Photography & Images, Recumbent Bicycling

Traffic Signal Timing: Burnett Blvd at Rt 55 Detour

Word from the BPAC meeting says that NYSDOT re-timed the signals on both ends of Burnett Blvd, because of the increased traffic from the closed bridges on Degarmo Rd. Here’s what that looks like from a bicyclist’s perspective; you may want to compare this with other measurements in the recent past.

T=0.00 – I’m approaching the light and obviously won’t get through on the current cycle. However, the car in the left lane is just clearing the sensor loop, so we know the sensor has been triggered:

Burnett Blvd at Rt 55 2016-04-27 - detour timing - 0073
Burnett Blvd at Rt 55 2016-04-27 – detour timing – 0073

T=4.133 – Signals turn yellow:

Burnett Blvd at Rt 55 2016-04-27 - detour timing - 0321
Burnett Blvd at Rt 55 2016-04-27 – detour timing – 0321

T=8.433 – The left signal turns red (the right signal will go on 4/60 s later), with the white car accelerating hard across the stop line:

Burnett Blvd at Rt 55 2016-04-27 - detour timing - 0579
Burnett Blvd at Rt 55 2016-04-27 – detour timing – 0579

As nearly as I can tell, the green-to-yellow change has decreased from about 7 s to maybe 4 s; that may be influenced by the car position / speed across the loop. NYSDOT definitely hasn’t increased the minimum delay to provide additional time for bicyclists.

The yellow-to-red transition may have decreased from 5 s to 4 s; it definitely hasn’t increased.

T=10.433 – The white car deliberately blew through the yellow and red signals:

Burnett Blvd at Rt 55 2016-04-27 - detour timing - 0699
Burnett Blvd at Rt 55 2016-04-27 – detour timing – 0699

T=12.000 – The white car has almost cleared the intersection, 3.567 s after blowing through the red light, and cross traffic in Rt 55 has started to move:

Burnett Blvd at Rt 55 2016-04-27 - detour timing - 0793
Burnett Blvd at Rt 55 2016-04-27 – detour timing – 0793

It’s impossible to tell from my position when the Rt 55 traffic saw their green signals, but they started moving 3.5 s from the time the signal in our direction turned red. I’d previously measured that at 1.333 s, so NYSDOT seems to have lengthen the all-red overlap.

T=14.433 – Cross traffic on Rt 55 fills the intersection:

Burnett Blvd at Rt 55 2016-04-27 - detour timing - 0939
Burnett Blvd at Rt 55 2016-04-27 – detour timing – 0939

That’s 10.3 s from the Burnett signal turning yellow, which usually happens when we’re just barely into the intersection; we need at least 15 s to reach the far side of all six lanes. Obviously, cross traffic on Rt 55 must notice that we haven’t cleared the intersection when their signals turn green and avoid running over us; that’s legally required, but it’s obvious NYSDOT (still) isn’t helping bicyclists get across the intersection.

The NYSDOT regional office behind my right shoulder has a bike rack. We’ve never seen any bikes in it, so it’s equally obvious NYSDOT doesn’t practice dogfooding. I’ve never been able to invite / persuade / shame anyone from NYSDOT to ride along with us, so they can show me why their design really does “mak[e] our highway systems safe and functional for all users“.