Randall Road to get flashing yellow turn arrows

Kane County drivers will see something new later this year when they make left turns at intersections on Randall Road between Geneva and South Elgin: flashing yellow arrows.

The county's transportation department plans to install the signals at 15 intersections, hoping they will better remind drivers to yield to oncoming traffic than the current solid green lights.

"They reduce crashes and are more easily understood to the everyday driver," a county traffic engineer, Stephen Zulkowski, told the Geneva City Council Monday. "Yellow conveys more of a yield operation."

The signals will be installed at intersections from Fabyan Parkway to Silver Glen Road.

However, don't expect to see them at intersections that have double-left-turn lanes, Zulkowski said. Those will still restrict left turns to when a green arrow is showing.

The flashing yellow arrow signals have been installed by the state transportation department elsewhere, including near Peoria, Zulkowski said.

The new signals will also have a reflective backplate around them that will make the signal heads more noticeable, particularly at night, he said. And traffic signals will be placed over each lane.

The county also plans to install speed feedback signs along that stretch, which will display drivers' speeds as they pass.

The first flashing signals should start operating in mid-August, Zulkowski said.

Geneva Alderman Mike Bruno said he was disappointed to learn that the flashing arrows wouldn't be installed at Williamsburg Drive, which has a double left-turn lane, but understands there are concerns about safety that preclude that. Geneva Commons is on the northwest corner, and Delnor Hospital on the southwest.

On his Facebook page Wednesday, he wrote: "Those flashing arrows seem like a big nothing-burger to me. It was my great hope, when I first heard of them, that it would allow left-turners to avoid those long, arduous waits when there is obviously no oncoming traffic."