It would be great to have a proper traffic light here. It is a death wish to cross either by car or on foot

Glad to see someone else bring this up too. I did a month or so ago. It's even worse now with the Craddock bridge construction.

I've reported this issue to both the DCR and City. Unfortunately the DCR indicated it the City's responsibility but the city disagrees.

Agreed it is so much worse with construction I had someone today in the far right lane TAKE A LEFT!!!

I reported this too, and I was told the State Police controls that intersection. And provided this phone # 781-396-0100

Forwarding to Traffic Division

Captain Clemente - Medford Police Department assigned this issue to Sgt. Richard Carroll

This situation has existed for along time, as I responded earlier both intersections and the approaches on South st on each side of the bridge are DCR and Mass. State Police jurisdiction .We have tried to deal with the situation. It is as you've stated particularly to pedestrian safety. Traffic lights aren't an option for three reasons. Because of the height of the Rt 16 bridge motorists don't have enough visibilty/time to react to a change in light cycle. The lights would cause a back-up into Medford Sq. gridlocking the square. To sychronize all three sets of lights, Medford Sq. and each side of the bridge is not practical for several reasons the volume of traffic and lack of whats called que space for traffic to wait at each set of lights and the expense of replaing all three sets of lights. Hopefully with the completion of the Craddock Cove bridge and improvments planned for pedestrian safety their will be some improvement.

Sgt. Carroll, I appreciate your response. Even if installing traffic lights is a more complex solution, drawing clear lines and arrows for traffic (or installing signs) should be feasible, and it would help decrease the dangerous chaos at the intersection. Can't that be a short-term way of helping the issue?

I agree that some kind of lane marking would be a better Band-Aid than nothing at all

Can the city lobby the DCR and state on behalf of our citizen concerns? I would think that the city pressing this would carry more weight.

Will dcr and state not let anyone paint lines that would at least fix some problems.

Chris S - you need to re-read my response the City already has tried numerous times in the past to "lobby" as you stated without success.
Esther and Lisa - lane markings and signage would not provide any benefit as you have traffic exiting South St and the off-ramp from Rt.16 simultaneously both are either trying to que up for left-hand or right-hand turns in a very small amount of space. The issue is pedestrians trying to cross South St. safely. Motorists attempting to negotiate the intersection are more focused on traffic traveling on Main St. than recognizing pedestrians trying to cross two open lanes on South St. What would be helpful would be lowering the speed limit and managing traffic flow on Main St. An example of our latest effort was when Mass DOT set-up the construction zone for the bridge. The serpentine pattern traffic exiting the square has helped slow traffic and forced Main St motorists to focus more on whats directly in front of them rather than further down the road. This has helped traffic flow exiting South St. Unfortunately if you look in front of the station you will see Mass DOT posted the speed limit entering the intersection as 35 mph. our request was to lower it to 25 mph and to post Mystic Av. further back at 30 mph. They denied our request. I like wise made numerous suggestions ot make the entire area south of the intersection more pedestrian safe. Other than Mass DOT posting Ped crossing signs at the intersection of Main @ Mystic those suggestions went into limbo. As stated earlier this issue is beyond our control. Although whenever we have any input into the area, this topic is always brought up by the City. Extending Ped crossing safety in this area is an important element to the viabilty of the square. So we haven't stop trying

Sarah, That is correct, they will not its their roadway.

Well, that was disappointing

http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/ContactUs.aspx I made a complaint here to mass dot maybe if enough people do they will fix it.

Sgt. Carroll: On this ticket, you had said "We have tried to deal with the situation", after saying they are DCR and state roads, which was vague and said nothing about whether that meant that "the City already has tried numerous times in the past to 'lobby'... without success." If you had said anything else on some other ticket relating to this intersection, that's not something one can easily find through this ticket.

Just as we residents may contact DCR and the state directly on this, as long as it is still a problem, the city might continue to be a squeaky wheel until we get the grease.

Chris, To clarify the "City" as I stated earlier has contacted "lobbied" the State and DCR for improvements to the intersection many times in the past. The roadways Rt. 16 are under DCR control and jurisdiction, the portion of Main St. under the bridge including the intersections are under the control of the Mass DOT.
If you wish further details or discussion on this topic you may contact the Medford Traffic Commission @ 781-391-6409 or attend the Community Service meetings held at the Medford Police Academy the 1st Wed of every month