left turns
Posted: November 12, 2015 Filed under: SoCal Life 2 CommentsI’m talking about left turns literally, not metaphorically.
In the Bay Area, from Redwood City to Gilroy, which represents the northern and southern extremes of the places I lived (and, interestingly, the first and the last as well), most intersections that were at all busy had protected left turns. In Gilroy, where Terry and I spent seventeen years, only the quietest intersections that had signals did not have protected left turns. There was one notable exception to that, which was from the very busy east/west First Street onto the quite busy north/south Church street. I simply avoided making a left turn there.
Here in Hemet it is a different matter. While there are a lot of protected left turns, there are a number of busy intersections that don’t have protected left turns. I haven’t used that part of my brain in a very long time. The irony is that it was here in Hemet where I learned to drive. And at that time there were almost no protected left turns.
Nonetheless, it has been forty-one years. I need to get that area of my brain sharp again.
my point being 
You can always substitute a “San Francisco left”, which consists of three rights — best executed one block above your destination, or, better, a block above a stoplight for easy crossing. Hoping return to Hemet gives you a bit of the “rural’ thing I mostly like about Sonora (Republican vitriol excluded).
Hey, Alison: The San Francisco left was my route to church until just recently, when I decided that was overkill on a Sunday morning. As for the rural thing, there was plenty of rural in Gilroy and there is plenty of it here as well. There are several Thoroughbred ranches on this side of the valley, not to mention open farmland. As I pointed out before we headed south, Terry and I are bringing our Democrat votes to a place where they are needed more than in Santa Clara County.