The Left Turn Report

Somewhere near the flagpole, one driver has been trying to turn left for what Burrowing Al now estimates is a small geological era. The light turns green, five cars idle behind, the blinker keeps flashing, and nobody moves. Al brings out the binoculars just to confirm the line of traffic actually has an end. It does not, as far as he can tell.

Watch on YouTube · Instagram · TikTok

Why one left turn can back up a whole Cape Coral intersection

The intersection Burrowing Al keeps reporting from is a familiar headache for anyone who drives near the flagpole at Cape Coral Parkway: a single, unprotected left-turn lane feeding traffic across oncoming lanes with no dedicated turn signal phase. When gaps in oncoming traffic don't line up with the green light, the turning car sits, the cars behind it sit, and the whole cycle resets at the next red. Local traffic engineers call this "left-turn phase failure" — Burrowing Al calls it Tuesday.

Cape Coral's rapid growth has outpaced a lot of its older intersection designs, and left-turn bottlenecks like this one are a recurring theme in resident complaints to the city. Protected left-turn signals and dedicated turn lanes help, but they cost money to retrofit — and, as regular viewers know, this city has already spent a lot of that on other things nearby.

Until then, Al's advice is the same advice everyone already knows: budget an extra light cycle, keep the iced coffee close, and enjoy the view of the flag while you wait.

Catch Every Episode

Burrowing Al Reports drops daily on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels, and every episode gets archived here on the blog. Follow @capecoralflagpole for the fastest updates.