I mean, I am all for banning vehicles with dangerous visibility. But also, turns on red are not perfectly safe in any vehicle. Turning vehicles encroach into crosswalk space.

@seabikeblog Right turn on red is banned on the entire island of Montreal, and honestly you don't really miss it. It makes a bunch of other operations safer for drivers and pedestrians both.

in Seattle, not having it would (barring some massive adjustment to timing) cause a ton of needless delays at uncomplicated intersections. The problem here is the monster trucks.

I'm not so sure about those delays. Waiting for a green light isn't an unreasonable ask. If there is so much turning traffic that banning turns on red would cause major delays, then the crosswalks there must be truly awful to use and in need to more protection. RTOR isn't a good mechanism for moving lots of vehicles.

it affects one more during, for example, the middle of the night in sodo. It's rarely a relevant rule during peaks.

We need to completely overhaul how we think about traffic signals during the night. For example, I think more intersections should become all-way stops at night when volumes drop below the point where a signal is warranted. However, protecting the free flow of traffic during the night is not a great reason to prevent safety improvements during the day.

other cities do it and I don't know why we don't. One who needs to turn left is often sitting for over 5 minutes on empty streets, unless they run the light, which many do (even though it doesn't seem like a long time when discussing it). Rules like that engender contempt for the rules in general and make us less safe, like how the 55mph national speed limit made people ignore them everywhere.

Totally agree.