Signal gives left-turning drivers a break

PROVO — The locally owned gas station and convenience store on the corner of University Avenue and 3700 North has a clever name that recently had an unfortunate double meaning.

Named for its boat-racing owner, Will's Pit Stop opened 23 years ago this week, but from 2003 to 2005 the pit-stop portion of the name took on a smash-'em-up NASCAR connotation because of the high number of collisions that happened at the intersection.

"During that three-year period there were 18 crashes involving vehicles making left turns alone," UDOT spokesman Geoff Dupaix said.

The solution, adopted in November, includes a term that should be learned by every driver who travels through Provo: Lagging left.

Once the crash analysis was complete, UDOT authorized Provo's request to protect drivers from oncoming traffic when they make left-hand turns at the intersection. Those turns from University Avenue onto 3700 North now can be made only while the traffic signal shows a green arrow.

The granddaughter of Will's Pit Stop's namesake, William Faulkner V, works as a clerk at the shop for her father, William Faulkner VI, and she's noticed a big difference in just a few weeks.

"I'm here almost every day and in my opinion there are a lot fewer wrecks," Kassidy Faulkner said.

The switch adds eight seconds to traffic signal phasing at the intersection, Provo city engineer Nick Jones said.

It also adds a lagging left, a traffic tool introduced to Utah Valley two years ago.

Many of those drivers now protected from oncoming traffic at the Will's Pit Stop intersection still make those left turns on a leading left, the traditional order observed at most intersections in Utah: Left turns first.

For example, if you're headed north on University Avenue and plan to turn left at Will's Pit Stop, you pull into the left-turn lane on a red light. Stopped next to you, planning to continue up University Avenue, is a sport-utility vehicle. The traffic signals stop all other traffic and up pops the green arrow, allowing you to turn left first while the SUV waits. Then the arrow turns yellow and then red. In the past, a green ball, or regular green light, then popped up for you and the SUV. You could turn left — if you could negotiate oncoming traffic traveling at speeds of 50 mph or more.