This problem just became much worse. I'm assuming the state DOT, decided to eliminate the bike lanes, on the Howard Ave. bridge, over I95. Now the intersection of 5th Street and Howard has turned into a six lane, high speed monstrosity. The Howard Ave. bridge is being treated, by the insane commuter crowd, as a four lane speedway, which then, without any signs or road striping, turns back into a two lane road. In addition, the bike lane, on Howard just ends and the former bike lane is now a high speed, right turn lane, which means that bicyclists have to dart across a lane of speeding traffic, heading North, on Howard, to continue straight, through the intersection. On the other side of the intersection (Howard, heading South) the bike lane abruptly ends, without warning and the bicyclist is again forced to merge left, to continue straight, or get pushed off into the gutter - great choice either way!

Did I mention that the intersection now stinks for pedestrians too? Drivers seldom stop for pedestrians, in the crosswalk, because what's more important, getting to the next red light 10 seconds sooner, or killing someone?

Of course the sub-geniuses at the CT DOT, did not plan on the right turn lane being used as a through traffic lane, for cars swerving around other cars waiting to turn left. I did not know that Moe, Larry and Curly were the design engineers for the CT DOT. Really, the DOT could have hired a hallucinating crackhead, to mess up this intersection and achieved the same results... Every year is 1956, when you work for the CT DOT; these guys are probably expecting tail fins to come back into vogue...
I pray everyday, for $5.00 gallon gas, so the these DOT "traffic" engineering dinosaurs will all be forced into the unemployment line - where they belong.