Flashing yellow left-turn arrows a feature in new GoG/Chestnut traffic signals
A truck turns left from northbound Chestnut
Street onto westbound Garden of the Gods Road. Providing automated direction
is a new set of traffic signals on a mast arm, including a flashing yellow left-turn
arrow clarifying that it's OK to turn left on a green light even after the green left-
turn-only arrow has ended. Also different from older lights is the reflective yellow
strip along the outer edge of the black backing behind the through-traffic signals.
Another difference is the yellow housing around the lights themselves instead of
the usual black.
Westside Pioneer photo
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According to Colleen Dawson, City Engineering's project manager, the city has begun using the design in large part because of its visibility advantages. Especially new for local motorists is the flashing yellow arrow to make it clear that left turns are allowed during a through-traffic green light even after the green left-turn-only arrow has ended, she elaborated.
The design also makes the lights easier to see, each inside its yellow-shielded housing (instead of the traditional black), with a black backing plate behind them. Additionally, for the through-traffic signals, there is a yellow strip around the outer edge of the backing. This will reflect headlights in a nighttime blackout situation - allowing drivers to see they're approaching a signalized intersection, Dawson explained.
Another major change for the signals is that they are on mast arms. Extending over the intersection, these are metal extensions from corner poles, facing traffic in each direction. They've replaced the former system in which cables, tied to light poles, stretched from corner to corner with signals attached to them.
Project contractor CMS Inc. installed the last of the mast arm signals at GoG/Chestnut Nov. 5. With the lights operational, about all the work that remains is a new handicapped ramp at one corner and landscaping to tidy up where holes had to be dug for the new mast-arm poles, Dawson said.
Started in late September, the $252,000 project is one of the last of the A-list projects remaining from the 2004 ballot question that established the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (RTA).
Westside Pioneer article
(Posted 11/6/14;
Transportation:
General)
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