الوصف
The intersection was backed up today around 8:45 and frustrated drivers would block the intersections use the right turn lane to make left turns and only further adding to the congestion. There was no congestion backup from Sullivan, just too many cars for the light intervals to handle. The cars that backed up were trying to turn left from Lombardi drive onto Broadway toward Sullivan Square. Most were originating from Assembly Row Drive and would block the intersection for cars trying to make a left hand turn onto mystic Ave. As many complaints of this situation have been told before, the lights are MassDoT timed, and that they are "working" as "intended." So, if Somerville cannot fix the timing of the lights can we at least get a police detail during commute hours to prevent illegal turns and cars blocking the intersection?
Aside from that request, since the casino going in Everett is required to redesign Sullivan square, it is perfect time to look at how cars leaving Assembly row enter Sullivan square. There is an unused lane on the Mystic Ave bridge over the train tracks that could be used to divert traffic heading from Assembly Row to Sullivan. Instead of having that traffic enter Sullivan by going through the Broadway, Mt Vernon lights, traffic would turn left from Assembly Row Drive, and head south, staying on the Mystic river side of 93, use the unused lane of the Mystic Ave. bridge that goes over the train tracks and cross the unused parking lot (I believe MassDoT owns it, and merge onto Mafia way from the left. This solution can be done inexpensively, and will greatly help traffic and pedestrian safety. I hope the representatives of Somerville possess the foresight to seize the opportunity and avoid a growing traffic nightmare.
5 تعليقs
Theresa (مستخدم مسجل)
Hello - I just wanted to share my first hand experience of the gridlock in this area on a 101 bus coming home from Sullivan this afternoon. I was traveling with my Gram and so instead of walking the 8 mins from Sullivan to the house we hopped on the 101 bus headed outbound. The bus pulled up to the Mystic Ave light to turn left on Lombardi and we stayed at that light for over 10 minutes while we watched as cars going straight on Lombardi from Assembly block the intersection causing gridlock. I took two videos of the whole situation. At one point, about 10 minutes in at this light, the bus itself tried to turn left and partially blocked the entire intersection so that cars were unable to safely pass East towards Assembly. I was in the middle of texting my husband that this had reached the point of a major safety hazard since there could not possibly be a way for emergency vehicles to pass when we heard sirens. In fact, an ambulance needed to get under the 93 bridge over to East Broadway from exactly where we had sat for 10 minutes.
Also, to outline some history of reported issues on this site:
- Issue #1363473: reported on 11/15/2014 by me. Acknowledged by Somerville and then subsequently closed. The closure reason we were given was that the lights are deemed timed appropriately by Mass DOT.
- I called Mass DOT this afternoon after my bus adventure. I spoke to a nice man named Brian. He listened to everything I had to say and then told me he could basically pass on the information to the electrician, but that was only going to be to fix any technical/structural issues if the lights were defective in some way and not keeping the time that is programmed. He further said that there can be jurisdictional areas with situations like these because the Police (he didn't say State or Somerville or Charlestown) get in the mix and have the lights timed in a certain way. He gave me a number of the main district office (781-641-8456) to call and told me to speak with the Traffic Department. He said they might be able to help but again cautioned against the jurisdictional issues.
- Issue #1576171: I opened this issue separately on 4/7/2015 for a related issue to the Mt. Vernon/Broadway gridlock regarding the fact that I personally witnessed a driver on Lincoln (the one parallel to Broadway) drive quickly backwards on a one way street for the sole purpose to cut through our neighborhood and avoid the Mt. Vernon light AFTER seeing the gridlock there at rush hour.
I agree with Matt who opened this issue. I also suggested a Police detail back in April on Issue #1576171. As residents of East Somerville we need to band our voices together to obtain Police detail at this intersection during rush hour. Minimally to start handing out tickets for drivers causing the gridlock, maybe after a certain amount of that drivers would stop causing the gridlock for fear of hefty fines. Worst case we need Police presence in these two, combined intersections to direct traffic every day.
After we get that small win (if you can even choke down the pain and call it a 'victory') we also need to work together on what Matt has suggested and use every opportunity we can to get a full review of the situation and redesign what we can for a better holistic situation. I personally plan to raise this issue at the Ward 1 ResiStat meeting (if it is not raised before I get the chance). I also plan to contact the Somerville Police Department to get the Police view on what the Mass Dot rep I spoke with today said.
Theresa (مستخدم مسجل)
تم إقراره Heather (مستخدم مسجل)
At the request of the city, the company overseeing the construction of the area conducted observations of traffic flow Broadway at Mount Vernon Street and Lombardi Way. Field observations were conducted on, July 30th, October 7th, and November 3rd of last year ( 2014). The purpose of these investigations was to determine if there were any excessive queues or delays at these closely spaced intersections.
During field observations some minor queuing occurred but all vehicles were cleared within one cycle. The southbound queue exceeded storage by 2-3 cars on occasion, but never extended beyond the available queue space to Mystic Avenue. The northbound traffic was marked as limited. However, based on your feedback we have made another request to Traffic & Parking for the company to review the area and we will provide any updates to their recommendations
Matt (مستخدم مسجل)
Thank you for the update and having the company look at the issues. One thing to note is that the issues while they occur frequently, they occur at different times for different reasons. A day here and there of monitoring might not catch all the issues. The company should monitor for an extended time and or be told what to look for.
- On the weekends, Broadway's southbound traffic backs up at the Broadway/Mt Vernon lights (sometimes all the way to Franklin) and takes many light cycles to get through. It causes many people to cut up Lincoln and down Mt Vernon. The main cause of this is the 15-20 second green light cycles and the automatic pedestrian walk signals across Broadway every light cycle. Pedestrians rarely cross there. Typically every light cycle, only 3 to 5 cars will get through and then there is a 30 second wait until the next green light. Eliminating the automatic walk cycle and/or lengthening the green light times would help tremendously.
- During the mornings and evening rush hour, sometime the traffic is due to Sullivan backup, but other times it is just because of the lights. When Sullivan is clear, often cars backup on Lombardi and all the way down Assembly Square drive and mystic Ave. I do not see how far, but it is normally past the bend of Assembly. They are waiting to make a left turn onto Broadway headed toward Sullivan. Some cars will block the right lane of Lombardi to cut the line of cars turning left. The light cycle for the left turn is just not long enough to accommodate the volumes coming from mystic and assembly.
Theresa (مستخدم مسجل)
Hello Heather - can you please provide an update on the request to Traffic & Parking to have this intersection reviewed again? A new related issue was added yesterday (Issue ID: 1770304) given a specific time that heavy gridlock at this intersection was personally witnessed with a sufficient amount of details to provide assessment that fixes are in order. Many good suggestions for resolving gridlock were also suggested.
I'm attaching a picture from this morning's observation on my walk to Sullivan. Cars from all routes were entering and then blocking the intersection. This occurred at 7:50am today. There were several MBTA busses en route from different points of origin that were delayed as well. There was an outbound 90 bus held under the bridge. There was an inbound 90 bus held at East Broadway going south towards Sullivan. There was a 101 and an 89 bus already past the light heading into Sullivan that would also have experienced extreme slowness and delays.
I would also like to add that I have witnessed several pedestrians coming from Sullivan cross the Mt Vernon intersection with zero regard for the light status when the Mt. Vernon east bound light is green. Someone is going to be seriously injured someday if we do not do more to motivate pedestrians not to pause and give regard for the cars right of way when Mt. Vernon light is green.