Q&A - We Need a Left Turn Lane

If I was a Traffic Engineer, I would look at the situation this way.

As things are now, a driver turning left from Casorso into the Mobile Home Park entrance has a clear and unobstructed view of any and all vehicles with whom he might be in conflict.  Obviously, he would wait immediately to the right of that solid yellow line, until there was a reasonable and safe gap to allow him to complete the turn.

If a Left Turn Lane was created, nothing would change, from a safety standpoint. The view of the oncoming vehicles wouldn't change. The view of the pedestrians, skateboarders, golf cars, or whatever might be using that sidewalk wouldn't change.

Meanwhile, with the present situation, the driver turning left might feel compelled to approach from the other direction, making a right turn into that entrance instead. Why? Because under Section 156 of the Motor Vehicle Act, if turning left the driver must not unreasonably affect the travel of other vehicles (such as those coming up from behind). Those vehicles don't appear to have sufficient room to pass him on the right without leaving the surfaced portion of the roadway; and that's illegal under Section 158(2)(b).

So if they decided to create a Left Turn Lane, it would become necessary to extend the paved area of roadway onto that gravel shoulder area, encroaching on people's lawns almost, and eliminating their opportunity to park on the street there in front of their homes in order to allow traffic continuing straight, and passing the vehicles in the left turn chute. This road widening would not go over well with those taxpaying citizens, is my guess.

The volume of oncoming traffic at various times of day is irrelevant; the only way to change that would be to install a traffic signal to halt them, so by the time the whole job was done hundreds of thousands of dollars would have been spent to address ... what, exactly? An inconvenience?

At what point does traffic engineers act on a very necessary action. Before or after the death of a human being?

Any sort of collision history, particularly involving injury or death, will make the Traffic Engineers sit up and take notice, in case there's a problem that they can mitigate; even if the problem might be traced to poor driving behaviour. In your general neighbourhood, I note the creation of large Traffic Circles where Casorso is intersected by Benvoulin Road, and Swamp Road, for instance; these things cost money to build (compared to just making intersections with lane lines) due to both materials and the amount of valuable real estate being used, but they do make things much safer, particularly where there is a high volume of potentially conflicting traffic.

I also see that drivers turning left from Barrera Road, into Casorsa, are provided with a Left Turn Lane; but that is surely a much higher traffic volume situation, plus which the necessary road width already exists. Cleverly, they also put in a little Left Turn Lane for teachers and parents turning into the Casorso Elementary School driveway; the road configuration allowed for this easily so it only made sense to do so.

So, I gotta ask again: why do you want this Left Turn Lane for drivers turning into the Mobile Home Park? It won't change anything, from a safety standpoint.