---
title: "Two-Stage Turn Queue Box"
url: "https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/elements/two-stage-turn-queue-box/"
id: "ELM-TSQ-43"
description: "A designated waiting area positioned in the far corner of an intersection, allowing a cyclist making a left turn (or right turn in left-driving contexts) to cross the intersection in two separate straight-through movements rather than merging across vehicle traffic to execute a conventional turn."
updated: "2026-09-26"
---

# Two-Stage Turn Queue Box

`ELM-TSQ-43`

Recommended Element

Two-Stage Turn Queue Box

A designated waiting area positioned in the far corner of an intersection, allowing a cyclist making a left turn (or right turn in left-driving contexts) to cross the intersection in two separate straight-through movements rather than merging across vehicle traffic to execute a conventional turn.

## Related Media

The items below come from outside the Commonway System, external videos, podcasts, and articles related to this page's topic, not part of the guidebook itself.

Aligned

### [Are Streets Too Complicated Now?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Xs5EA5_uU)

City Beautiful

Asks whether today's proliferation of lines, signals, and lane types on streets is overcomplication or a needed response to modern demands, a question that runs directly through CS's Element-scale catalog and the density-tiered Corridor retrofit paths this video is tagged to.

Aligned

### [Dutch-style intersection design: bike-friendly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCzi1Q4xCTA)

BicycleDutch

Shows the protected-intersection design vocabulary, continuous cycle tracks, corner refuge islands, separated signal phasing, that underpins CS's Protected Intersection pattern and the Corridor retrofit paths built around it.

## Why this pattern exists

A conventional vehicle-style left turn asks a cyclist to merge across one or more lanes of traffic to reach a turn position, a maneuver that becomes increasingly stressful and dangerous as traffic volume, speed, or lane count increases; a two-stage turn queue box removes that merge entirely by breaking the turn into two straight crossings. This pattern exists to document this specific, well-established alternative to the conventional turning movement.[1]

## Key considerations

-   Box placement and orientation must align with the cyclist’s path in the second stage of the crossing, so the movement reads as intuitive rather than requiring guesswork
-   Most valuable at intersections with multi-lane approaches or higher traffic volume, where a conventional merge-and-turn movement would be most stressful
-   Signal timing at the intersection needs to accommodate the two-stage movement, since a cyclist queued in the box is waiting for the second phase of the crossing, not simply out of the way

## Related patterns

[Protected Bike Lane/Cycle Track](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/elements/protected-bike-lane-cycle-track.md) (ELM-PBL-37), [Bike Box](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/elements/bike-box.md) (ELM-BKB-42) (related bike-specific intersection treatments); [Roundabout](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/intersections/roundabout.md) (INT-RAB-01) (a different intersection default this pattern complements at signalized locations specifically)

## References

1.  Legal / regulatory [MUTCD 11th Edition with Revision 1 (FHWA, December 2025; effective March 5, 2026), Part 9. Formalized as standard, previously FHWA Interim Approval IA-20.](https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/pdfs/11th_Editionr1/mutcd11theditionr1hl.pdf)