues to flash yellow. A driver behind you taps the horn, and traffic on the opposing side is heavy but has a gap opening about two car lengths back.
1. What does the flashing yellow arrow permit you to do, and how does it differ from a steady green arrow, a steady yellow arrow, and a red arrow?
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A flashing yellow arrow is a permissive left turn: you may turn when it is safe, but you have no protected right of way.
- Steady green arrow: protected turn. Oncoming traffic is stopped, and pedestrians crossing your path are stopped by their own signal. Proceed.
- Flashing yellow arrow: unprotected. You must yield to oncoming traffic and to pedestrians in the crosswalk, then turn when clear. It is the modern replacement for the old "left turn yield on green" arrangement.
- Steady yellow arrow: the protected phase is ending. Stop if you can do so safely; do not start a turn on it.
- Red arrow: no turn. Stop and wait for the next phase. Do not treat it as a stop sign and turn when clear - a red arrow is a prohibition, unlike a plain red ball at an intersection where a turn may otherwise be allowed.
In this setup you are on the permissive phase, so the gap two car lengths back is only useful if it is genuinely clear and you can complete the turn without making anyone brake.
2. Where should you be stopped, and why is creeping forward into the crosswalk to wait for a gap both illegal and ineffective?
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Stay behind the stop line until you can actually complete the turn.
The stop line is the legal stop point. It sits 12 feet back precisely to keep the crosswalk clear. Stopping or waiting inside the crosswalk blocks pedestrians - including the slow pedestrian already in it - and it is a citable failure to yield.
The detector is behind the line. The loop was cut into the pavement where a car is supposed to wait, so it has already registered your presence and called your phase. Creeping forward does nothing for detection and may park you off the loop entirely.
If you must wait for a gap, wait past the crosswalk, not in it. Move through the crosswalk when it is clear and hold in the intersection beyond it, yielding to oncoming traffic and to pedestrians, then complete the turn. Waiting in the crosswalk is the one position that is neither legal nor useful.
3. The pedestrian is still crossing from your left as the gap in oncoming traffic opens. What do you do, and what changes if the arrow drops to a steady yellow and then a red while you are waiting in the intersection?
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The pedestrian wins. A flashing yellow arrow never gives you priority over someone in a marked crosswalk. Even though the gap is open and the driver behind is honking, you wait until the pedestrian has cleared both your lane and the lane you are turning into. Holding the turn costs seconds; moving on a pedestrian is the violation that ends careers and lives.
If the arrow changes while you are already lawfully in the intersection: you may complete the turn when it is safe. That is the point of pulling beyond the crosswalk to wait - you are committed, not running a light. Do not reverse, and do not stop in the middle of the intersection blocking cross traffic.
But the arrow changing does not override the pedestrian. A red arrow ending your phase does not authorize you to drive through a person to clear the box. Wait for the crosswalk to clear, then finish the turn.