The City of Oakland Public Works Department has received this issue. It is registered as service request #583005. Please check back for status updates, or contact us directly at 510-615-5566.
That signal is short in time in ALL directions. It is a complex intersection 5 "zones" to manage. If you make the NB longer, it will just cause long backups on the other directions, which also suffer from long backups. I live near this intersection and use it from many directions. The freeway off ramp backs up onto the freeway at times. Thornhill backs up to the other signal and beyond, blocking the intersection of Mountain & Thornhill EVERY morning. The left turn from Moraga onto Thornhill in the afternoon backus up onto 13 South bound and up the hill on Moraga. Sorry, but I recommend no changes to this signal in any one direction as it will severely impact EVERY other direction.
The many other problems of this intersection are much more difficult to solve than the I posed.
This afternoon the Moraga northbound signal was not green long enough to fill up Thornhill between Moraga & Mountain Blvd. which one assumes is the limiting factor to efficient traffic flow. Entering NB 13 can't be a limiting factor nor can continuing east on Moraga Blvd. be an traffic impediment.
At other times of the day I've observed a much longer time allocation for NB Moraga traffic. The signal controller is new and quite versitile. It seems that in the afternoon the time allocation is not set long enough to allow maximum throughput on NB Moraga.
(Disclosure: I have, in the long time past, programmed signal controllers!)
I do agree that the "sensors" in the street sometimes seem to malfunction, especially after a rain (which we had today), making some directions stay green longer that normal. Might have been the cause.
I also agree that this intersection could benefit greatly from variable timing, and more traffic sensors to make the signals smarter to traffic conditions and time of day. Excellent idea Ed.
4 Comments
Acknowledged City of Oakland (Verified Official)
Owen Rubin (Registered User)
Display Name Blocked (34996) (Registered User)
The many other problems of this intersection are much more difficult to solve than the I posed.
This afternoon the Moraga northbound signal was not green long enough to fill up Thornhill between Moraga & Mountain Blvd. which one assumes is the limiting factor to efficient traffic flow. Entering NB 13 can't be a limiting factor nor can continuing east on Moraga Blvd. be an traffic impediment.
At other times of the day I've observed a much longer time allocation for NB Moraga traffic. The signal controller is new and quite versitile. It seems that in the afternoon the time allocation is not set long enough to allow maximum throughput on NB Moraga.
Owen Rubin (Registered User)
(Disclosure: I have, in the long time past, programmed signal controllers!)
I do agree that the "sensors" in the street sometimes seem to malfunction, especially after a rain (which we had today), making some directions stay green longer that normal. Might have been the cause.
I also agree that this intersection could benefit greatly from variable timing, and more traffic sensors to make the signals smarter to traffic conditions and time of day. Excellent idea Ed.