"If you allow someone to turn right on red and that person making right turn on red is looking for vehicles to their left, they are not looking for pedestrians on their right," said Magoon. Reason number three is the most common reason: Protecting pedestrians who might be crossing the street.
If officials deem that a driver can’t see far enough down the road to spot oncoming traffic, they won’t allow a turn on red. "For example, if people made a right turn on red but then had to stop shortly after, it could back up into the intersection," he explained. The first has to do with the flow of traffic and the timing of other nearby traffic lights. He says there are three reasons why they choose to restrict right turns on red. In Watertown, where Merigan lives, Steve Magoon is one of a team of officials who make those decisions. Then - as now - it's up to officials in each city and town to decide which intersections in that community should get a "No Turn On Red" sign. When it became legal in Massachusetts in 1980, some 90 percent of the state’s intersections were outfitted with a "No Turn On Red" sign. Massachusetts was - in fact - the last state to allow right turns on red, and it appears the state made the allowance grudgingly. Turning right on red was already legal in some states. The thinking was that allowing a right turn on red would cut down on idling at traffic lights and therefore reduce gas consumption.
a traffic law or regulation which, to the maximum extent practicable consistent with safety, permits the operator of a motor vehicle to turn such vehicle right at a red stop light after stopping." But that money would only be allocated to states that had ". As part of that legislation, the federal government required each state to come up with its own energy efficiency plan and offered money to help. In response, Congress passed the sweeping Energy Policy And Conservation Act of 1975. The oil embargo pushed gas prices sky high here in the U.S. It came to pass because - of all things - unrest in the Middle East in the early 1970s, and the decision by 11 nations there to stop selling oil to the United States in retaliation for our support of Israel. As it turns out, it's a recent phenomenon around here. Merigan is actually pretty lucky she can turn right on red at any intersection here in Massachusetts.
I would love to know who is in charge of making those decisions."
"Is it done by town? Is it done by the state? I'm pretty sure most of us know how to stop and then turn on red. "I am curiouser and curiouser about who sets the rules for no turn on red at our intersections," Merigan wrote in an email. Merigan reached out to us at the Curiosity Desk because she wanted to understand more about who decides when to restrict a right turn on red, and how that decision is made. "I can’t help but think it’s almost as if I can’t be trusted to know when to turn on red," she said. Auburn Street in Watertown, where I met up with her. But none does more so than the one on Walnut Street, where it intersects with Mt. "No Turn On Red" signs really get Maryann Merigan's haunches up.