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Screen grab from LADOT video.
The corner of Venice and Robertson boulevards — I guess you'd call it Mid City — has always been a complicated intersection. It's got five points and a wide crossing for pedestrians. Last November David Lindley, an autistic student at nearby Hamilton High School, was struck and killed at the corner. The intersection has been reconfigured a bit for the Expo Line construction, and now the city Department of Transportation, or LADOT, has put in a flashing yellow right-turn arrow in hopes of keeping drivers from turning into pedestrians. Streetsblog LA says it's the first time LADOT has used the flashing yellow arrow as a tactic. In other places, notably at Wilshire and Gayley in Westwood Village, there's a hard red arrow to stop right turns while pedestrians go — backed up in Westwood by an additional electronic stop sign intended to hold drivers. Wilshire there is 10 lanes across, and pedestrians need all the defense they can get against the traffic barreling out of UCLA and Westwood Village.
LADOT made a little instructional video about how the yellow arrows work at Venice and Robertson:
An earlier video shot by Gökhan Esirgen shows how many left-turning cars continue through that intersection after the red light. That doesn't seem to be a problem addressed by the new yellow arrows. Hat tip: Streetsblog LA
