Traffic Question Old Madison Pike

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

How is a driver using a perfectly legal traffic maneuver to avoid a traffic jam a bad driving habit? I don't have to convince a cop of anything. He has to give me a ticket for a specific vehicle code violation. There is no violation for that.

Go ahead and blame the drivers if you like, but it looks like a traffic engineering problem to me. From the Streetview images it looks like they added a second eastbound traffic lane about 10 years ago, but they never added a corresponding westbound lane. Which left the street extremely unbalanced. If that is the best they can do after 20 years of planning, I would say their planning leaves a lot to be desired. The solution doesn't look that complicated. All they have to do is repaint the turn lane as a through traffic lane. Then they will have two lanes in each direction. I'm sure the loss of the turn lane would be an inconvenience to some motorist, but probably not as big an inconvenience as the traffic jams are now.

OK, I'll give you the U-turn. It's not something I would do unless there was an emergency, and I think one would get a ticket if caught, but one never knows.

Are you talking about repainting to eliminate the left turn lane on Madison Pike in the westbound or eastbound direction? I don't go there in person very often, but I think Madison Pike on the west side of the intersection is only 2 lanes, with a north turn lane having been added.

If you mean eliminating the westbound turn lane and making it a through lane, there's only one lane to go to on the west side of the intersection (from what I can tell from looking at Streetview, which may not be up to date).

Another complication is that there are two municipalities involved for Madison Pike: Huntsville on the east side of the intersection, Madison on the west.

The majority of traffice is eastbound in the mornings and westbound in the evenings, but there is a school south of the intersection on Slaughter and a considerable amount of traffic west to south in the mornings.

It's been known for a long time that Slaughter Rd, from Hwy 20 north to 72, is a mess. It's 2-lane road with farily deep open ditches on the sides in many places, plus it's fairly heavily traveled. But nobody wants to pay for improving it. It goes in and out from Madison, Huntsville, and Madison County over its length so it's sort of in a no-man's land.

If you think that's odd, take a look at County Line Rd, from I-565 north to US 72. They've taken many years, but finally have a really nice 5-lane road for 99% of the way. But look at it just south of 72 ... it's a mess for the final block or two. Nothing's been done there. I think that's because that part of the road is Huntsville, the rest is Madison.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

OK, I'll give you the U-turn. It's not something I would do unless there was an emergency, and I think one would get a ticket if caught, but one never knows.

Are you talking about repainting to eliminate the left turn lane on Madison Pike in the westbound or eastbound direction? I don't go there in person very often, but I think Madison Pike on the west side of the intersection is only 2 lanes, with a north turn lane having been added.

If you mean eliminating the westbound turn lane and making it a through lane, there's only one lane to go to on the west side of the intersection (from what I can tell from looking at Streetview, which may not be up to date).

I would repaint the yellow line on the left as a double yellow line. Then repaint the yellow line on the right as a broken white line. Then cover up the turn arrows. Presto you would have two lanes each direction, It should be less than a one day job, and I would be extremely surprised if it wouldn't eliminate your traffic back up problem. A solution couldn't be much easier or cheaper.

[MisterEd51]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

I would repaint the yellow line on the left as a double yellow line. Then repaint the yellow line on the right as a broken white line. Then cover up the turn arrows. Presto you would have two lanes each direction, It should be less than a one day job, and I would be extremely surprised if it wouldn't eliminate your traffic back up problem. A solution couldn't be much easier or cheaper.

Dedicated turn lanes are for safety purposes. If you eliminate the turn lanes the traffic wanting to turn would have to stop and cause traffic behind it to stop. This increases the risk of more traffic accidents.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by MisterEd51

Dedicated turn lanes are for safety purposes. If you eliminate the turn lanes the traffic wanting to turn would have to stop and cause traffic behind it to stop. This increases the risk of more traffic accidents.

If motorists are being driven to the point of making a right turn, driving a half block turning around and coming back and rejoining the original road because of the traffic conditions, I think that is a clear message, they want another traffic lane, not a safety lane.

As has already been pointed out, drivers turning around at the church are creating a safety hazard. So I doubt that losing the dedicated turn lane would create any more of a safety issue then you have with the current situation.

After the road is reconfigured to four lanes, solutions could be found for the problem of left turning cars holding up traffic. Short term solution: add No Left Turn signs. Long term solution: widen the road where needed to add turn lanes.

[bmrisko]

Dude, this is AL not Oregon...drivers don't pay attention to signs here. Taking out the turn lane would be far worse as there are a lot of apartment complexes and neighborhoods along there.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by bmrisko

Dude, this is AL not Oregon...drivers don't pay attention to signs here. Taking out the turn lane would be far worse as there are a lot of apartment complexes and neighborhoods along there.

LOL, Oregon drivers are no better. As I said turn lanes can be added where needed. But the first step should be to add the traffic lane, so drivers won't be making unnecessary turns to avoid the backup.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

LOL, Oregon drivers are no better. As I said turn lanes can be added where needed. But the first step should be to add the traffic lane, so drivers won't be making unnecessary turns to avoid the backup.

I think the Madison Pike upgrade was mostly funded by the state a few years ago when it was done. Something you should realize is that as far as the state is concerned, Huntsville may as well be in Tennessee when it come to spending money ... of course, they love to collect it from this area, just not return it. I can't cite a source at the moment, but I think I've read that we get back about 20% of the tax money for highway construction that we send in. And this is the only growth area in the state, other than the Gulf coast county of Baldwin. Adding lanes is not free and in that particular area it would be even more expensive because of the terrain.

It's not quite as bad as bmrisko said about ignoring signs (and painted lines) ... it's just that many consider them to only be decorative, and at best a recommendation.