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Stop lights timed poorly?
11/29/2010 3:10 PM by John M
A reader writes in asking about the lights at Broad at 17th & 18th (eastbound):
Before they replaced the signal arms this spring, they were synched so that you could get all the way through the lights with one cycle, no matter how much traffic there was. Now there is a backup almost every weekday morning. I’ve seen it as far back as 21st Street. I called the traffic engineers a couple of months ago and they said, yes, we’ve had a couple of calls on that – and vaguely said they would look into it. If they have, I can’t tell a difference.
And would it kill them to put a stop bar across the road right by the Exxon station at Broad and 17th? If you’re not paying attention, it’s easy to overshoot.
The exact same problem occurs constantly at 21st and broad. Up until they put up the signal arms, it was easy to turn left onto broad from 21st when heading north. Now, you’re lucky if one car makes it through per light cycle.
I go that way every morning too but lucky for me it’s not terribly congested the way I time it. But I dread to see what will happen if they get all those condos and lofts occupied, it will be a jam for sure.
thankfully, that unsightly new tenement building behind mcdonald’s will never be fully occupied. yuck!
@4 You’re correct about the new construction…what a complete disappointment. It doesn’t look good now and it’s brand new…just imagine what it’ll look like in 10 years.
mucks… tenement? please. It looks very rent-able, MCV & VCU friendly and much better than a vacant lot.
http://www.cedarbroad.com/index.html
I do see a jam on Marshall to Oliver Hill unless they put in a light.
I’ve noticed the same issues at 18th and 17th. In fact, I sent the City a request yesterday to look into it. It seems like every 2 weeks, the cycle becomes even worse and then the cycle gets a little better, then goes off sync again. What makes it worse are the two GRTC stops back-to-back – one in front of McDonald’s and the other directly before 18th. I called GRTC 3 years ago about it and they stated there are 2 different bus routes and that these stops must stay. However, I think that if they do a little brainstorming or make any effort whatsoever to think about the problem, they could come up with a better solution. Instead, they are, as usual, completely unyielding and continue to be a part of the traffic problem. I also wrote VDOT about the issue of MCV pedestrians crossing at the I95 onramp @ Broad, with traffic often coming to an unexpected stop to let them cross (I’ve witnessed 3 accidents due to this). As a solution, I suggested a pedestrian bridge. This also causes back-up after 18th street, making these few blocks unnecessarily dangerous and stressful.
I complained about this issue a couple of months ago, and I thought it was fixed. It seems like the lights work for a few weeks and then they go out of sync again. I wonder if the construction going on has something to do with it.
“tenement” was perhaps overstating it (and getting more population into the bottom is certainly a good thing), but the architecture is uninspired at best. they should take down the rendering from the fence, which shows a much more attractive building. hopefully this building does not set the standard for the new construction at broad and 21st street.
chpnfan – i agree on the marshall/oliver hill intersection. there are a whole lot of new people moving into these few blocks within the next year as more housing becomes available, so hopefully the city will take care of these problem intersections.
Police need to ticket/tow the cars parked along Main Street after 4pm, during rush hour…They cause a traffic jam that is far worse than anything on Broad Street during the morning rush hour.