canada traffic alberta
can one turn left or right at a red light with dual lane turns?
<p>The link <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/turning.aspx#:%7E:text=Turning%20left%20from%20a%201%2Dway%20onto%20a%201%2Dway,pedestrians%20crossing%20to%20your%20left." rel="nofollow noreferrer">Turning | Alberta.ca</a> says &quot;when the light is red, if there are no signs prohibiting the turn, you may turn left on a red light from a one way to a one way after you come to a complete stop at the proper stopping location (stop line or crosswalk) and it is safe. This also applies to dual lane turns. Yield to pedestrians crossing to your left.&quot;  It seems it's saying with dual lane turns, one can also turn left on a red light.</p>
<p>However, in this link <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/turning-lanes.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Turning lanes | Alberta.ca</a> it says &quot;unless prohibited by a sign, at a dual right turn intersection, you may turn right on a red light after you come to a complete stop at the proper stopping point (stop line or crosswalk).&quot; It doesn't mention turning left on a red light.</p>
<p>So can one turn left or right at a red light with dual lane turns? Thank you!</p>

<p>The critical consideration is that the permitted left turn must be onto a one-way roadway in that direction. One is not permitted to perform a left turn which involves crossing traffic from the left, which would also imply that it is not a one-way roadway.</p>

<p>Intersections have a number of possible paths through them. Where those possible paths cross is called a <a href="https://highways.dot.gov/public-roads/januaryfebruary-2003/reducing-points-conflict" rel="nofollow noreferrer">conflict point.</a></p>
<p>Canada drives on the right.  That means that right turns only do not entail any conflict points, except for a merge into the lane you are joining.   This means you only have three things to watch for: pedestrians, moose, and oncoming traffic in that lane.  That is the rationale behind allowing &quot;right on red&quot; - given the <em>de minimis</em> number of conflict points involved,  the driver workload is reasonable.</p>
<p>As a matter of policy they allow 2 lanes of right on red, but that's not your question.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ss4do.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ss4do.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/safety/04091/10.cfm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">source</a></p>
<p>A &quot;left on red&quot; isn't going to work as a general rule, because of a much larger number of conflict points, mostly the worst kind, <em>crossing</em> conflict points.   Is this too much workload for the driver? Yes - we know that, because <em>that was the whole reason why the intersection was upgraded from stop signs to traffic lights in the first place!</em>  So a <em>general</em> left on red is unworkable.</p>
<p>However,  one-way streets to the left create a special situation.  From a one-way to a <em>leftward</em> one-way has no conflict points except the &quot;merging&quot; one discussed with right turns.  As such, &quot;left on red&quot; is allowed there.  This is the situation being discussed in your first link.  The first link isn't referring to left turns onto two-way streets.</p>
<p>This isn't relevant to this conversation, but from a two-way to a leftward one-way <em>arguably</em> creates this favorable situation again; while there are crossing conflict points, they are only with your own street's traffic which is held by the red light. As such, some jurisdictions allow left turns from a 2-way to a 1-way. <strong>Alberta is not one of them</strong>, probably due to moose :)</p>
<p>The simplest way to think of this is, &quot;you are allowed to turn into the nearest lane to you, if you don't cross any lanes at all&quot;, and in Alberta 2 lanes can do this at once.</p>
