11-18-2019, 07:15 PM
(11-18-2019, 02:17 PM)tomh009 Wrote: It might "eliminate the traffic insanity" but that traffic would not disappear, it would move somewhere else, so a new "insanity" would pop up, whether on Margaret, Wellington or elsewhere.
That is not correct. The reason for the insanity is the unusual characteristics of the intersection, not a huge number of cars going through. On one branch, it’s a very narrow street. On another, it crosses a railway track and is therefore regularly closed for minutes at a time. On the other branches, there are no right-turn lanes. This is a recipe for traffic problems.
Moving traffic from one place to another does not have to move the insanity — it can make the insanity disappear. And this can be true even if the total amount of traffic moved stays the same.
For example, imagine two moderately busy 2-lane roads crossing at an intersection. If it is a 4-way stop, it will back up hugely as people individually take turns in the intersection. If it is a 2-way stop, it will be even worse, because people on the lesser road will get frustrated and start trying to squeeze into tiny gaps in the greater road. A traffic light with no turn lanes will also be very bad. But if a roundabout or traffic light with turn lanes is installed, the intersection will operate just fine.
So it is with Victoria and Lancaster. As others have done the research to find out (thank you!), the total number of cars using the piece of road which I propose to close is only about 14000 per day. Split this up between 2 new access roads to the east and Margaret and Weber to the west, and it’s just an increment on top of those other roads; and the other intersections involved all have much better characteristics for handling traffic.