Description
Traveling NE on Corporate Dr crossing Trinity: The way this is set up currently is a Right-turn only lane, and then a second lane that is shared for both Straight-through and Left-turn traffic. I have noticed during rush hours that if there are a couple of cars trying to turn Left onto Trinity, it really backs up the traffic behind them on Corporate Center Dr.
also asked...
Q. What is the type of signal?
A. Vehicular
A. Vehicular
Q. Please describe the nature of the issue. (i.e timing, signal head twisted, etc)
A. Light isn't viewable due to tree coverage driving down New Bern as you go into downtown. Have seen multiple wrecks and close calls. Trees obstruct view of the signal as you approach the signal. Lower branches of trees need to be trimmed back.
A. Light isn't viewable due to tree coverage driving down New Bern as you go into downtown. Have seen multiple wrecks and close calls. Trees obstruct view of the signal as you approach the signal. Lower branches of trees need to be trimmed back.
27 Comments
K (Registered User)
Alfred Barnes (Registered User)
I reported this as well, https://seeclickfix.com/issues/3767944 immediately after the light was added at the intersection.
It makes zero sense for cars going straight to wait behind cars turning left, leaving a dedicated right turn lane, especially considering right turn on red isn't mandatory.
Going straight and turning right are right of way operations. The worst thing that can happen is someone turning right has to wait for the light.
I don't understand the logic to fix something that isn't broken with non-standard lane assignments.
JohnnyDollar (Registered User)
If the right lane HAS to be right-turn-only, I think a solution or at least improvement to the problem would be a left-turn arrow during rush hours. There is a set-up like this turning left onto Blue Ridge from Duraleigh (near Edwards Mill) where there is a left-turn signal during rush hour, and it's a big help for those turning left (although it's a slightly different set-up since that is a dedicated left-turn lane, no straight-throughs being held up behind left-turners.)
JohnnyDollar (Registered User)
Acknowledged City of Raleigh 3 (Verified Official)
JohnnyDollar (Registered User)
A City of Raleigh Admin has made a copy paste error above, they pasted in some unrelated content from another issue, please delete this as it has nothing to do with this issue and I did not write it, it will only confuse things:
"Q. Please describe the nature of the issue. (i.e timing, signal head twisted, etc)
A. Light isn't viewable due to tree coverage driving down New Bern as you go into downtown. Have seen multiple wrecks and close calls. Trees obstruct view of the signal as you approach the signal. Lower branches of trees need to be trimmed back. "
The "A." should simply be "request for left-turn signal to alleviate traffic of left-turners blocking straight-through traffic behind them". Nothing to do with foliage or tree coverage, and this is nowhere near New Bern.
City of Raleigh 3 (Verified Official)
Thank you for inquiring about a protected left turn at Corporate Center Drive and Trinity Road. This intersection currently has permissive phasing for both the northbound and southbound movements on Corporate Center Drive. We have studied this intersection and found that this location did not satisfy the cross-product thresholds required for the addition of protected left turn phasing at this time. These guidelines are from the Federal Highway Administration “Signalized Intersection: Information Guide” (FHWA-SA-13-027). This left turn evaluation included traffic volumes, turning movement counts during the peak times of the day, vehicle crashes, and a field investigation. Based on this information, the addition of a protected left turn phase is not recommended Corporate Center Drive at Trinity Road at this time.
We appreciate your concern for traffic safety in the City of Raleigh. Please let me know if you have any questions or need further information.
Closed City of Raleigh 3 (Verified Official)
Reopened K (Registered User)
Please reopen this issue.
You know a bicyclist was killed by a car in this intersection, right?
And 3 totally different people have complained about this intersection.
And the new golf course will bring hundreds of visitors, inexperienced with this weird intersection.
Are you really going to wait for ANOTHER casualty to fix this intersection?
Acknowledged City of Raleigh 3 (Verified Official)
JohnnyDollar (Registered User)
JohnnyDollar (Registered User)
A data point from this morning, hopefully it will be useful to the city:
8:50 AM this morning
One car turning left, two cars behind them in the lane, trying to go straight.
Left-turner burned through an ENTIRE green light cycle (non-stop traffic coming from other direction), finally able to turn left as yellow turned into red.
So out of 3 cars in that lane, two trying to go straight on their own green light, only a single car made it through that light cycle.
I'm pretty shocked that this type of traffic flow would meet federal standards for expected traffic flow.
JohnnyDollar (Registered User)
Data point number 2:
5:14 PM today.
1 Left-turner, holding back 3 Straight-ahead cars and 1 Straight-ahead bicycle behind them. All 3 cars and the bike unsafely went around the left-turner (into the right-turn lane, to get around to cross the street) to get by so that they didn't miss the light cycle.
(I witnessed this as I was approaching the intersection; it was red by the time I arrived.)
