Description

Yesterday, Sunday July 13, 2015 at 7pm the light timing for the intersection at Broadway and Mt Vernon was messed up. The green light cycles were extremely short, followed by a 20 second walk cycle every time. Only 1 or 2 cars would be able to turn left from Lombardi Way and traffic was backed up from the 93 off ramp, Assembly and Mystic Ave trying to turn left. It took over 10 minutes to go from Assembly drive to through the left turn lane at the intersection of Broadway and Mt Vernon to head towards Sullivan. This was a huge safety hazard as I saw two cars run the red light while the walk signals was up by making left turns from the right turn only lane on Lombardi Way. I notice this light timing cycle happens quite frequently, but normally late at night. There is no need for such a short light cycle at any time of the day nor for a walk cycle every 30 seconds.

The lights in for heading south on Broadway, and the ones going across Broadway from Alfred A. Lombardi Way/Mt Vernon were only green for 5 seconds and yellow for 5 seconds, followed by a 20 second walk signal. I am not exaggerating the shortness of the light cycles, my passenger took a video of the green lights and you can see the countdown of the walk timers.

Numerous people have reported this issue over the last year plus. To why this issue has not been addressed in baffling.

The solution is not hard, just fix the timing of the light cycles.

- Eliminate the automatic walk signal across Broadway. There is not enough foot traffic across the road to justify it stopping traffic every 30 seconds. Let people use the Walk button.
- Increase the minimum length of a green cycle. There is no reason to have a 5 second green light programmed into any street light. Who ever wrote the code for the intersection is incompetent for including a cycle that short.
-Give the left turn lane from Lombardi Way a priority turn. Driver would be less likely to rush and cut off cars traveling straight across Broadway from Mt Vernon.

- Move the stop line for Alfred A. Lombardi Way closer to the intersection. It is 30 feet away from the intersection which wastes the first few seconds of the green light.