Flashing yellow left turn signals ib Randall puzzle some drivers

No harm, no foul on this one. But I did almost rear-end a car that was sitting on Randall Road after coming to a complete stop, waiting to turn left on the new flashing yellow light at Fargo Boulevard — with not a single car coming in the other direction.

This driver apparently was confused as to what a flashing yellow light means. And it's hard to imagine this driver is an isolated case based on what we've heard from a few puzzled drivers since these lights took hold a few months ago.

But Stephen Zulkowski, a traffic/permit engineer for the Kane County Transportation Department, said only a few calls have come into the department from people asking what the new lights mean.

“When we first turned them on, some callers just thought the light was malfunctioning, so we had to explain what it was,” Zulkowski said. “There has not been a lot of other feedback conveyed to me.”

We think we understand the idea behind the yellow flashing lights at intersections in Geneva, but then again, we can't always be sure. County transportation officials pitched them as a safer alternative to a solid green light, with the emphasis on yellow meaning to “yield.”

It didn't bother me that I had to honk the horn to get this person moving. It was more troubling to think that this driver, or maybe another in the near future, is going to think that oncoming traffic has a red light while they have a flashing yellow.

The result of that makes me cringe. You're talking about a near head-on as someone takes a left turn in front of cars cruising in the opposite direction — drivers who may have no idea that the driver turning left has a flashing yellow.

“This is something new, and not something your average driver has seen around this area,” Zulkowski said. “Something new can be scary to people, and it can make them think twice about what it means.”

The transportation department has put up signs to inform drivers to yield on a left-turn flashing yellow, but I find these signs to have a lot of words on them to take in when it is dark out or during heavy traffic cycles.

Zulkowski said that any publicity about what the lights mean or how people feel about them will help get more drivers to understand them. We also hope the traffic accident stats ultimately tell us this is a safer option.

But right now, let's sum it up this way: It's probably safe to say that a majority of drivers on the road never learned about flashing yellow lights in driver's ed classes. So breaking old driving habits is tough to do, especially on an extremely busy Randall Road setting.

Hungry for fish 'n chips:

A reader had my mouth watering when expressing hope that fish 'n chips will remain on the menu when McNally's reopens on Main Street in St. Charles, taking back its rightful place in the First Street Plaza. It was obviously one of her favorite dishes at McNally's in the past.

Fish 'n chips also sits quite high on my all-time list of “foods I have eaten the most” over my lifetime.

It was an addiction nearly 40 years ago when I was a cub reporter in Elburn and would drive to the Long John Silvers, at the corner of Main Street and Randall Road in St. Charles at that time, for lunch at least a few days a week. That's a fairly long drive.

Would I eat Long John Silvers now? Let's just say it was good at the time, but my heart might not take kindly to a regular dose of it now.

But the tasty dish lives on.

Claddagh Irish Pub in Geneva still offers a two-for-one deal on its fish 'n chips on Mondays, and there are other places offering this delightfully greasy fare.

For anyone not keeping track, or who may have been away, Valley Lodge has left that former McNally's spot, and McNally's owners didn't hesitate to get the ball rolling to jump back into the fray.

And if anyone thinks Long John Silvers is still at that St. Charles location, then I can't help you. It's been gone for decades, and its spot remains just an empty field near the Mercedes-Benz of St. Charles car dealership.

How about Gilles?:

Speaking of that general Main-and-Randall area of St. Charles, most longtime residents should easily remember the Dog 'n Suds, which later became Gilles, an excellent custard stand, along Randall Road.

That was in the area that is now the 7-Eleven gas station on the southwest corner. To this day, I say Gilles had the greatest chocolate-covered custard bar with a graham cracker crust called “Those Things.”

That fair parking:

Going back in the time machine a bit, say 20 or more years ago, the entire Meijer store property and its parking lot in St. Charles used to be an open field that took in overflow parking for the Kane County Fairgrounds.

And patrons used to head over to the annual county fair in droves — on a pedestrian overpass crossing Route 38.

dheun@sbcglobal.net