By Andy Wood
The flow of traffic, like many other things, is dependent on several factors, one of which is keeping the slowing down or the stoppage of the flow to an absolute minimum.
Here are six suggestions that might be helpful to improve the flow of traffic along The Great Road using the philosophy that every little bit helps.
1) The light at the Stop and Shop shopping center
To exit the shopping center turning left, the red-light duration should be increased to allow more traffic movement on The Great Road going west. The Great Road left-turn green arrow into the DPW is always on, even with no one in that lane, which keeps westbound traffic unnecessarily halted.
2) The light at Loomis Street
The Great Road left turn signal onto Loomis St. should have a blinking yellow capability, as the one at the High School does. This will facilitate moving more cars more quickly off the Great Road, which can’t be anything but helpful.
3) The light at the Whole Foods shopping center
When exiting the shopping center, a car’s arrival at The Great Road trips the light in 6 seconds and brings the Great Road to a standstill. This should be unacceptable to any traffic flow engineer. The delay should be 30 to 40 seconds minimum.
4) The light at Bedford High School, the Library, the Police Department, etc.
Having gotten past South Road, a driver proceeding west on The Great Road thinks he will break free of stop light tyranny. But no. Every vehicle leaving the Town, Library, and High School complex stops traffic along The Great Road – every single one. That is because there is no right turn lane coming out of the complex. It’s time to repurpose some land and get left turn only and right turn only lanes with the right turn not activating the signal or shutting down the traffic flow.
5) All of the traffic lights on The Great Road operate completely independently.
There is no synchronization to improve flow – none. This should be addressed with traffic flow rates monitored before and then after some coordination between the lights is installed.
6) The left turn lane off Rte. 62 going east at Old Billerica Rd. is way too short to provide effective relief at this choke point.
Some land should be repurposed at this intersection to dramatically lengthen the left turn lane, which will improve Rte. 62 flow and flow on all the streets at that end of town.
The Town made a start – it is now time to finish it.
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