Traffic signal solutions presented

Study aims to help city officials improve traffic flow

By Jennifer Eisenbart

Staff writer

Ever been frustrated by the traffic lights in the City of Burlington?

You’re not alone.

After commissioning a traffic signal study from Kapur and Associates late last year, the City of Burlington Common Council got its chance to see the results Tuesday night in the Committee of the Whole meeting.

The study targeted seven intersections in Burlington, with most of the attention paid to the intersection of Milwaukee Street and East Chestnut, where accidents have occurred because pedestrian traffic sometimes isn’t seen when cars attempt to make a left-hand turn.

As Alderwoman Katie Simenson explained, there are cars getting stuck at the intersection – both turning left and north onto Milwaukee Avenue and left and west onto Chestnut – in which the drivers are so concerned with trying to make a safe turn that seeing the pedestrians in the crosswalk is taking a back seat.

A large part of the problem at the intersection seems to be the sight lines. Among the solutions being considered are moving up the stop lines, so people can see more of the intersection, removing parking spaces to allow for better sight lines – or simply eliminating the left turns.

As Stephanie Olson, who handled the traffic study for Kapur, explained, one of the factors in the study was examining just how much traffic was lost through downtown Burlington due to the bypass.

Traffic is currently down anywhere from 17 to 42 percent across the city, with the biggest drops on South Pine Street and the former Highway 142.

With the decrease in traffic within the city, the number of people making left-hand turns at the intersection has dropped as well.

“There’s just nobody really turning there anymore,” Olson said. However, Simenson pointed out it’s not a matter of traffic volume, but awareness on the part of the drivers.

After discussing the intersection for about 20 minutes, Mayor Bob Miller reminded council members that nothing was going to be decided Tuesday night, and suggested the council request several options – and move forward with the other intersections.

The other intersections discussed were:

• Milwaukee Avenue and Pine streets. The recommended fix for the intersection would be to install a left-turn light for southbound traffic on Milwaukee Avenue, which would clear some – albeit not all – of the cars trying to turn left during peak hours.

“I don’t think it will be a situation where you will never get a complaint again,” Olson said. She also said the traffic signals would have to be optimized.

• Pine and Jefferson Streets. With much of the traffic at this intersection now traveling the bypass, Olson said the best option might be eliminating the traffic signals and installing a four-way stop.

She recommended that the city find out if there were good reasons to have the traffic lights – mainly because of special traffic to the library and City Hall – and if the city doesn’t remove the lights, letting them run on “free mode” – which would end up with the lights being triggered by traffic stopped at the lights.

• Bridge Street and Pine Street. Olson said she thought that fixing the loop at the intersection – which allows traffic to trigger the lights free mode – had fixed the problem, but Alderman Jim Prailes assured her the problem still exists.

Olson said they would get the intersection looked at again and hopefully have a permanent fix with the loop.

• State Street and Main Street. The optimal solution here would be to get rid of the flashing red lights and set the lights to “free mode” again – and then optimize timing and remove the left turn arrows on Main Street.

• Bridge and Adams – again, remove the turn arrows so traffic could flow freely, and keep the train-activated “no left turn” signs so traffic won’t cross the train tracks with an approaching train.

• Bridge Street and Jefferson – again, remove the turn arrows so traffic can flow more freely.