Driving around Plymouth, one only can wonder who is designing all these reworked intersections and what their intent is. The obvious intent is efficient and safe traffic flow, I think. The results all too often, fall terribly flat.
The worst offender of this has to be the intersection of Halfway Pond Road and Bourne Road. Prior to the “improvement” a few years ago, it was a basic T-style intersection. Halfway Pond Road had the right of way and Bourne Road had the control of a stop sign.
This allowed for adequate traffic flow. The stop sign at the end of Bourne Road was largely effective as running it would put you clearly in the wrong if an accident occurred. Also, vehicles traveling on Halfway Pond Road in either direction had to significantly reduce their speed to safely negotiate the transition onto Bourne Road.
After the “improvement,” Bourne Road maintained the stop sign. Traveling east on Halfway Pond Road gained a new stop sign. An odd bump out was added to the intersection. The mouth of Bourne Road was significantly widened. Crosswalks and bike lanes were added. A cobble-stoned center median, complete with dangerous self-ejecting stones, was added. However, traffic flow heading north on Bourne Road turning right onto Halfway Pond Road has become a moderate-speed stop sign violation.
Traveling north on Bourne Road and taking a left at the stop sign can be difficult and sometimes dangerous. Widening the mouth of Bourne Road and the bump out at Halfway Pond Road has created a NASCAR-style high speed transition for cars heading west turning left onto Bourne Road. In the words of Ricky Bobby “If you ain’t first, you last.” This design makes it very difficult to take a left from Bourne Road onto Halfway Pond Road. I have had trucks go up on the sidewalk and pass me on the right as I was waiting to take a left onto Halfway Pond Road.
I would like to get an official determination governing the order of procession with this stop sign arrangement. My belief is that vehicles proceed based on their arrival time at their stop signs – basically the car that was stopped at their stop sign first, proceeds first. This is clearly not what occurs. Many vehicles at the Bourne Road stop sign believe they have a divine right of way. I don’t know how many times I have been almost T-boned leaving the stop sign at Halfway Pond Road by vehicles ignoring the Bourne Road stop sign. I am glad I have a dash cam. Add a pedestrian or bicyclist to the equation and it can get extremely dangerous.
Tying back to my first thought, Plymouth is not going in circles. Traffic circles are the answer. I believe the perfect solution to this and other “improved” intersections are traffic circles, rotaries, roundabouts – whatever you want to call them. They are an ideal passive traffic control.
A perfect example of this is, are the traffic circles on Obery Street. No traffic lights, no stop signs, just efficient and safe traffic flow.
Unfortunately, I see that some preliminary work is being done at the intersection of Long Pond Road and Halfway Pond Road. I can only imagine how that will turn out.
Not too far from the Bourne Road/Halfway Pond Road danger zone is the intersection of Long Pond Road and Clark Road. Although there are traffic signals already installed, I seriously think this “improvement” needs to be rethought. I am curious about once a project like this is completed whether there is any evaluation done to see if the desired results were met. Or worst case, did the project cause greater unintended problems? My suspicion is there is not. Please, Plymouth powers to be, we just need safe, efficient intersections and my two cents is that traffic circles are the solution in many instances. Plymouth needs to go in circles.
– Sam Cotter