Description
There are two lanes north bound in John st. The left lane is dedicated as left-turn only, and the right lane is dedicated as either right-turn or go-straight. The problem is that the few cars that need to go straight to enter the Boott Mills Apartment (like myself) block the cars behind from turning right on the red light.
This causes traffic congestion because the red light toward Boott Mill Apartment takes a long time to turn green. Also there is a city parking garage in that intersection and the cars that are trying to leave the garage are often stuck inside the garage until that traffic clears.
I propose to mark the right lane as right-turn only, and mark the left lane with both left-turn and straight-forward arrows.
11 Comments
Diane G (Registered User)
C McCarthy (Registered User)
Boo T. Short (Guest)
Saeid (Registered User)
Αναγνωρισμένο City of Lowell (Registered User)
Assigned to Traffic Engineer for study.
Alex, office of CM
Κλειστό Eric Eby (Registered User)
Until and unless the pedestrian phase can be changed from an exclusive phase to a concurrent phase, the right-on-red prohibition must remain and signs should be posted informing motorists of this restriction.
I did notice that the green time for French Street is much longer than the green time for John Street. I will take a closer look at this to see if the timings can be modified for more efficient traffic flow at the intersection.
Anonymous (Guest)
Reopened Saeid (Registered User)
You are correct about the exclusive phase of the pedestrian lights at this intersection, but note that the pedestrian light only activates when a pedestrian pushes the button which is rare because not many pedestrians cross this particular intersection. The majority of time of that intersection is spent on John st. car having a red light and french st. cars having a green light, and pedestrian lights being red on all sides. At the times when the pedestrian light is red on all directions, I don't see any reason why the right lane cars shouldn't be able to turn right when it's safe to do so. This is why I'm reopening this issue.
I also think that all exclusive phase pedestrian lights in various intersections in Lowell are inefficient because they stop traffic on all directions, and most pedestrians become impatient after pressing the button and jaywalk before the pedestrian light turns green anyways, leaving the entire process pointless. But that's a whole different matter for which I probably need to open a new issue.
Αναγνωρισμένο Eric Eby (Registered User)
I will take a look at the volumes and the timings to see if changes can be made to the signal. Past counts have shown very few through movements on this approach, with the heaviest movement being the left turn onto French. It is possible that the through movement has increased with the occupancy of the mill across the street.
Saeid (Registered User)
Κλειστό City of Lowell (Registered User)