Drivers make a mess of Allston traffic fix

By Christina Pazzanese, Globe Correspondent  |  September 21, 2008

The revamp of a busy six-way intersection in Allston last year was supposed to ease congestion, but tipster Pam Roberts of Brookline tells GlobeWatch things appear - at least to her - to have only gotten worse.

"I am writing regarding the intersection of Cambridge Street and Brighton Avenue (Route 20) in Allston, where the latter turns into North Beacon Street at Twin Do-Nuts," said Roberts in an e-mail. "Heading out of Boston on Brighton Avenue, the three-lane road was converted from a 'left lane: left turn only/middle lane: turn left or go straight/right lane: go straight [to a] middle and left lanes: left turn only/right lane: go straight.' In the morning, the outbound traffic is lighter, so people generally follow the rules. But, from midafternoon on, there is generally a crush of outbound traffic - this is leading to daily messes at this intersection, as cars, city buses, and trucks are all zipping into the middle lane, and then cutting off the right lane of traffic in the intersection to get on to North Beacon, creating ugly jams. It seems that either signage needs to be installed that alerts drivers in the middle lane that there is a new pattern for it, or else place a traffic officer there for a couple of weeks to help get the new pattern flowing better. I can't stand it as it is."

A Globe reporter visited the busy intersection last week during the afternoon commute and found all kinds of driving infractions, from drivers impatient to get moving zipping into the intersection and then stopping, thus blocking oncoming traffic, to others, as Roberts described, using a left turn only lane to cut ahead of cars queued up to go straight on to North Beacon Street.

The lane reconfiguration was made in the summer of 2007 to help move traffic along, said Tracey Ganiatsos, a spokeswoman for the Boston Transportation Department, in an e-mail. "The middle lane and the right lane of Brighton Avenue both fed into only one lane of traffic on North Beacon Street. This imbalance caused gridlock in the middle of the intersection as well as safety concerns. Traffic counts prior to the change showed that much of the traffic at the location was turning left, so the middle lane change to a left turn only was warranted." Thus far, the city hasn't received complaints about the new setup, though there were certainly some who beefed about the old layout, she said.

As for Roberts's belief that there needs to be better lane-restriction signs, Ganiatsos said, "Drivers are informed that the left lane and the middle lane are for left turns only via pavement markings, a left-arrow traffic signal indication, and signs. The left and middle lane pavement is clearly marked with left arrows and the left-arrow signal indication is very visible. As for signs, there is one sign at the intersection that denotes left turn only for both lanes and BTD will post, as soon as possible, an identical sign 40 yards in advance of the intersection." Also, the city intends to install a traffic camera at the intersection in the next few months in order to provide transportation department officials in the Traffic Management Center with better information so they can make more precise adjustments to the timing of signals at the intersection, said Ganiatsos.

Thomas J. Tinlin,
Commissioner
Boston Transportation Department
1 City
Hall Square, Room 721
Boston, MA 02201-2026
617-635-4BTD