|
| | Dear Road Wizard: Driving north on Milwaukee Street toward Fairview Avenue, the street jogs to the west, around the Shopko sign and landscaping. Why didn't ACHD buy this small tract and straighten all the lanes? The jog causes drivers to cut others off while trying to decide which lane will get them in the right direction. It just doesn't make sense. J.M.@ |
| | Before 1986, Boise Towne Square Mall existed only in the Mind of God (and some developers). Ditto Milwaukee Street south of Fairview Avenue. Life south of Fairview was rural.
North of Fairview, however, Ada County had permitted subdivision plats with their western edges ON the half-section line of Milwaukee, putting the road entirely west of the line.
As Boise braced for the shiny new mall in 1986, planners connected Milwaukee between Franklin and Fairview. The half-section line became the centerline of the new road.
To line up Milwaukee's new south approach to the existing approach on the north side, the right-of-way took its jog to the west. The Shopko sign and landscaping were innocent bystanders.
Then the post-mall retail explosion along Milwaukee produced today's pattern of heavy northbound peak-hour traffic: 490 cars turn left, 410 go thru, and 214 turn right.
That is an unusually HUGE left turn, and it has required unusual lane arrangements to avoid backups that go back to Home Depot.
The thing you probably don't like is the "left-lane drop." If you want to go thru, you may get in the left lane, expecting a left–only lane to materialize on your left – a lane you will chose not to enter, of course.
But it doesn't. Your expected thru lane has become a left-turn lane. Trapped! You have to scoot yourself over, relying on the kindness of strangers.
The drop-lane is a technique to distribute left-turns into two lanes so that both are full and make efficient use of the signal when it's green. Farther back, you start with 490 in Milwaukee's left-most lane and 624 in the right lane. The 490 fan out into two lanes, and the 624 fan out into two lanes, the thru with 410 and the right-only with 214.
Recall your despair elsewhere when you want to turn left, can see it beckoning empty up ahead, but can't get there because you are too far back? The "left-lane drop" prevents this. To compensate, the engineers have posted (many!) advance signs to warn, inform, and advise. |
|