I was just looking at both sides of the Mechanic Street Intersection with
WCD.
If driving on Mechanic Street from Main Street across WCD uphill to
Residential Area, Mechanic Street has 2 Lanes facing WCD. The Left Lane
is for both Left Turns and Straight across WCD.
THE LANE ARROWS ARE PAINTED ON THE ASPHALT. The Right Lane is for RIGHT
TURNS ONLY. The Overhead Signals for both Lanes are
RED. RED
YELLOW. YELLOW
GREEN. GREEN
There are NO Left Turn GREEN ARROWS
FOR THE LEFT TURN LANE.
In my opinion, the 2 Years Construction Project for the combination Parking
Garage, Apartments, Gardens Building on the Municipal Parking Lot to the
Left of Mechanic Street from Main Street to WCD Should be delayed until The
Multi- Intersection of WCD - SACO - NEW GORHAM ROAD - MAIN STREET - CONANT
STREET ( Rte. 25 ) is REBUILT 100 % at which time, there will probably be
Changes in the Crosswalks - Their PEDESTRIAN Activated Controls - The
Traffic Signals and the Long overdue Addition of the 2nd Westbound Lane on
WCD. ...
Dennis
On Tue, Dec 7, 2021, 3:07 PM John Brooking <johnbrooking4@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I don't remember hearing an audio signal at all, but maybe I just don't
remember it. Is that signal supposed to have audio (crossing WCD on the
east side of Mechanic)?
I do clearly remember the white walk icon coming on, and it changed to the
red countdown numbers when I was halfway across. Because I had spent a few
seconds paused to see if the driver was going to stop, plus I was slow
because of my minor leg injury last week and was using a crutch on one
side, the countdown reached zero a few seconds before I actually finished.
That confirms what I have speculated before, and which Carson implies, that
the engineers don’t figure in much margin for delay in the timing. Hurry
up, pedestrian, we gotta get that traffic moving again!
I don't know exactly the pattern of that signal. In fact, now that I think
about it, I was probably just assuming the driver had a green arrow, but
maybe that wasn't even true. I guess I should study it more before I make
any more judgments. :-)
On Tue, Dec 7, 2021 at 6:53 AM Dennis Marrotte <
dennis.marrotte1111@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carson, Good Morning:
Its early in the Morning to answer your question - but that is a Very
Critical Question. I can not answer for John.
Thank You
Dennis
On Tue, Dec 7, 2021, 5:37 AM Carson Wood <carsonlwood@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Was that audible signal telling you to cross?
*From:* wsmac-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <wsmac-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> *On
Behalf Of *John Brooking
*Sent:* Monday, December 06, 2021 8:35 PM
*To:* wsmac@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [wsmac] Walk signals and green left turn arrows
I'm really beginning to be of the strong opinion that pedestrians should
*never* be given a walk signal at the same time that parallel car traffic
has a green left turn arrow. This is the situation we've discussed many
times at Hannaford Drive. Today I had someone almost not stop for me at
William Clark Drive and Mechanic Street, in the same kind of situation. I
had the walk signal, crossing WCD from the neighborhood side towards Main
Street, and in this case the driver was coming towards me from Mechanic
Street, turning left across the crosswalk. No reason they shouldn't have
seen me, it was daylight (though cloudy and misty), and there was no other
traffic between them and me. Yet I had to stop and hold out my arm and
stare them down to make sure they saw me, and eventually they did. (And I
was even using a crutch because of a knee injury last week!)
I think the problem is simply that the left green arrow makes it too
easy for drivers to assume they have the all clear, and don't have to look
out for anything. It's a lack of awareness and thought. I'm not optimistic
that this is a fixable behavior, short of just not placing the both of them
in that situation in the first place.
