Speaking of Road Issues

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

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?

Comments

[ifotismeni]

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.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

And I have no doubt that it's because of intersections like that that drivers learn to think THEY SHOULD turn left as soon as they get the green. Grar.

[ifotismeni]

yep, most likely!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Or, it could just be massholism.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily. People still try to turn left at the beginning of the green even in cities where there aren't have secret protected lefts, like New York, Philly, and DC.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

That's the way New England natives do it.

Remember, a lot of the roads outside the city are blue highways with one lane in each direction. It makes a lot more sense to let the people going left turn first, so that the one car taking a left turn doesn't hold up an entire column of traffic.

Of course, when you mix natives and newcomers....

I myself ran into the opposite problem driving in Los Angeles. Out there, they get mad when you floor it to take a left turn on green. On the other hand, i found it disconcerting that they go left as the light is turning red, something that sounds a lot like running a red light to me, and risking a collision with somebody trying to make the light. Of course out there, even the residential streets are six-lane boulevards comparable to our Rt. 28, so the "backing up a whole column of traffic" doesn't apply.