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I wish the US/state governments would do the same thing. I hate how the green left-turn arrow is the first thing to light at a stoplight. This penalizes efficiency and rewards a behavior that costs us all time and energy.

Why is it like this? The only valid reason I can think of is that turn lanes would tend to back up at most lights in busy cities. I would think correcting this behavior would help reduce the number of vehicles turning, to offset the backup.

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You should check out the "Michigan left" which is being increasingly implemented around the country. A Michigan left prevents backup by having people turn right and then do a U-turn further down the road at a designated area.

Thanks for the concept epikur! This is better, but it seems this design would not work on very busy roads. You would never get a chance to cross oncoming traffic due to the volume.

This does seem perfect for most Midwestern highways where space is not really a concern and traffic is relatively light.

They installed one of these a few years ago where I live. Each U-turn area gets its own traffic light in addition to the light at the grade crossing; I don't drive through there often enough to know how the patterns are synchronized for the different lights.

For one highway and one non-highway, check out SPUIs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwpoPQ1SPJU

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