Dangerous Bicycle Scenario

[xuth.livejournal.com]

I just ran into (almost literally) a very dangerous bicycle scenario in Davis Square this evening.

I was parked at the (somerville provided) bike parking space between Dover and Day St on Holland/Elm St. I got onto Holland/Elm St and rode southeast through the square right in front of a car on Day St with a green light. The problem is that from my vantage point, I have no stop light or stop sign (they are all behind me where Holland crosses Dover) and from this vantage point, Day St intersecting with Elm St is a completely separate intersection from Holland St intersecting with Dover St. But the traffic signals treat it as one intersection. Without knowing all the details of this intersection (which I should, I just have never dealt with this scenario before), I have no reason to think that I should be concerned about traffic coming from Day St. There really needs to be an additional Holland street light at the corner of Day St.

Comments

[ceo]

In my and IMHO most drivers' understanding, a left green arrow means an exclusive left-turn phase, where oncoming traffic has a red. And in this case, there is nothing to indicate to Holland St. traffic that it does not have the right of way.

And yes, it doesn't help that going from Highland to Dover feels more like straight-ahead than a left turn, despite how it looks on the aerial photo above.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's an arrow... Gotcha. I so rarely go that way that I forgot about it (and didn't pay enough attention to Kglue's comment). Duh me. Yeah, that arrow should change (from green to yellow and then to nothing?) when the exclusive time is over or something.

Oh, man, is that place just such a mess...