My most recent description of not quite getting killed in front of the NYS DOT Region 8 office evidently did some good. Although I wasn’t informed directly, this happened:

The minimum green time was increased to 10 seconds.

Which is five more seconds more than before, allowing us to get nearly all the way through the intersection before crossing traffic on Rt 55 gets a green light.

As before, the numbers are video frames at 60 fps.

T=0.0 – Burnett signal goes green:

Burnett – New signal timing – 0101 – 2018-09-30

T=2.5 – The trailer ahead of us starts and we’re rolling:

Burnett – New signal timing – 0251 – 2018-09-30

T=8.0 – We reach the Burnett crosswalk. Note the car beside us isn’t making much headway, either:

Burnett – New signal timing – 0581 – 2018-09-30

T=11.93 –  Burnett signal goes yellow overhead, so the green phase lasted 12 seconds:

Burnett – New signal timing – 0817 – 2018-09-30

T=16.16 – Rt 55 signal remains red, but will change within a second:

Burnett – New signal timing – 1071 – 2018-09-30

Seen from the rear view camera, the Rt 55 signal went green while we were still in the intersection:

Burnett – New signal timing – 16 s – crossing green – 2018-09-30

You’ll note the cars on Rt 55 behind us weren’t visible three seconds earlier, so, as far as they can tell, we’re running the red.

Fortunately, we’re almost where we need to be:

Burnett – New signal timing – 22 s – traffic – 2018-09-30

The timing still isn’t safe, but after three years, five more seconds counts for a lot!

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

T=4.133 – Signals turn yellow:

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

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

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

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

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“.

We ride through the intersection at the Rt 55 end of Burnett Blvd a lot, because it’s the only route between Raymond Avenue and the Dutchess Rail Trail. Previous posts have documented the signal timing, but this sequence shows the situation we’ve feared from the beginning… cross traffic not stopping because we are in the intersection with an opposing green light.

I’m towing a trailer with three bags of groceries.

The sequence numbers indicate the frame at 60 f/s.

T +0.000 = our signal just turned green:

Burnett at Rt 55 2015-12-14 – 0096 – Green

T +1.250 s = the drivers ahead of us release their brakes and begin rolling:

Burnett at Rt 55 2015-12-14 – 0171 – Green start

T +2.400 s = we begin rolling:

Burnett at Rt 55 2015-12-14 – 0240 – Green rolling

It’s worth noting that we cannot start any earlier, unless you regard jumping the green and passing cars at an intersection as Good Practices, which we don’t.

T +7.217 s = the yellow signal goes on in our direction:

Burnett at Rt 55 2015-12-14 – 0529 – Yellow

That’s six whole seconds from the time the cars started rolling and 4.8 s from the time we started.

Notice the white car to our right that’s stopped in the leftmost eastbound lane of Rt 55.

T +12.100 s = our signal turns red:

Burnett at Rt 55 2015-12-14 – 0822 – Red

I’ve reached the middle of the intersection, Mary’s about centered on the three eastbound lanes of Rt 55.

T +13.333 s = the opposing signal turns green:

Burnett at Rt 55 2015-12-14 – 0895 – Opp Green

Traffic in both directions of Rt 55 can now begin moving, but the white car remains stopped; it’s almost directly behind me in the leftmost lane. Because Mary is following the curved line guide lines, she’s just entering the rightmost lane. What you can’t see is a black car approaching from behind her that didn’t have to stop.

T +20.950 s = the car in the right lane that didn’t have to stop passes me:

Burnett at Rt 55 2015-12-14 – 1353 – First car

I’m 140 feet from the stop line (figured with the distance calculator):

Burnett at Rt 55 – Intersection distance

At 40 mph = 60 ft/s, that car passed the stop line 2.3 s earlier, at T +18.7 s, when I was still crossing the right lane.

It’s entirely likely that the driver didn’t see either of us while approaching the intersection, because he (let’s assume a he for the sake of discussion) had a green light nearly 5 s = 300 ft before reaching the stop line. Unless he’s paying more attention than most drivers, he was intent on the signal to judge whether he must slow down; for the last 7.3 s he’s known that the intersection is clear, because nobody else should be in the intersection against his green signal.

