The way Eden Prairie City Manager Rick Getschow sees it, the flashing yellow left turn arrow is one of the great inventions of the 21st century. He said so in a blog that he posted on the city's website earlier this year.

In the coming weeks, nine more intersections will be outfitted with the flashing yellow left turn arrow as part of a project Eden Prairie is undertaking in cooperation with Hennepin County and the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Flashing yellow arrows allow motorists to make left turns after yielding to all oncoming traffic and pedestrians. Oncoming traffic will still have a green light, so drivers turning left must wait for a safe gap in the traffic.

Traffic studies show that the arrows lower driver confusion and keep traffic moving. A study conducted by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program determined that drivers had fewer crashes with flashing yellow left-turn arrows than with traditional yield-on-green signal configurations.

Flashing yellow arrows first appeared in Minnesota in 2006 as an experiment. Now they are approved by the Federal Highway Administration and are becoming the new standard for controlled intersections.

Here are the nine Eden Prairie intersections that are or will get the conversion.

  • Valley View Road (County Road 39) and Market Place Drive
  • Pioneer Trail (County Road 1) and Franio Road
  • Pioneer Trail (County Road 1) and Bennett Place
  • Pioneer Trail (County Road 1) and Homeward Hills Road
  • Pioneer Trail (County Road 1) and Staring Lake Parkway
  • Pioneer Trail (County Road 1) and Mitchell Road
  • Pioneer Trail (County Road 1) and Eden Prairie Road (County Road 4)
  • The east ramp at I-494 and Valley View Road
  • Washington Avenue and Valley View Road