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  Acknowledged DPW Pine Customer Service (Verified Official)

  Thank you for reporting this issue. The Department of Public Works will now begin its investigation into the matter.

  07/03/2019 · Flag Flagged
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  Traffic Signal Engineer (Verified Official)

  It was a great sense of accomplishment to turn the new signal on for regular stop and go operation October 23, 2018. Five months of work building it, much more time before that to conceptualize, plan, and bid out the equipment and dirt work. Major traffic flow is not straight through but is an "ell" shape, requiring special phasing, a more sophisticated controller, and the No Turn On Red sign to protect two crosswalks from an almost continuous westbound right turn, while keeping things generally moving as much as possible. This signal sits at the bottom of Battery, the last in a string of coordinated signals. As such, it is set to follow the others cycle lengths, with a non-flexible timing that works well for most of the day. One piece that did not get installed (yet) is vehicle detection. There was not enough time to get this done concurrent with the other work. Getting out from under the construction crunch gives us a chance to do a better job of planning this final piece. We have crossed into our new fiscal year July 1st with new budget items. One of these items is to issue an RFP for detection equipment at this intersection, also Battery & Main, and St. Paul & Howard, which will be rebuilt similarly with signals on top of 10 foot aluminum poles. Video and radar for all-way detection is being considered. These are usually mounted 20 feet high for a good view of approaching traffic. With our 10 foot signal poles, and the tree canopy on Battery, this is not practical. But, talking with vendors, we have 2 video and 2 radar options that are viable. I lean towards radar. Afternoon traffic coming south on Battery sometimes backs up on Maple and spills back through the intersection. With vehicle detection, we should be able to sense this, and run the signal free, separate from the others on Battery, and be more responsive to immediately local traffic. In coordination, detection would allow skipping of Maple Street for lack of traffic, or give it more green with higher volumes. The new controller gives us more options than previously available. There will be times that running in coordination will be better, and times that running free makes more sense. To be able to pop in and out of coordination is not "normal" for a stand-alone controller. For the amount of money spent on this intersection so far, this would be the icing on the cake that makes the signal as fully responsive as possible.

  07/03/2019 · Flag Flagged
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  Traffic Signal Engineer (Verified Official)

  This issue was recategorized from Traffic Signal Problems to Transportation and Parking Improvement Request.

  07/03/2019 · Flag Flagged
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  OldVtr (Registered User)

  What would these planned improvements do to improve the efficiency and safety of PEDESTRIAN crossing--the core of this reported issue? (While generally a law-abiding citizen, I confess to being someone, as reported, who has crossed to the shade or out of the cold wind against this and other lights after activating the beg button and waiting interminably in the sun or standing still in the cold when no automobile traffic is approaching.) If traffic signals favor vehicles over pedestrians, people will drive vehicles instead of walking/biking/busing. Let's tune some radar/video toward bikers and pedestrians. Do I understand correctly that the proposal for Howard/St. Paul will kill the green for Howard in the absence of automobile traffic? If so, how will pedestrians and bicyclists safely and efficiently cross St. Paul St., recalling that the intersection study recenty identified pedestrian safety as the key deficiency of this intersection?

  07/04/2019 · Flag Flagged
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  Traffic Signal Engineer (Verified Official)

  In answer to above. There is a long cycle length in the morning and afternoon. It might be appropriate to run the signal free, and therefore more responsive under certain conditions. For lack of traffic in other directions, it could change instantly on demand. This is only possible if it can "see" conditions with vehicle detection. I am not aware what proposal you may be referring to for St. Paul & Howard. I recently fleshed out a signal design for it using 10 foot poles similar to Battery & Maple. It is feasible, and just like Battery & Maple it needs vehicle detection for its best, successful operation. It operates now with vehicle detection on all approaches except Howard. Howard is not actuated because it cannot be skipped. Without buttons there is no way to know if anyone is crossing or not, thus, it has to come up every time, regardless. The driving force in the new design was to provide pedestrian signals for all crossings. To do this requires poles on all corners and a lot of conduit and expensive dirt work to connect everything. Pedestrian signals are mounted on new poles. New poles are mounting places for buttons. Buttons make it possible to skip Howard, or any other street. If you walk up and press a (future) button when there are no cars, the signal will change instantly for that crosswalk. Full actuation makes a snappy and highly responsive operation possible.

