Intersection of Bristol, Broadway, and Willow

[davelew.livejournal.com]

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?

Comments

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Given how commonly people ignore the "no turn on red" sign which faces Willow in a fairly conspicuous manner, I'm doubting the signage solution.

[bgum.livejournal.com]

Most states hang the "No turn on red" sign on the wire right next to the light itself. When it isn't there it's not as obvious. Most states also hang the light directly over the stop line instead of posting it on the side of the road across the intersection, which can also make things confusing.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Massachusetts seems to have a nasty habit of posting the NTOR sign *behind* the stop line, so that you cannot see it from the driver's seat of a vehicle stopped at the stop line. Just too bad if you make a late decision to make a right turn and can't see the sign from your vehicle, I guess.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

This one is well in front of the stop line -- it's on a pole across Broadway, near True Grounds. So it's directly facing drivers at Willow and they haven't advanced beyond it unless they've already go worse problems ;), but it's not where people might expect to look.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

*nod*

I've had friends who've lived on Willow for many years--since about 2000, by my reckoning--so I've been driving in that neighborhood for a long time. I remember seeing that NTOR sign a few years back and thinking "is that new?" It may well have been; the sign itself looks relatively newish, and I can't imagine that I'd miss a sign like that more than once or twice.

The entire intersection is visually confusing. Traffic lights and signs tend to get lost in the storefronts, especially because there's a storefront right behind the pole that holds the light and the sign.