The City of Austin is apparently testing out a new form of intersection signage to indicate that a “California Stop”, also known as a rolling stop, is allowed at an intersection. The test has not resulted in any accidents and may lead the way for future intersection signage.
Stop? Yield? Whatever. (Photocredit: Me and my phone's camera)
In reality, a developer installed these signs in part of the Mueller neighborhood. The street is slowly being expanded to include a median and this is one of the crossovers, currently the end of the divided section. One of the two signs will be removed at some point, but why install two in the first place? Why leave them both up for weeks (at this point)?
The way we turn left in Texas, or at least how we know when to turn, may be changing in Texas if the Federal Highway Administration get their wishes.
In signal-controlled intersection with dedicated left-turn lights, we’re used to the following, or some similar variation:
RED “ball”: Stop.
YELLOW “ball”: Light is changing to red. Exercise caution and stop if safe to do so.
GREEN “ball”: Left-turn allowed after yielding to upcoming traffic
YELLOW arrow: Protected left-turn ending.
GREEN arrow: Protected left-turn.
The FHA has adopted a recommendation to change this and Arlington, TX may be the first in Texas to do so if the Texas Transportation Commission approves it later this year. The idea is that the green ball is confusing. We can go, but after exercising caution. Doesn’t green mean go though?
The new lights would work something like this:
RED — Stop
Solid YELLOW — Light signal is changing to either unprotected or red.
Flashing YELLOW — Left-turn allowed, not protected (i.e. the green ball)
GREEN Arrow — Left-turn protected.
An example of this was filmed and put online by the Missouri Department of Transportation
Besides the initial confusion and retraining time, do you think this makes more sense? A yellow flashing ball at an intersection means proceed with caution but generally practiced as a clear-to-proceed (with caution) green light. A yellow flashing arrow isn’t a clear-to-proceed (with caution) green arrow. Would a flashing red arrow make more sense or do we need retraining on what yellow means, arrow or otherwise?
According to the FHWA Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), the document that helps ensure that all traffic control devices in the U.S. mean the same thing, both a flashing yellow and a flashing red arrow are allowed. A flashing yellow arrows allows turn without stopping, while a flashing red requires a stop (like a flashing red light would). I’ve never seen a flashing red arrow used, except when signals are malfunctioning or timed to revert to a stop-sign-like control at very slow times of the day (like late at night).
Today, I was planning to pick up a friend on South 1st (an arterial route south from downtown) near Barton Springs when he called telling me to “look out for the beached whale on South 1st”. Since Austin, much less South 1st, is 200 miles away from the Gulf of Mexico, yet he told me to trust him and I’d understand later.
Sure enough, as I’m driving to pick him up, at about 800 South 1st Street at a steep driveway, there was a Blue Whale Moving Company truck stuck, partly blocking the southbound lanes of South 1st. The driveway was too steep for them to make it up, but the back grill of the truck prevented them from reversing out of the driveway.
From the time my friend told me about it until the last time I drove by the beached whale was three hours and it didn’t seem like it was going to be moving anytime soon.
Capital Metro, the transit agency for Austin, is gearing up for a launch of the first rail-based mass transit solution in near a century at the end of this month. The line, running from the Austin Convention Center to Leander, will save the sanity of folks who normally drive U.S. 183.
I visited the Plaza Satillo station during an open house and it’s… nice. There really isn’t much to write home to mom about on this one if you’ve seen any other light rail station. The train itself is nice, room for six bikes, Wi-Fi enabled, a few “VIP” seats that form into a conference table (no, there’s no VIP ticket, first-come, first-serve). I do want to take a round-trip on it and see if I can get any work done while using the conference table. It’s like a coffee shop, except no coffee.
I hope people who will actually use the line are receptive to it. Living near Congress/Oltorf means I’ll never ride the Red Line (except whatever day I choose to kill a morning riding it and back and forth once), but I’m encouraged at this direction for mass transit in Austin.
