Description
After the County repaved Boices Lane, it didn't do a very good job repainting the lane lines. There are no stop lines, and the lane lines extend farther into the intersection at Morton Blvd than they used to, so traffic isn't stopping where it should.
The worst part, though, is the lane lines on Boices Lane westbound between Morton Blvd and the train tracks. The left-turn lane has been truncated; it now backs up regularly, blocking traffic traveling straight from its lane. This, in turn, backs traffic up across the railroad tracks unnecessarily. The lanes are also still too narrow to comfortably hold vehicles; it's too bad this stretch of road wasn't widened slightly during the repave job to adequately accommodate the three westbound lanes.
The County needs to survey the traffic flow at this intersection and repaint the lanes accordingly, to avoid unnecessary traffic jams (and the risk of cars being hit by trains). It wouldn't hurt to paint in some stop-lines where the train crossing gates come down, to help people gauge where they need to stop in order not to be hit by the gates or a train.
5 Comments
anonymous (Guest)
You're right! This intersection has been a mess for 30 years!
I also believe that the traffic lights on Ulster Ave., Boices Ln., and Morton Blvd. are NOT PROPERLY SYNCHRONIZED with the signal lights at the railroad crossing, like they should be!
The traffic lights immediately adjacent to a railroad crossing (like this one) need to be timed differently while there is a train crossing, in order for the traffic on all neigboring streets to keep flowing, while making the traffic approaching the railroad crossing stop BEFORE they block the intersection and cause gridlock, which is what is ocurring at this location.
BettyAnn (Guest)
Ulster Move Out (Guest)
kaita (Guest)
As far as the traffic signals, the NYS DOT tried to help with the programming of the traffic signals and had implemented a program that was working perfectly until they were requested to change it because the school buses couldn't make a right on red when the rail preemption kicked in which held up traffic until the train passed. Now the signals are all out of whack along with the road markings! If Mr. Petramale would like my vote in the next campaign, he has to get this fixed once and for all.
Frank C Petramale (Guest)
1. As I have stated before, Boice’s Lane is a County Rd and any problems with the road markings or anything else on that road should be directed to them 845-340-3131.
2. As to the stop bars not being installed, I told you that they were not needed based on the information from the Commissioner of the Ulster County DPW. If that is in correct I will look into it further.
3. As to the traffic signal all out of whack, it has been worked on by the NYS DOT Traffic crew numerous times, yes a new program was installed and working fine but there were several things that went wrong after they installed it. The DOT Signal supervisor met me onsite with a crew and they reprogrammed it so it was working properly as to there specifications, not yours or mine. Recently there were some problems with it and once again they came and went through the unit and made sure it was working as they programmed it. I think you may have the DOT number you might try giving them a call if not I will forward it to you.
4. As to me getting your support in the next election I don’t think this site was started as a political site and my concern is not getting your vote I think already know that answer, it is the safety to all that travel our roads and I will reach out to the DOT to try and rectify your concerns once again, but you have to at least give me credit for answering everyone of your calls, emails and returning all of them in a timely manner and yes also taking action each time to try to rectify a problem if one is present, that doesn’t ever seem to make it into any of your comments on the internet.
Frank C. Petramale
Superintendent of Highways
Town of Ulster
845-338-0193
fpetramale@townofulster.org