Motorists traveling U.S. 98 between Spanish Fort and Fairhope began seeing a new kind of traffic signal in January 2015, as the Alabama Department of Transportation started installing flashing yellow left-turn arrows meant to make the busy corridor safer for drivers making left turns.
The rollout included the intersection of U.S. 98 and Bass Pro Drive in Spanish Fort, a heavily traveled crossing near the Bass Pro Shops retail development that draws significant traffic from across Baldwin County. State transportation officials said the new signal configuration would replace older setups at that intersection with a system considered a meaningful safety upgrade over traditional turn signals.
In total, the project called for flashing yellow arrow signals to be installed at 17 intersections along U.S. 98 stretching from Spanish Fort to Fairhope, alongside new signage to help drivers understand the unfamiliar signal. Baldwin County was among the first areas in Alabama to adopt the technology at this scale, though the concept itself was not new nationally, having been the subject of national coverage and gradual adoption in other states for several years before reaching south Alabama.
The flashing yellow arrow works differently than a standard green arrow or solid yellow light. Instead of a fixed protected turn phase, the flashing yellow arrow tells drivers they may turn left when it is safe to do so, factoring in oncoming traffic, rather than assuming the turn is automatically clear. Traffic engineers have found the format reduces certain types of collisions compared to older signal designs, particularly left-turn crashes that occur when drivers misjudge gaps in oncoming traffic under a standard green light setup.
The U.S. 98 corridor has long been one of the busiest and most congested stretches of roadway connecting the Eastern Shore communities of Baldwin County, carrying commuter and retail traffic between Spanish Fort’s shopping districts and Fairhope’s downtown and residential areas. As Baldwin County’s population has grown, the corridor has drawn increasing attention from state and county officials looking for ways to improve traffic flow and reduce crashes without the cost of full intersection redesigns.
ALDOT crews worked intersection by intersection to install the new signal heads and accompanying left-turn lane signage, a process that continued over multiple weeks in early 2015. The agency said drivers should expect a period of adjustment as the new signal type became more familiar, but officials expressed confidence that the change would ultimately reduce the number of turn-related crashes along one of the Eastern Shore’s most heavily used routes.