davis_square | Speaking of Road Issues

This reminds me of a question I've been meaning to ask. Who do you talk to if you feel an intersection needs a light or sign change? Is it the city, or the alderman, do I just call 311? Anyone have experience with this?

The intersection in question might technically be Arlington - - has anyone else noticed an issue at that 4 way intersection between Broadway and Rt 16/Alewife Brook Parkway?

If you are going down Broadway from Somerville going towards Arlington and need to make a left onto 16 you get a green light and the traffic coming the opposite direction is stopped.

However, since you have a green light if you haven't driven through there a bunch of times you don't know they are stopped on the other side until you wait a bit and they don't go. I have seen people needing to go left stop at this green light expecting traffic from the opposite direction to go and this seems dangerous. I feel like if the traffic coming from Somerville has the right of way there they should have a green arrow not a green light.

Thoughts?

Threaded | Flat

Wait, help me out here. Are you saying:

A) that traffic on Alewife Brook is stopped in one lane, but not the other?

or

B) that sometimes the traffic on Broadway is stopped in one direction, other times not?

It's a fairly general problem (see, eg, Mass Ave and Lake St. in Arlington) that there are no "leading green" signs around. Arlington in particular seems to have a lot of leading greens at which out-of-town left-turners tend to freeze up.

Yup, I drive around there all of the time and it's a dangerous interaction. Can't tell you how many times I nearly got into a car wreck because someone decided to swerve around the guy in front of him at 80 mph and try to hit me as I make a left hand turn. There needs to be a left turn signal there.

i have that exact same issue with that intersection! i'm so used to massachusetts drivers banging a left now that i just assume they're going to do it.

Most lights on the parkways, including this one, are owned by the DCR, a state agency. (For some reason the light at Mass Ave and Alewife Brook Parkway is owned by Cambridge.)

I know that intersection well. Call 311 or email them, they have been really good when I've emailed them about street sign problems. I am on a one-way and when a tree began obscuring the sign, we got lots of wrong-way cars. The city came out within 24 hours of my email and trimmed the branch. Probably the issue you mention is more involved but definitely call/email them. One cool thing about using the email is that you can track all the channels through which your query travels.

Agreed 100%. The traffic signalling in Massachusetts is generally very poor (and IMO not on par with the rest of the United States, or even the developed world for that matter).

I distinctly remember that turn when I first moved here, going: "wait, what?"

So yeah, it needs an arrow, but I don't think the DCR has any money to do anything.

The delayed green is a fairly standard configuration in MA, for good or ill. (Less ill if it's signed as such, but we all know how likely that is.)

The real problem at that intersection is that left-turning traffic on 16, a somewhat busier road, gets nuthin': no left arrow, no delayed green. If you don't floor it the second the light changes and cut in front of the oncoming traffic, you will literally sit there all day.

However, because the intersections is right by the Somerville-Arlington border, getting anything done about it will require the cooperation of both municipal governments and DCR (which owns that part of 16), and the first part will be getting all three entities to not point at the other two and say "it's their problem".

I feel as though that whole intersection needs new lights. I come home on Alewife/16 and I turn right on Broadway and during rush hour it backs up sooo bad due to all the people who cannot turn left onto Broadway that people try to get in the right lane to go around them and it causes less cars to go through in general. I am used to the light to turn left onto Alewife/16 in the morning but a lot of times I get stuck behind someone who wont go and its aggravating. I do think that if your paying attention you would see the other side goes green first and then they all stop when ours turn green but people are still nervous because of the uncertainty.

I know where you mean and agree that that intersection and others like it need simple signage. I've seen in some places, a sign that states "Advanced Green" and on the other side for those not moving, "Delayed Greeen". I'm not sure why that is chosen over an arrow but it also gets the point across.

It's not actually a delayed green. The two directions of Broadway have separate greens. (They're never both green at the same time.)

And yes, signage (or directional green signals) would help.

The signage would help, but only to make sure traffic flows more efficiently there. So sometimes you're stuck behind someone who doesn't realize it's safe to go when their light turns green, even though the oncoming traffic isn't moving, and they wait one light cycle and figure it out.

What's not safe is people assuming the car in front of them waiting with a left turn signal is gong to move at any particular time. When I get there, I figure if I'm first in line at the light, I know it's a protected left because the other direction won't get a green while I have it, and I can go right away; otherwise, the safe thing to do is to wait until the traffic in front of you moves, even if they don't clue in right away. It's like seeing stopped cars (heading straight) in front of you when a light first changes to green as you're approaching an intersection. Even in Massachusetts, assuming they'll be gone and you don't need to slow down at all is a little risky....

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