Why is everyone doing u-turns now?

Has anyone noticed that people are doing u-turns like crazy now? This week alone, I came extremely close to being in two accidents (one on Mcleod, one on Blackfoot) because people decided to slam on their brakes at a green light, and stopped the lane while they waited for oncoming traffic to clear so they could do a u-turn.

Am I missing something? Are u-turns legal now? I barely ever saw people doing them before, but it seems like a daily occurrence now.