I fully understand the rationale for your complaint but, on the other hand, the City is very risk averse and, if a maintenance vehicle were to hit a pedestrian, they'd still get sued but perhaps with reduced liability. By the way, there's a comparable situation on Grand where Mandana "dead-ends". That's what I always thought until a car barreled down Mandana, through the green signal into the Star on Grand parking lot. I was riding my bike southbound on Grand and ignored the red light much to my peril. Pedestrians and most cyclists ignore the signal.