T +24.667 s = The white car in the left lane passes Mary:

Burnett at Rt 55 2015-12-14 – 1576 – Second car

All I’m asking NYSDOT to do is lengthen the signal timing so we’re not caught in the middle of the intersection by opposing traffic with a green signal. Adding a few seconds onto the yellow and minimum cycle time doesn’t seem unreasonable, but it’s been six months since I reported the problem with no action; I’ve pinged their Bicycle & Pedestrian coordinator several times with no response.

If their engineers are “studying” the situation, it’s not producing any visible results; they haven’t asked me for any additional data.

I Am Not A Lawyer, but I think my collection of photos should provide sufficient evidence to convince a jury that NYSDOT is totally liable for any bicycling injuries at that intersection, based on the inability of cyclists to meet the signal timing. I really don’t want to find out if I’m right…

Just in case you think reporting a problem to NYSDOT will actually produce any action:

Burnett at Rt 55 2015-11-08 – Yellow 5 s after green

Apparently, NYSDOT’s bicycle safety criteria allow greenlighting opposing vehicles onto bicyclists in the middle of intersections, so there’s no particular urgency to fix this non-problem.

They’ve been “studying” that situation, without contacting me for any further information, since July, so you can decide how much they’ve accomplished thus far. I know NYSDOT employees get offended when you call them liars to their face, but they have never, ever produced any evidence showing that I’m wrong.

Yeah, call me a cynic.

Adapted from an email to NYSDOT (hvtmc@dot.state.ny.us):

The minimum green and yellow times on the signals from Burnett Blvd to Rt 55 are too short for bicycle traffic making a left turn across six traffic lanes.

The pictures show key points from our ride on 2015-07-10, returning from the Balloon Festival in Poughkeepsie. We took the DCRT around Poughkeepsie, went through Arlington to Rt 376 at Collegeview, then took Rt 376 Red Oaks Mill.

The image sequence numbers identify frames extracted from video files. The front camera (a Sony HDR-AS30V) runs at 60 fps and the rear camera (a Cycliq Fly6) at 30 fps, so you can directly calculate the time between frames. The Fly6 timestamp is one hour ahead, for reasons I don’t quite understand.

The red signals are turning off and the greens haven’t lit up yet:

Burnett at Rt 55 Signal – Front 0196

One second later, the car and our bikes are starting to roll:

Burnett at Rt 55 Signal – Front 0260

Given the number of drivers blowing through red signals at full speed, devoting one second to watching for oncoming traffic seems prudent.

The yellow signals begin turning on seven seconds after the green:

Burnett at Rt 55 Signal – Front 0633

The car has reached the pedestrian ladder across Rt 55, but we’re still crossing the westbound lanes of traffic. Note that I’m lined up with the lane closest to our starting point on Burnett: this is a big intersection. We may not be the fastest riders on the road, but we’re not the slowest, either.

We’ve reached the far side of the intersection just under 16 seconds from the green:

Burnett at Rt 55 Signal – Front 1142

However, the opposing signals turned green while we’re still crossing the eastbound lanes of Rt 55, 15 seconds after the Burnett Blvd signals went green:

Burnett at Rt 55 Signal – Rear 0408

About 2.7 seconds later, cars have been accelerating across the intersection toward us as we reach the pedestrian ladder:

Burnett at Rt 55 Signal – Rear 0490

They started rolling immediately after their signal went green; waiting a second isn’t a universal practice.

Setting the minimum Burnett green to 12 seconds, the minimum yellow to 10 seconds, and the minimum delay from Burnett green to Rt 55 green to 30 seconds would help cyclists (just barely) reach the far side of the intersection before opposing traffic starts rolling.

As a bonus, adjusting the sensor amplifiers on Burnett to respond to bicycles and marking the coil locations on the pavement in both lanes would help us through the intersection during low-traffic-volume times, as our bikes seem unable to trip the signals.

We’re waiting at the end of Burnett Blvd, with the signal red and the clock at T = -0.17 seconds (photo numbers in 1/60 second frames):

RedRunner-0194

You can’t hear the car (barely visible) approaching on the far left, but we can.

