Quote:

You know... At first, I had the same reaction as you, but after some thought, I think this could be a positive change. If you convert the stretch of Columbus between Grove and Marin into a pedestrian plaza, you would end up with a larger space for pedestrians, an easier connection between PATH entrances, a much bigger space for the many events that already take place there, traffic heading out of town would be effectively slowed down, and you may end up also discouraging people from trying to cut across JC to reach the Holland Tunnel. Definitely worth considering!

Quote:

why?

I make the left from grove onto Columbus everyday and I can say that the signals were better before. Plus, there was no signage that the signals had changed so people were expecting the delayed green across the way and cross traffic starts barreling at you when you are in the intersection. I also agree the cops assigned to directing traffic on columbus spend the majority of time just standing on the sidewalk doing absolutely nothing.

Quote:

it would be real nice to see the police actually enforce it, I bike home through that intersection on a daily basis and the 2 chuckleheads assigned that duty are sitting on the corner by Starbucks drinking coffee 80% of the time. I've posted pics to our dear JC leaders on twitter but never a response.

they should relocate the pedestrian plaza to columbus between grove and marin.

But the walk signal still goes when the Grove St traffic goes. Which means that we now have pedestrians on both sides of Grove, and from south side of Grove cars turning right and left, and from the north side of Grove, three lanes of traffic going left, right, and straight, going head-on to the traffic coming from the other direction.

I don't understand how anyone could see that and think "yeah this is better."

For a comparison, the intersection at Duncan and West Side is the same setup but has not been changed.


If the idea is to deal with pedestrians, then there should be an all-way walk and then pedestrians do not get a walk signal at all while cars are moving. Of course people will ignore it somewhat, but plenty will not. Right now it's just a mess.

I believe this was done because it was a delayed walk sign for pedestrians but assholes would cross anyway and people trying to make a left on Columbus (going east) would get screwed.

I would assume a measure to alleviate the clussterfk of everything else. Honestly think it's better that way then before with the delayed light where nobody knows whats going on.

Some time ago the light was changed so that traffic on Grove St in both directions goes at once, instead of one side going and then the other going. Whose dumb idea was this? It's a disaster waiting to happen, there are several lanes of traffic all driving directly at each other trying to turn at the same time. Why did this change all of a sudden when it was working fine for so many years?

I'm also not excited about the bus only left turn from Columbus to Marin, which I guess was meant to deter people from taking the shortcut to the tunnel. Everyone ignores it anyway. It should be restricted to rush hour only, if that's what the goal was.