Administrative Assistant assigned this issue to Transportation - Roads

This issue was recategorized from Other to Traffic / Crosswalk Signal.

Transportation - Roads assigned this issue to Transportation-Street lights & Traffic Signals

Thanks for reporting through ACT Menlo Park. We look to resolve your request as soon as possible.

I agree that this particular spot, when you're travelling on northbound Middlefield at the intersection of Ringwood, is confusing to many drivers. It's been like this for many years if not a decades! It's hard to put this into written words, but this spot confuses drivers in several different ways. Have you ever gotten stuck behind a driver who refuses to proceed forward on the green light because he sees the RED left turn arrow? Happens all the time! It's because that RED left turn arrow hangs directly over the Middlefield Rd lane that (eventually) goes left at Ravenswood.

Most all locals are aware of this quirk, but out-of-towners and Ubers get confused here easily!

A couple of these Google street view images might help to illustrate the issue. The silver car on the left is travelling on northbound Middlefield, and is stopped at the light. When his light turns green, he may proceed, but he might NOT proceed because he sees the red left turn light, and he thinks that red left turn light applies to him! But in reality, that red left turn arrow only applies to those drivers who are going to turn left into SRI or McCandless.

Thanks for your comments. The City has a planned project to look at the traffic phasings for the two traffic signals on Middlefield Road at Ravenswood Avenue and at Ringwood Avenue and may require traffic signal modifications at these two intersections. The traffic signal modifications may include installing a longer mast arm for northbound Middlefield Road at Ringwood Avenue such that the left turn signal will be in the middle of the northbound left turn lane. This could eliminate the confusion that you were talking about. We do not have a schedule for this project yet but we will be discussing about it within the next week or so.