Temporary traffic signal performs double duty
John Kyper tells GlobeWatch the city is taking an awfully long time to replace a traffic signal at the corner of Columbus Avenue and Cedar Street in Roxbury. The signal, an overhead-style lamp that spans three inbound lanes of Columbus Avenue, writes Kyper, was "knocked down at the busy and dangerous intersection behind my house in the middle of May. Incredibly, the signal has not been replaced - nearly five months later - and my queries to the Boston Transportation Department . . . have not been answered."
Kyper says a temporary signal was put in shortly after the May incident, but it does not contain a pedestrian walk function as the old signal did nor a turning arrow for drivers in the far left lane. Further complicating matters, an accident last weekend knocked down a second traffic signal a few feet away and also took out an MBTA bus shelter, a bus stop sign, and damaged a fire hydrant.
"Like many of the intersections in the new boulevards constructed a generation ago during the Southwest Corridor Project, it was built without adequate provision for left-turning traffic - a particularly egregious omission, given that Cedar has always been a major access to my Fort Hill neighborhood, as well as a heavily traveled cut-through street linking Dorchester to the Longwood Medical Area," Kyper wrote in the first of two letters he sent to city and transportation officials since September.
Since the late 1980s, the shoulders on Columbus were turned into travel lanes, making it a "six-lane blastway" where pedestrians often don't feel safe crossing, he wrote. After neighborhood complaints rose in the wake of a multifatality accident three years ago, the city converted the left lanes into turning lanes and altered traffic signals to include turning arrows, a solution that has had "mixed success at best," he says. "Higher speed traffic in the left lane that wants to continue on Columbus is suddenly directed to the right as it approaches the intersection, forcing obedient drivers to shift over and merge with the traffic in the adjacent lane. Since the left lane continues on the far side of the intersection, many cars simply ignore the lane markings and continue straight ahead."
A visit by a Globe reporter found the temporary signal working, but tilted at an angle and low in height, making it hard for drivers to see clearly when cars crossed in front of them. The other downed signal was covered by an orange barrel and the broken bus shelter area was taped off. The bus stop sign lay bent on the ground amid thousands of pieces of glass.
Kyper says he spoke with someone from the Transportation Department about the downed signal in September and was told the concrete signal base would need to be replaced before a mast arm could be installed. "Since then, I have heard nothing, and no work has been undertaken at this location," Kyper writes.
The city responds
"The process to replace the mast arm at that location began [Wednesday]," Jennifer Mehigan, a city spokeswoman, stated in an e-mail. "A new overhead signal will be installed within the next two weeks. As for the small traffic signal on the corner of that intersection, it will be repaired and fully operational once again within the next few days.
"Although these two signals are currently out of commission," Mehigan added, "the remaining traffic signals that control traffic flow at that intersection have been reprogrammed to ensure that the pedestrian walk indications turn on automatically to ensure safe pedestrian access through the intersection."
WHO'S IN CHARGE
Thomas J. Tinlin
commissioner,
Boston Transportation Department
Room 714
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
617-635-4680
