davis_square | Intersection of Bristol, Broadway, and Willow

I need someplace to vent, and this seems appropriate.

Every weekday, my route home from my work takes me down Bristol Rd, across Broadway at Ball Square, and onto Willow Ave. Nearly every day, someone coming the opposite direction on Willow Ave and turning left cuts me off at the traffic light. It's like people driving up Willow have no idea that it's a four-way intersection, and think they can turn left at will without yielding to oncoming traffic.

Today, a car cut me off, then slowed down. The four cars behind them closed ranks, and all crept past (while I honked and debated the merits of T-Boning them) until my light had changed from green to red. I had to shift into reverse and back up onto Bristol to avoid the Broadway traffic.

Then, to make matters worse, the car waiting in line at Willow nearly hit me when it tried to turn left onto Broadway through my car. I had just honked at four cars, how did she not know I was there? Is there a cloaking field covering the end of Bristol that masks my honking? Or is it a rudeness field over the end of Willow that makes drivers not care?

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Does anyone also hate the way that routes 16 and 2 intersect? If you're coming off Route 2 eastbound and making the left onto 16, there's a place where there really ought to be only one lane, and only one lane is marked, but people line up in in 2 rows... then when the light turns green, both rows of traffic have to merge with the two westbound lanes into 2 very narrow lanes on 16 heading towards mass ave.

Usually if I can't get in the leftmost lane there, I go for the honking-and-praying style of merging.

I don't feel like the markings and signage are clear in that area. I wish they'd fix that. I always make it 2 lanes, because otherwise the backup there can be horrific.

bring back the rotary!

The fun part of that intersection is where three lanes of traffic have a green light and have to immediately merge into 2 lanes right in the intersection. Two of those lanes are traffic coming from Fresh Pond going left onto Route 2; the third is the single-lane road coming from the Alewife garage.

Yes, the ramp from Alewife was supposed to cross under 2 where the bikeway does and then turn left and merge up onto 2, but that would involved taking a bit out of the Arlington recreation fields there, and Arlington found that prospect too horrible to contemplate.

Does anyone not hate that?

I hate that intersection, too. So I stopped using it.

Back when I drove to Acton for work, on the way back I'd take the lake st exit (the last one before you merge into route 16) and take that street until it hits Mass Ave. Granted, there was some traffic on it during rush hour, but it still beats waiting to get through that horrible intersection.

I used to live on Lake St. "Some" traffic? Everyone with a brain in greater Boston uses that cut-through ;). Place was totally jammed (but only in one direction) every rush hour.

Intersection of Bristol, Broadway, and Willow

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