Intersection of Doom Upgrades…

[ShawnoftheDread]

@Subby 95762 wrote:

Also when traffic gets backed up there you get to do some major league filtering. Also not for everyone.

Certain people around here seem to love it.

[chris_s]

@Tim Kelley 95702 wrote:

Here’s the story:

http://www.arlnow.com/2014/09/30/intersection-of-doom-getting-interim-safety-upgrades/

So, for those of you who ride through there daily, who had noticed the timing changes already?

I wouldn’t expect a whole lot of improvement until the No Right on Red Sign has been up for a while.

That said

*HAPPY DANCE*

[MattAune]

@ShawnoftheDread 95764 wrote:

Certain people around here seem to love it.

You?

[Terpfan]

@ShawnoftheDread 95727 wrote:

I don’t know why anyone would do this when they could take Rock Creek and Whitehurst. Don’t both Jefferson Davis and GW Parkway feed onto 66 before that exit ramp?

The problem is if you exit Whitehurst to turn right onto M St, the traffic to your left will routinely block the box and not allow you in. So you end up driving down the turn only lane as if you were going back toward VA over Key Bridge. Meanwhile, traffic coming from VA on Key bridge routinely runs their light as well making it slow for all involved. It’s a poorly designed interchange on both sides. This from someone who mostly bikes the route, but drives when absolutely necessary (sick, meeting elsewhere that’s not easily bikable, etc).

And yes, 110 turns has a split into 66 as does GWMP, well more an exit off it.

[baiskeli]

It’s great that they’re banning right on red there, but now we cyclists ought to at least allow motorists a chance to turn right on green. That means not running the red walk signal after the countdown is over (as I saw two cyclist do this morning) and maybe, just maybe, not starting to cross when the countdown has just a few seconds left. It’s safer that way anyway, since cars start to get desperate when they see their green light is nearly gone.

[Powerful Pete]

That requires us to be logical and courteous. Two traits that are not only lacking in the car crowd… now all of you get off of my lawn! 😡

[LBSki]

Yeah, I thought I noticed that the lead time was longer this week. It really does make a difference.

[baiskeli]

This morning a big truck was going straight through the intersection from I-66 to Lee Highway at the front of the line, and the drive paused – he had a problem switching gears or something – and a car went around him from his left and turned right in front of him toward the bridge. Image in a cyclist was moving the same direction as the truck to his right, hidden by the truck from that idiot.

That’s what I mean by desperation.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@baiskeli 95965 wrote:

This morning a big truck was going straight through the intersection from I-66 to Lee Highway at the front of the line, and the drive paused – he had a problem switching gears or something – and a car went around him from his left and turned right in front of him toward the bridge. Image in a cyclist was moving the same direction as the truck to his right, hidden by the truck from that idiot.

That’s what I mean by desperation.

Exactly that happened to me once, only the truck driver was purposely yielding rather than having issues. My front tire brushed the car’s rear quarter panel as I panic-stopped as he came screaming around the truck without seeing that I and others were in the crosswalk.

[baiskeli]

@TwoWheelsDC 95981 wrote:

Exactly that happened to me once, only the truck driver was purposely yielding rather than having issues. My front tire brushed the car’s rear quarter panel as I panic-stopped as he came screaming around the truck without seeing that I and others were in the crosswalk.

Wow, and I thought what I saw today was one of a kind.

[Rootchopper]

It’s happened to me several times. Center lane drivers going right without stopping on red. Nearly been hit more times than I can remember turning left from trail onto east sidewalk on N. Lynn. On a related note, Tuesday morning I was waiting on the sidewalk where the I-66 EB on-ramp crosses N. Lynn. After the light turned red the driver of a huge black pick up truck floored it and roared through the intersection. I’m certain he’d have killed anyone he would have hit.
I NEVER obey the crossing signals without making sure that cross traffic has come to a stop and I have made eye contact with the driver on this stretch of road.

[baiskeli]

@Rootchopper 95997 wrote:

It’s happened to me several times. Center lane drivers going right without stopping on red.

In this case, the truck was in the center lane and this guy went around him from the far left lane.

On a related note, Tuesday morning I was waiting on the sidewalk where the I-66 EB on-ramp crosses N. Lynn. After the light turned red the driver of a huge black pick up truck floored it and roared through the intersection. I’m certain he’d have killed anyone he would have hit.

Wow, scary.

Some jerk in a big pickup at George Mason and Wilson almost hit me when he flew through a left turn when the light turned green so he wouldn’t have to wait for oncoming traffic to clear first. Dumbass.

I NEVER obey the crossing signals without making sure that cross traffic has come to a stop and I have made eye contact with the driver on this stretch of road.

Good choice.

[Kolohe]

It seems to me that things have gone completely backwards over the last couple of days (from the point of view of bicyclists crossing Lynn)

The evening rush hour walk signal seemed really short yesterday, so I stopped there for a bit this morning to observe a few light cycles. The lead time from the walk signal to the green light is now 4-mississippi*, and the counter down timer starts a second after that. The countdown is only 15 seconds, so there is at most, 20 seconds of ‘good’ crossing time (and, as said, less than 5 to get off the curb if one doesn’t want to enter the intersection on the blinking red head)

*my watch broke the other day, haven’t replaced it yet

[rcannon100]

* sigh * Yup. When cyclists express exasperation at the multi decade quagmire that is Doom, they are not being “jerks.” For years we have received promises. Plans for improvements have existed for a long time. Yet on a daily basis going through this intersection is a bit like Russian Roulette. (and then county staff come up with the excuse that fixing Doom was not in the plans because no one had raised the issue in a while.) Cyclists expressing exasperation over Doom are not “jerks.”

[mstone]

And, presumably, if people don’t bitch constantly and loudly, it’ll go back into the “well, nobody raised it as an issue” pile.

[Author]

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