Why so few traffic signals in the suburbs (Boston, Arlington: for sale, foreclosure)

[relocate37]

I moved here recently. Currently live in Winchester; I commute north.

All through the area (Winchester, Belmont, Arlington, etc) there are intersections that IMHO clearly need a turn signal---at rush hour, one road has no stop sign, the other does, and traffic on the one with a stop backs up.

It's not the end of the world, but, while I'm not a traffic engineer, I assume a decent one would be horrified.

Are taxpayers too cheap to pay for more traffic signals? Or is there some kind of (frankly speaking) idiotic argument that they're a visual blight?

[massnative71]

I guess the argument would be that they slow traffic down during non-peak hours.

The density and # of roads/crossroads in the area is so high, it would not be feasible to add them to every intersection that really "should" have lights.

And yes we are very cheap here when it comes to things like infrastructure, but not so much when it comes to things like rewarding those who made poor choices in life...

[Dm84]

Most of the roads in the Boston area were never designed or built to handle the traffic volumes they carry so adding traffic lights would actually make things worse in many cases.

[mdovell]

Dm is right but I would also add this. Sometimes if a road is traveled mostly by locals then they already know how to navigate. This goes for other conditions as well.

There's a road I know of in Middleboro that is awful. The first time I drove down it one guy almost hit me head on. Then I saw why. The road is like the moon. Easily the worst road I've drive on in this country. I've seen some in rural china that were better! So I asked the DPW why it's like this. Well it turns out although it's a few miles long there's only five houses there and 2-3 are for sale/foreclosure. I've met residents that have never heard of it so chances are no one really goes down there but those residents.

Reminds me about rotaries. I think they can work, but only up to a certain limit of traffic. After that point it can cause it to back up.

[Dm84]

Originally Posted by mdovell

Reminds me about rotaries. I think they can work, but only up to a certain limit of traffic. After that point it can cause it to back up.

Sure they can work, but only in light traffic scenarios. Just look at the Bourne bridge in the summer.