America, here’s why you should ban left turns | Opinion

A dump truck turning left that won't cause a problem. Traffic is backed up behind me, waiting and waiting and waiting. That guy just flipped me off and now the dump truck has managed to turn and I've got a red light come on. So there's three really solid reasons for getting rid of left turns. The 1st is that it makes traffic safer. Collisions are 10 * 10 times more likely when someone's making a left turn than when someone's making a right turn. The second reason it's cleaner, most of the pollution from automobiles in city centers comes not when the cars are moving, but when they're idling. So the more cars that are idling and the cars backed up behind me when I'm trying to make a left turn, the more pollution there's going to be. The third reason is actually the most intriguing of all. Eliminating left turns makes traffic faster, even if it makes traffic momentarily slower for a few people who have to make three right turns in the aggregate for everyone, everybody saves time. There's some really interesting math underneath that, and the cities that have done it have seen improvements in traffic flow. So the question for all of you is this, are you willing to occasionally sacrifice a left turn if it means that you and everybody in your community will save hours and hours and hours over the year? I got to get over there. It's a total pain. Sorry, guys, I'm turning left. See what's good for America and what's good for me sometimes are at odds, but I'm paying the price right now because there's an Uber pickup here.