If American traffic engineers would mirror-reverse these two signs, thousands of gallons and hours could be saved, probably every day.
You see, whenever someone is in the right lane and wants to go forward (under the system shown in my photo), they hold up everyone behind them who wants to turn right (if the traffic is clear).
My way? Everyone in the right lane could turn, if there was no traffic coming.
What you describe is helpful while the light is red. But if left and straight are the same lane, and a person wanting to turn left is waiting for oncoming traffic to clear, he holds up all forward traffic while the light is green.
If both forward and left have the right of way on green, oncoming traffic has to wait for a separate green, which is also slow and frustrating.
Best solution is three lanes at the intersection. Otherwise I would leave it like it is.
agreed, switching it holds up traffic if there is bidirectional straight traffic and someone needs to turn left. To solve it you’d need to have exclusive traffic for each direction, which again is inefficient if nobody is turning.
my biggest colorado complaint is that lights are not properly timed. If you’re waiting at a red, the best indicator of your impending green light is when cross traffic approaches the intersection.