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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Traffic and Parking Continues to Observe Lowell Street Light



After submitting legislative item number 194256, asking "That the Director of Traffic and Parking recalibrate the traffic signal on Medford Street to allow more vehicles to exit Lowell Street onto Medford Street," Alderman O'Donovan received his answer at Thursday's Board of Aldermen meeting.

Director of Traffic and Parking Matt Dias responded to the order, stating: "The traffic signals at the intersection of Medford St and Lowell St are part of the Magoun Square reconstruction project. This is a MassDOT construction Project. This project is still technically not complete, as the signal timing for this traffic signal has not been finalized and accepted by the City of Somerville.

However, Traffic and Parking has continuously observed the signal timings at this intersection and notified the Design Consultant that the signal timing is not in compliance with the contract specifications. The contractor has revised the signal timing several times. The traffic signal timing at this intersection is currently an ongoing process.

Traffic and Parking cannot adjust the traffic signal timings at this intersection until the signal timings are in compliance with the contract documents and accepted by the City. However, Traffic and Parking will continue to observe the traffic signal timings at this intersection and work toward a solution that benefits Magoun Square and the City of Somerville."

I'm happy to see that Traffic and Parking is continuing to look in to this matter and would like to thank the residents on the Magoun Square United listserv who offered their observations and suggestions on this issue.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, once the timing is in compliance with the MassDOT contract specifications, and the City has accepted it, then Traffic and Parking can change it.

So, we are studying something not yet in its final state to determine how we want to chage the final state.

Got it.

Third base!

Brendan

Anonymous said...

We are studying something that we can go back and show the findings of to MassDOT. That's how I look at it.

Anonymous said...

Fair enough. I think that everyone agrees the light for coming off of Lowell needs to be timed with the light at Broadway so traffic can actually move with out blocking the intersection.

Anonymous said...

does this explain why the Dexter St light is 10 seconds, allowing 4 or 5 cars through, one week and less than 5 seconds, letting only 1 or 2 cars through and causing backups down the street and around the corner onto Bow Street another week?

Anonymous said...

Yes, most likely. Even the Lowell Street light is inconsistent in how many cars it lets go through. I hope this is resolved soon because the light is really not helping anyone right now.

Anonymous said...

This morning it seems to be timed to leave everyone coming from the Medford side of Medford street and Dexter Street stuck in the Broadway intersection.

Brendan