Allowing Right Turns and Opposing Left Turns to Proceed Simultaneously at 5 Intersections in Toronto

Toronto is implementing right turn green arrow phases to activate simultaneously with opposing left turn green arrow phases! It's being implemented at these 5 intersections:
- King St at Jarvis St
- King St at Bathurst St
- Bathurst St at Adelaide St
- York St at Lakeshore Blvd
- Lawerence Ave at the Allen Rd Expressway
This is being done to move more vehicles without adding time to cycle lengths!
Other than these 5 intersections, I strongly support this being implemented under the following conditions:
- There's a curb or median separating the exit leg lanes unless there's only 1 exiting lane.
- There are no driveways, intersections or parking lot entrances within a certain distance from the intersection (unless inbound turns are prohibited)
- Without a curb or median that separates the exit leg lanes, there should be enough exiting lanes to allow all vehicles turning right and all opposing vehicles turning left proceed at the same time. This includes semi trucks being able to procced without their paths colliding. On some roads in Toronto's downtown core, trucks are not allowed.

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

Adelaide and Bathurst isn't new, we put that in as part of the original pilot. However my original design included a painted splitter island made of flexi posts, but then someone else deleted the flexi posts. Now it looks like the paint is gone too...

[@jacksonbourrettransportati9852]

I always thought Adelaide & Bathurst would be a great spot to put curbs separating the paths of southbound left turns and northbound right turns. Never knew it was originally part of the design!

[@traffic.engineer]

They have this in Lafayette, LA. Buy they have supplementary signs and pavement markings indicating both directions to stay with the movement.

[@SeanB88]

This is going to end really poorly when somebody turns wide and jumps a lane....

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

That's why my original design for Bathurst and Adelaide had a splitter island to prevent people from turning wide

[@SeanB88]

@@OntarioTrafficMan Do you work for the city?

[@WestCoastTrafficSignals]

Very interesting! My only concern is vehicles might turn into the far lane (rather than the closest lane) which would conflict with the opposing traffic. Especially if a larger vehicle needs to turn.
2:32 It does make sense at this intersection though as the left and right turns are channelized. So there’s no possibility for conflict!

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

Especially at narrow intersections like King and Jarvis where large vehicles actually need to turn into both lanes just to make the turn

[@MrBattlecharge]

I wonder what they're going to do when one of those simultaneously turning vehicles is a semi truck with trailer and they need to go wide. Who needs to yield and who becomes at fault if there is contact.

[@jacksonbourrettransportati9852]

@@MrBattlecharge It's probably a matter of common sense. My take would be to have the vehicles that need to take both lanes wait, unless otherwise signaled by a police officer to proceed. This happens at one of the intersections that has police officers present, and they just tell the vehicle that needs to take both lanes to proceed. During that time, the police make the opposing vehicle turning movements wait.

[@MrBattlecharge]

@jacksonbourrettransportati9852 well sure, but common sense also tells me that a lot of people are going to try and abuse or ignore that system out of impatience. Be it a truck tired of waiting or other cars speeding up to get ahead of the truck who is already in motion, or even cars turning from other lanes around the truck because they are tired of waiting.

[@TheTrafficTech]

We have one location like this in HRM! At least they repaint the lines often!

[@eloquentlearner3760]

This is very dangerous as many drivers do not turn into the left most lane. And also if somebody wanted to take the first entrance onto the right, they definitely would not go into the left most lane. I believe they should spend more money on penalizing those who don’t stop first when turning right on red. That is something I have seen constantly in Scarborough and have almost in been hit one of these

[@jacksonbourrettransportati9852]

@@eloquentlearner3760 Yes! Toronto needs hundreds or thousands of more "no right turn on red" signs! 100% agree!

[@rqlk]

This design doesn’t allow a semi truck driver to make a wide enough turn due to traffic in his path

[@nswtrains3153]

I was thinking that yeah, cab overs are needed in NA

[@MisterMotel]

0:53 They could not make a more confusing situation even if they tried here. Signs saying no left turns with small text underneath, but the traffic light says you have to turn left. It's red but its also green. No straight on but it it a straight on road. make it makes sense..

[@jacksonbourrettransportati9852]

@@MisterMotel The no left turn hours are from 3pm-7pm weekdays only. During those hours, the westbound left turn green arrow does not come on, and both ways receive a green ball with a right turn green arrow instead. During those hours, the LED sign displays "no going straight or turning left".