Pedestrian/traffic signal changes

[redbird]

The city is planning significant changes to the traffic/pedestrian lights in Davis Square, on Wednesday June 27. Instead of having all the walk lights on at the same time, they're going to be coordinated with red and green lights for vehicles, in part by giving pedestrians a walk light at times when everyone is crossing anyway because we can see it's safe.

The city says (hopes) that this will make it significantly faster to cross Davis on foot, especially diagonally. It's supposed to give pedestrians more walk lights and give traffic on both Highland Avenue and Holland Street more green light time per hour, and add more green lights for buses leaving the Davis Square busway. (For more and possibly clearer information, see the info and background pages on the city website.)

I was alerted to this by some not-very-large posters taped to some of the light poles in Davis Square, a couple of days ago. I haven't gotten an email from the city, which I would have expected. Also, Ron, I can't find a better tag for this than "local government," since we don't have one for walking, traffic, or pedestrian.

Comments

[keithn]

I received an e-mail from the city on June 22 with the subject "Davis Square signal timing." It was from this alert system: https://www.somervillema.gov/page/alerts

I did see a large mobile light matrix sign on one of the side streets entering Davis Square announcing the change although I do not know which one.

[redbird]

Thanks. I'm supposed to be on that list; I will sign up again, I guess.

[desireearmfeldt]

I got a robo-phone-call about it a couple of days ago and it was in the most recent email newsletter, for what that's worth. Thanks for signal boosting!

[intuition_ist]

This will be lovely -- if only the pedestrians would not continue to walk out in front of oncoming traffic... (yes, I've driven through Davis a LOT, how could you tell?)

[fredrikegerman]

The study mentioned that "pedestrians ignore the lights because the timing is so annoying" was one justification for the changes. We'll see.

glitch in signals

[jlauspitz]

I was stopped on the street by a Chandler Street neighbor who reported that the backup on College Avenue was so bad that buses had to let passengers off on William Street-- four streets above Davis Square and that fire engines had to come down Chandler Street to speed their entry into Davis. Sure enough, when I timed the light at College and Davis, it stayed green for only ~10 seconds, allowing only two or three cars to pass. A further light, staggered to permit traffic already in the intersection, was set at about 30 seconds, but this was not a help to cars already stopped at the first light.

Re: glitch in signals

[jlauspitz]

After several complaints, the College Street light has now been lengthened to ~20 seconds, which improves the flow.

But there is another glitch, probably intended: the pedestrian walk signal from the traffic island to the corner of Day and Elm is concurrent with the right-hand auto signal from Day into Elm. When I crossed at 11:30 a.m. the frustrated cars coming out from Day Street did not yield to pedestrians, so I had to wait until red to cross. This looms as an accident-prone corner caused by the conflicting right of way signals to pedestrians and cars.