Do I need to turn right on going to Burr after Old Conn Path?

Jerry, Burr does not intersect with OCP; it intersects with Newbury, which is the first right turn off Speen after you take the right turn off OCP. You do not presently need to take the right onto Newbury; it is voluntary.

Correction: Burr is the first left turn off Newbury. Sorry.

I misunderstood as well, sorry

Thank you for contacting the Town of Framingham. We have received your submission and we are looking into this matter.

The lane configuration on OCP was based on the future conditions traffic analysis that the design consultant prepared for the Lifetime Fitness project. Starting a little before the new Sealtest signal, for queue management and capacity purposes, they had to widen the roadway heading north to two lanes. When through traffic lines up in two lanes upstream of a traffic signal, one cannot drop one of the through lanes into a right turn only lane on the downstream side, which is what would happen if we maintained the prior right turn lane on OCP at the Speen St intersection. When you travel through the Speen Street intersection, the two lanes were dropped to a single lane after the two lanes are carried for an appropriate distance. This method of increasing the number of through travel lanes approaching a signal, and dropping the added lane past the signal is a standard treatment.

Note that if there are enough number of right turning vehicles in the added through lane on OCP, it would function as a de facto right turn lane as through vehicles would not enter the added lane in the first place only to wait behind slow moving right turning traffic. The fact that through vehicles are using it indicates that the through volume is higher than the right turning volume.

Eliminating the added through lane and restoring the prior right turn lane would likely cause more issues. Based on the factors that the consultant considered before deciding on the lane configuration that was implemented, we could expect things like:

a. All through vehicles will line up in a single lane and the signal capacity at both intersections will get constrained, resulting in queue spilling upstream on OCP towards the residential properties
b. When vehicles are waiting to turn left into Sealtest Drive in a single through lane, they would block through traffic behind them, causing more queue/congestion issues on OCP
c. Traffic in one of two left turn lanes exiting Sealtest Drive would be forced to turn into a right turn only lane on OCP even if the driver does not want to turn right
d. A combination of the above issues could likely prompt OCP traffic to use the restored right turn lane on OCP as a through travel lane anyway to travel north on OCP which is not desirable

Thank you, Adam. I've been looking on the town site in your department but cannot find a document or page that will show a detailed road map for the town with all lane usage. This would be a useful resource, especially if you have a suggestion/request such as mine.

You best option would be to view the Town GIS map at the following link: https://framinghamma.mapgeo.io/?disclaimer=true&latlng=42.304927%2C-71.436912&zoom=13

Adam,

Thank you for the thoughtful and detailed explanation of the rationale and argument for the changes made, although you have not mentioned any of the potential pitfalls of the accepted approach or the inherent risks you have mitigated.

It seems to me that your consultant may have skewed their recommendations for the benefit of the health club and their patrons against the general interests of the rest of the commuting public.

Keeping the traffic configuration as it is, I have seen and expect to see the following:

a. One or two cars are in the left travel lane and then the next car moves into the right travel lane and waits while several cars stack up behind, unable to take the right turn.
b. The cars in the right travel lane race to beat out both the cars in the left travel lane and the cars merging in from Speen St., causing a doubly-dangerous situation.
c. The cars in the right travel lane go straight and cut off the cars in the left travel lane because the cars in the left travel lane must shift right a few feet in order to not collide with traffic taking a left turn in the other direction.
d. A combination of the above issues could likely cause chaos, property damage and worse.

Perhaps, this should be tweaked to find a safer solution. Here are suggestions:

a. Redraw the lines so that the cars in the left travel lane do not need to shift right as they go straight.
b. Improve signage to warn drivers of the coming merge with the incoming traffic from Speen St and the two lanes into one.
c. Monitor the traffic to see if any of my scenarios have been realized, and if so, return to the previous traffic configuration or consider something else.

Thank you again for your consideration.
Scott Fine

Adam,
Thank you for the link to the Town GIS map. It is very well-done but does not address lane usage. It also, amazingly, does not note street numbers for the homes and businesses, only lot numbers.

Thank you for contacting the Town of Framingham. We have received your submission and look forward to assisting you with this matter.

CLOSED - Due to the age of the incident reported, your ticket is being closed. If the incident still exists, please log a new request. Thank you!