I think the psychological element has to be considered here too. People trying to go straight on their own green light get very frustrated, due to a single left-turning car in front of them, and the unusual experience of being held back on your own Green when you're trying to go straight through an intersection; pretty reliably in my experience when I've seen this happen, it leads drivers to pull around the left-turner, which is probably not the safest driving behavior to elicit.
Also I noticed that this intersection is actually a very similar arrangement to Pleasant Valley where it crosses Glenwood. There, it's also Right-turn only, and also Left sharing a lane with Straight. The difference there is, there is a left-turn signal during the green light. It works much better, because it clears out the left-turners at the same time as the straight-aheads.
K (Registered User)
Data Point 3 - FREAKED ME OUT!!! Last week, Thursday afternoon (5/17) around 4:30 pm.
I was in the left turn lane to go STRAIGHT, like usual, behind another car.
A white workman's truck in the Right lane went STRAIGHT and just about sideswiped the car
in front of me, also going straight.
Both cars paused in the MIDDLE of the intersection to see who would go first in a single line,
since that's all the room there is.
So, not only a potential accident, also slowing down all the other traffic behind them, while this decision is made.
You HAVE to fix this intersection - before there is another death!!!
K (Registered User)
Data Point 4 - The same intersection at 8:00 PM. I'm going north on Corporate Center Dr, in the left/straight lane, and a taxi is turning left across the street from me, going south. He goes FIRST when the light changes. That's wrong. I'm going straight, so I should go first.
Not only is this intersection bad during rush hour going home, it's bad all the time with people coming towards it not understanding that our "left" lane is really a "straight" lane.
Please FIX this intersection.
JohnnyDollar (Registered User)
And earlier today I saw a car in the right-turn-only lane go straight across the intersection, I guess they weren't familiar with it, since right-turn-only is directly straight across from the continuation of the road on the other side.
I'm really surprised that the field visits to this intersection haven't noticed any of these various issues.
JohnnyDollar (Registered User)
K, that is a good point about those traveling South on Corporate having no indication that someone coming in the opposite direction, who looks like they're in the left-turn lane, might actually going straight. So if there's no one in the right-turn-only lane (that looks from across the street like the straight lane), they don't realize they have to yield.
Daily commuters like us know, but taxi drivers, new construction workers, etc won't know.
I'm not sure how it could be indicated to oncoming left-turning traffic, but it looks like it's something that might not have been thought about when they diverted straight-ahead traffic into the left-turn lane?
Alfred Barnes (Registered User)
This is absolutely ridiculous. The same sort of nonsense was applied at a new light in front of my neighborhood last month. It took one week for them to fix it.
It's an incorrect statement to say, "permissive phasing for both the northbound and southbound movements on Corporate Center Drive" WRONG, it's permissive phasing for Trinity, and this issue MUST be addressed!!!
Rush hour traffic northbound is being RESTRICTED by non-standard lane assignments by having a dedicated right turn lane, while northbound traffic must wait for anyone turning left ahead of them.
PLEASE FIX THIS INTERSECTION, PLEASE!!!
Alfred Barnes (Registered User)
This was reported almost a year ago.
PLEASE FIX THIS INTERSECTION!!!
JohnnyDollar (Registered User)
Thought I would add that there are two large construction projects on Corporate Center Drive, one business, one residential, that are underway. This will only increase the traffic going straight through that intersection, once they are complete. Especially the residential construction at the northern end of Corporate.
I still regularly see, at rush hour, cars illegally pulling into the right turn lane around left-turners, so they can go straight. This will be easy to spot with a field check at rush hour as long as you don't show up in a police car, or uniform... just go as a pedestrian in civilian cloths and sit at the intersection for a couple cycles, you will see how bad it is.
K (Registered User)
The golf place will open any day now and there WILL BE ACCIDENTS!!!
Alfred Barnes (Registered User)
JohnnyDollar (Registered User)
Does anyone know if there's some kind of state-wide traffic safety standards organization we could report this intersection to? This is the worst-designed intersection I've seen in my nearly 30 years of driving, and is definitely unsafe (and especially with Drive Shack and the new apartments opening imminently on that road, the problems will only get worse).
Alfred is right, at rush hour, if you're going straight, and someone in front of you is turning left, you won't get through on your OWN green light, even if you're second in line. So I see cars pull around into the other lane on a daily basis.
JohnnyDollar (Registered User)
Car hit was in the left/straight lane that is the subject of this current issue, on Corporate Center Dr. More than just a minor fender bender, the front of the car was pretty banged up and large parts of car/bumper in road. (Passed by the accident just after it had happened.)
K (Registered User)
919-996-3020 is the Traffic Engineering number.
They will be looking at the intersection, again.
Hope they address ALL the issues in the intersection.
JohnnyDollar (Registered User)
Albras (Registered User)