5-points Traffic Committee Meeting with Larry Marcus, Bureau Chief Transportation and Engineering -- 6/6/14
The 5-points traffic committee met with Larry Marcus, Bureau Chief Transportation and Engineering early morning June 6th to discuss our concerns and update him on what we have already extensively discussed with the previous traffic chief and his staff.
Briefly here is the summary:
1. The relatively new block long Left turn only lane on N Quincy forces 95% of the traffic into one lane. Most cars are heading straight north or turning right (i.e. east) in the mornings. Cars routinely sit thru 2- 3 lights during rush hour and sometimes even off rush hour. Meanwhile the left lane is almost empty. We have filmed this. When cars are backed up to south of 20th St, they start cutting thru.
2. County removed the puppy paw guides for turning Left when heading north or south on Quincy or Military at the intersection but it has not yet removed the sign guidance. The way we turned before is safer than the “usual and standard” manner which actually gets drivers stuck in the intersection.
3. The old Lee Hwy light heading west to east was too short. It’s still short but better than before.
4. The lane to turn Left (south) from Lee to Quincy is about to be shortened. We need to consider this carefully as shortening it causes more back up on Lee. ON the other hand it would give us a cross walk.
5. We believe an extra cross walk should be installed at the fire station. This way pedestrians can short cut from west Cherrydale, down the stairs at the fires station to Old Dominion, cross there, and take the public access alley between the townhomes to the next street, saving hundreds feet walking , and it’s an easier, safer, prettier cross walk to the library.
We have invited Larry to present County’s plans and have a give and take exchange at the July CCA meeting. We also have concerns about the pedestrian crossing patterns at Lee Hwy by both Safeway and the Rehab Center. We proposed a camera be set up to measure our patterns and come up with safe resolutions. The NC Survey says clearly we want win/wins for pedestrian, bike and car safety and also expedience.
Briefly here is the summary:
1. The relatively new block long Left turn only lane on N Quincy forces 95% of the traffic into one lane. Most cars are heading straight north or turning right (i.e. east) in the mornings. Cars routinely sit thru 2- 3 lights during rush hour and sometimes even off rush hour. Meanwhile the left lane is almost empty. We have filmed this. When cars are backed up to south of 20th St, they start cutting thru.
2. County removed the puppy paw guides for turning Left when heading north or south on Quincy or Military at the intersection but it has not yet removed the sign guidance. The way we turned before is safer than the “usual and standard” manner which actually gets drivers stuck in the intersection.
3. The old Lee Hwy light heading west to east was too short. It’s still short but better than before.
4. The lane to turn Left (south) from Lee to Quincy is about to be shortened. We need to consider this carefully as shortening it causes more back up on Lee. ON the other hand it would give us a cross walk.
5. We believe an extra cross walk should be installed at the fire station. This way pedestrians can short cut from west Cherrydale, down the stairs at the fires station to Old Dominion, cross there, and take the public access alley between the townhomes to the next street, saving hundreds feet walking , and it’s an easier, safer, prettier cross walk to the library.
We have invited Larry to present County’s plans and have a give and take exchange at the July CCA meeting. We also have concerns about the pedestrian crossing patterns at Lee Hwy by both Safeway and the Rehab Center. We proposed a camera be set up to measure our patterns and come up with safe resolutions. The NC Survey says clearly we want win/wins for pedestrian, bike and car safety and also expedience.