Q. Linda brings some promising information to Street Scene. We first published three hazardous nighttime conditions at the intersection of Apalachee Parkway and Conner Boulevard last June. Poor street lighting, insufficient left turn green arrow time — south to east, and a concrete median-end (bullnose) being struck by turning vehicles.
The intersection continued to experience vehicles running over the median-end which protrudes sufficiently into the intersection to be struck by southbound Connor Boulevard traffic turning left onto eastbound Apalachee Parkway. The problem is insufficient street lighting and the poor design placement of the concrete median.
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Tallahassee traffic engineers quickly resolved the green arrow time by extending it. Now, Linda reports the Florida Department of Transportation has finally applied reflective yellow paint to help nighttime drivers recognize the hazard of the median protruding into the turn lane.
Running over a concrete median is backbone crushing, teeth shattering, vehicle undercarriage damaging and tire flattening. People responsible for keeping us safe ignored a plight brought by poor design, insufficient street lighting and zero delineation of a known hazard. Until now.
To complete necessary safety improvements the median-end (bullnose) must be cut back sufficiently to follow existing geometric double-unit turning radius guidelines and install sufficient street lighting. In the immediate, put in place to augment the yellow paint; post delineators and raised pavement markers attached to the median which will highlight the hazard location at night.
Sidewalk needs
Q. Jon asks if I have any information why, with so many sidewalk projects, there isn’t a sidewalk along the south side of Lafayette Street and Old St. Augustine Road between Blair Stone Road west to the small shopping area with Uncle Mario’s Pizza. There is a dirt pathway which is frequented by people walking precariously adjacent to traffic. A sidewalk at this location would provide a much safer connector to shops.
A. It’s probably a matter of resources, manpower and money, Jon. Although there are several of these types of dirt pathways adjacent to busy roads. One we have written about is Tharpe Street from a point west of San Louis Road to a point west of Mac Drive where pedestrian traffic volume rivals most others.
Another is busy Orange Avenue west of Springhill Road where school children have for years been required to navigate fast moving traffic while having to step into the street to walk around sections of guardrail. Blueprint may ultimately rescue this area.
Proper spacing in storage lanes
Q. Mary Ann brings us a polite online conversation about maintaining proper gaps in traffic while waiting in a left or right-turn storage lane. Robin is experiencing some drivers leaving so much distance between the vehicle in front resulting in cars backing into the thru-lane.
A. Thanks, Mary Ann. Robin is correct, when we don’t snug-up in a storage lane the line of vehicles quickly spill into the path of vehicles moving through the intersection. In a situation where traffic is heavy the driver confronting his lane blocked by turning vehicles is unable to move over to the adjacent lane to get around them. This sets the stage for a driver glancing away from his forward view for a fraction of a second to crash into the car obstructing the thru-lane.
The conversation includes, in the name of safety, the idea of staying one car-length behind the car in front. Do that in McDonald’s drive-thru and you will lose your place in line. One car length for each 10 miles per hour is applied to highway driving to allow enough time to avoid a crash if the car ahead were to stop suddenly. But we are not talking about moving traffic we are talking about stopped traffic.
Florida Statute 316.0895 gives us the best way to understand. To paraphrase; the operator of a motor vehicle shall be reasonable and prudent having due regard for speed and road conditions. Due regard for speed while waiting in a turn lane is zero mph. Due regard for road conditions is you are in a storage lane. As we do at the drive-thru restaurant, keep limited space between you and the car in front while queued-up in a lane waiting to turn. Apply this same level of courtesy while waiting in a thru-lane for the light to go from red to green.
Mister, you have a noisy muffler
Q. Dennis has touched a nerve. Dennis has noticed a marked increase of vehicles with offensively loud exhaust noise and asks what steps can police take to stifle the racket. Can complaints to authorities help?
A. Recently, Street Scene has received numerous complaints about this subject from neighborhoods throughout the country. We in Florida are protected by a well thought out and well written law. Florida statute 316.293 delves extensively into what constitutes motor vehicle noise and I ask those in Florida to read the law and those in other states inquire about about such a law in your jurisdiction.
The law is so extensive I am unable to go into it here, other than to say a remedy is provided and the authority is law enforcement. Please keep me posted, Dennis, it’s become such a wide-ranging problem we will keep this conversation going.
Philip Stuart is a retired Florida State Trooper, Traffic Operations Projects Engineer and Forensics Expert Witness. Write to crashsites@embarqmail.com.
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