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Comment by Ajedi32 | Hacker News Reader

I thought we were talking about the Pittsburgh-left. That's not what you're describing. The Pittsburgh-left occurs immediately after the light turns green, when both the oncoming traffic and the person making the turn have a green light.

My point was, why do you need to do that when you can just enter the intersection during the green light and complete your turn once the light turns red?

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Having driven in the single lane thoroughfares of Pittsburgh, I’m grateful for the people in front of me that take a “Pittsburgh-left.” Otherwise the entire lane would be stopped for every left turner each green light. This way it’s only stopped for every other left turner in the cases where a left-turner ends up in front of the line. It’s an improvement to everyone’s traffic flow.

Driving in California, the best roads literally make it illegal to turn left during rush hour when the intersection doesn’t have a left turn lane. People still get where they’re going.

Whether you do it after the light goes red (illegal) or immediately on green (also illegal), it's the same underlying problem: the intersection needs a protected left turn in the signal sequence.

Which law is violated if you enter the intersection when the light is green and exit it when the light is red?

In many places it's illegal to enter the intersection (even if the light is green) if you're unable to immediately leave it, mainly to ensure that intersections don't get blocked if there's a traffic jam in the direction you want to go; and this rule also prohibits (not everywhere) to enter the intersection for a left turn if you can't complete the turn right now because there's still oncoming traffic.

Ahh now it is finally clear.

Then the laws in Pittsburgh are just bad. Not a design question at all.

Here you oull into the intersection on green, turn slightly ti a big white cross on the road for exactly this purpose and go when it is clear. This happens when the oncoming side has red, but before the crossing cars have green. The time between red and green is long enough for all two or three cars to clear the intersection.

Get better laws i guess?

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