What is the purpose of red left turn signals?

I agree, those drive me nuts. I guess the engineers think they know how to drive better than I do and they know what the traffic conditions are going to be 24/7. We have some seriously annoying lights around here.

In North Carolina the red left arrow is for left only turns. When you have a Green arrow it means only left turn lane is in motion ( may also allow right turn in not interference lanes ). THEREFORE the red is to tell STOP.

@Adirondackwannabe Ugh yes. It has driven me crazy for years but now every day to work I have to deal with it. I have decided to file a complaint. However I wanted to be prepared to address the other side if there is any beforehand.

@Tropical_Willie Thus the problem. Especially since I time the lights to hit green and never stop. This is especially vital in winter driving as the start as one loses traction needing more time to go, also places that require stops are subject to ice and moisture build up from the mixture of people stopping in the same place, the change of temperatures and lack of scraping in some situations.

It can be circumvented by stopping a little ahead behind or to the right or left. Never hard stopping just lightly resting on the brake if necessary. These methods work but not as well as timing.
Which since everytime I see a green to red left turn indicator I always find it is motion sensitive, and the light red unless you are stopped and then it only briefly switches so you have to be pretty close to another turner to ride their green.

The option of a green/yellow left turn light without having a red arrow is the most efficient option. Unless I am missing something vital?.

Option is to not drive in North Carolina! ! LOL

What? Why?

They have left turn only with red arrows ALL OVER the place.

The option is to take a left turn in front of a logging truck, which may or may not have functioning brakes.

It’s probably because there are usually far fewer left turners than straight-going travelers, and the number of left turners can vary depending on the traffic pattern. So the green left turn arrow often lasts for only part of the time that the light on ‘your’ side of an intersection is green. During that time, opposing traffic has all red lights. As soon as your left turn arrow turns red, opposing traffic gets a green light so both sides can travel straight across at the same time.

Keeping the left arrow green for a longer time benefits fewer people than allowing opposing traffic to move sooner.

@Tropical_Willie that explains the use of a green light not the use of the red one, if traffic is clear when the people on your part of the section is green there should be the option of a turn if there is no oncoming traffic.

@augustlan I do understand that it should be shorter. The one I am referring to has a five sec window on green if roads are slick it is already turning yellow for me the first person in line. If no one is close enough in the turning lane the green arrow won’t turn green until it cycles through eveyone again.

The benefit is that all sides are on motion dectectors. So instead of cycling through the same path everytime it will cycle to the vehicle that arrived next in line. But all the cycles are pretty quick.

I believe this to be unusual, is more frequent light changes more efficient then longer lights? My guess is they can be no longer then 30 seconds but possibly less. This is for the people going straight. The turners I would guess around 5 to 10 seconds.

Again this is not usually a busy intersection. As so I have never noticed pile ups. Maybe a 5 to 6 car one the last few cars may not get through in one go. In the turn lane if cars are idling the 3rd can get if they use the last of yellow to get far enough into the intersection to have to complete the turn.

Could this method be more efficient and I am just more adverse to it because it is different and it messes with my driving style? How would I confirm that?