05-28-2019, 04:13 PM
(05-28-2019, 10:58 AM)MidTowner Wrote: What if one's position is that it probably shouldn't be allowed anywhere?
If, after seeing this particular intersection, one still holds that opinion, without modification for local circumstances, then one is not thinking clearly.
As I said in my previous message, there is no conflicting vehicle traffic, and the conflict with pedestrian traffic is exactly the same on red as it is on green, so that is not a colorable reason for disallowing right turn on red at this location.
What they should have done is had two lanes turning the corner, with the turn lane far separated from the main intersection, with a separate traffic light controlling the conflict between the turn lane and crossing pedestrian traffic. The light should be green for pedestrians, except when triggered by vehicle sensors, which should give a maximum of a certain fraction of the time to vehicles when needed. That way at low traffic times it would in the limit be always green both for pedestrians and for motor vehicles not exceeding the target speed.
Starting from the existing situation, the thing to do is probably to install a separate light to control the turn lane. The sensor idea should still work to avoid the need for pedestrians to press a button and to give pedestrians green time automatically whenever there are no vehicles. So the only deficiencies would be the 1-lane bottleneck in the flow and the unnecessarily small pedestrian island.