  07/09/2019 · Flag Flagged
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  OldVtr (Registered User)

  In re PEDESTRIAN crossing:

  --Does the "long cycle length" refer to favoring vehicles and an increased "long cycle" wait for pedestrians--the original issue of this posting?

  --What does "run the cycle free" mean for pedestrians? What would be the expected change in pedestrian wait times with such a regimen?

  --As a pedestrian, I always wait at crossings where my experience shows me that the beg button instantly activates a walk cycle unless the recent vehicle cycle has not yet had a full run of say, 30 seconds. Is that an example of "run the cycle free"?

  (If the pedestrian wait is longer, it's my observation that pedestrians in Burlington tend to abandon walk signals entirely and cross against the light. Longer cycles have trained a good number of pedestrians, and I regret to say me, to cross at the next gap in vehicular traffic for waits longer than about 30 seconds, the case at a seemingly-increasing number of crossings.)

  In re "proposal 'you' (i.e., 'I') may be referring to for St. Paul & Howard and "detection equipment at this intersection, also Battery & Main, and St. Paul & Howard":

  --Will your proposed signal design include eight beg buttons for the current box of crosswalks PLUS two more for the only two-lane St. Paul St. crosswalk for a total of ten beg buttons and an equal number of pedestrian crossing signals?

  --What's the provision for crossing So. Winooski--two MORE beg buttons for a total of twelve buttons and walk signals? If I recall, the design charette for this complicated and dangerous intersection seemed to indicate the need for a new cross walk further north from the current stop line on So. Winooski due to terrain/ADA constraints.

  --And in the case when pedestrians "press a (future) button when there are no cars, the signal will change instantly for that crosswalk", what happens when there is traffic? What will the parameters of the wait be for pedestrians?

  --Will all vehicular traffic from all five approaches stop to allow a suitable interval for a pedestrian or cyclist to cross uphill on the longest crosswalk segment?

  Thanks--a lot of questions I know, but I bet I'm not alone in wanting to learn in order to be better able to spread the word to my fellow pedestrians while we wait to cross!

  07/12/2019 · Flag Flagged
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  Traffic Signal Engineer (Verified Official)

  This SCF is related to Battery & Maple. The spillover into St. Paul & Howard -maybe- ought to be its own topic, although it is not "broken." This is a forum to fix things. Going to try to answer some of the above, but think there should be a better forum to discuss this than here. Don't have an answer for this now. Looks like 9 questions.

  1. "Favoring vehicles" adds a prejudicial flavor. It runs blind to vehicles.

  2. Battery Street runs 70, 90 and 100 second cycles. Lights change once every X seconds. Running free removes this constraint, and generally reduces the wait, but is only possible with full detection.

  3. Minimums times are necessary, of course. 30 seconds is typical where there is no major street detection, and assumptions about traffic have to be made.

  4. (comment) You seem to agree with me that responsiveness is a good thing.

  5. Looks like a segue to St. Paul & Howard.

  "Beg button" is a derogatory term. If you call elevator buttons the same thing, or door knobs "beg handles," or prefix any other action you have to take travelling from A to B with "beg" then at least you are being consistent. If you don't want to press a button to cross a street, because it is beneath you (beg), then any further discussion about efficiency is moot.

  6. 6 crosswalks, 12 buttons, 12 pedestrian signals, 15 poles to mount this all on. Very expensive.

  7. Apparently a crosswalk is going there too.

  8. Probably similar to Pearl & Winooski, or Pearl & Prospect, to name two.

  9. Pedestrians east-west would get an advance walk, then Howard would go green in parallel. Bicycles, being vehicles, start on green, just as cars do. Putting a crosswalk at Winooski triggers the need for a more sophisticated controller, which can give more time for a bicycle if detected.

  07/15/2019 · Flag Flagged
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  Burlington, VT (Verified Official)

  You are receiving this message because you have previously (or perhaps just now) submitted a request on SeeClickFix. We're excited to let you know that we are now implementing a comprehensive asset management program which is a mostly "behind the scenes" effort. This will enable more efficient, more effective and more fiscally sound infrastructure management. Nothing changes for you and we'll continue to use SeeClickFix, but we have had to automate a process to connect our open SCF requests with our asset management program. There may be the occasional bug to work out, but rest assured that your issue is still in queue and assigned to the right City staffer. Once this initial round of automation is through in about a week, we'll revert back to our standard messages on SeeClickFix.

  10/26/2021 · Flag Flagged

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