T = 0.00 – We get a green light and the (more visible) car is accelerating hard:

RedRunner-0204

T = 1.00 – The car reaches the crosswalk:

RedRunner-0264

Note that the driver of the car to our right isn’t moving, either.

T = 2.03 – Car passes through intersection:

RedRunner-0326

The view from above, showing the distance between those two positions is 100 feet:

Burnett at Rt 55 – Distance along Rt 55

Do the math: 100 ft / 1.03 s = 97 ft/s = 66 mph.

There’s a reason we don’t start moving instantly when a traffic signal turns green.

T = 3.17 – We start moving, as does the car to our right, with our signal still green:

RedRunner-0394

T = 4.88 – Whoops, our signal turns yellow:

RedRunner-0497

T = 9.28 – Our signal turns red:

RedRunner-0761

The signal timing hasn’t changed over the years:

• Green = 4.88 s
• Yellow = 4.40 s

Elapsed time from green to red: 9.28 seconds. No problem if you’re a car, death if you’re a bike.

T = 10.42 – We’re pedaling hard in the intersection:

RedRunner-0829

The white car to our far right started moving into the intersection about the time we did. If you’re going to say we shouldn’t run the light, you gotta deal with cars first, OK?

Note the car approaching from the right on the far side of Rt 55. That’s a 40 mph zone, the driver sees a green light, and we’re still in the intersection.

T = 12.50 – We’ve been moving for 9.33 s, which puts Mary directly in the path of the oncoming car:

RedRunner-0954

T = 14.83 – The oncoming driver having spotted us and slowed down, we’re asymptotically approaching the right-hand lane of Rt 55, passing beyond the steel manhole cover:

RedRunner-1067

If you plunk “burnett signal” into the search box at the upper right, you’ll find plenty of previous incidents along these lines.

Despite bringing this hazard to their attention many times (“We appreciate and share your interest in making our highway systems safe and functional for all users.“), NYS DOT obviously doesn’t care.

If any of their employees commuted to their office building (which overlooks this very intersection), perhaps they would care, but they don’t: we have yet to see a bicycle in the DOT’s token bike rack.

DOT says they’re in favor of Complete Streets, but, seven years on, it’s just another day on the only route between Arlington and the Overocker Trailhead of the Dutchess County Rail Trail.

When we get to the end of Overocker Road, we occupy the entire left-and-straight lane, because we’re turning left onto Burnett Blvd and there’s no room for another vehicle beside us:

Burnett at Rt 55 – Right pass – 2017-05-23 – 1

I’m towing a trailer of groceries.

On Burnett Blvd, we take the left side of the right lane (marked for left-and-right turns), because we’re turning left onto Rt 55, don’t want to get right-hooked by right-on-red traffic, and will be on the right side of the right lane of Rt 55 when we’re through the turn.

Without turn signals, it’s not clear whether the car following us from Overocker will turn left or right, but the driver is snuggling up next to Mary:

Burnett at Rt 55 – Right pass – 2017-05-23 – 2

The driver’s window is sliding downward. Fortunately, we started moving before any comments were made. Perhaps he was going tell us we’re riding cool bikes?

Ah-ha! The driver is turning left and intending to pass me on the right while we’re in the intersection:

Burnett at Rt 55 – Right pass – 2017-05-23 – 3

Helmet mirror FTW!

I’m moving rightward across the turning lane to end up on the right side of the Rt 55 lane, while not riding across the steel manhole cover at the car’s front wheel:

Burnett at Rt 55 – Right pass – 2017-05-23 – 4

Mary doesn’t accelerate nearly as hard as I do; those pictures are one second apart.

I’m un-leaning from the turn into Rt 55, with the trailer still on my left and the driver accelerating toward me:

Burnett at Rt 55 – Right pass – 2017-05-23 – 5

A close pass, but not too bad:

Burnett at Rt 55 – Right pass – 2017-05-23 – 6

Most of the time, our rides aren’t this interesting, but I have plenty of examples showing how NYS DOT’s road designs ignore cyclists. The Burnett intersection signals still give us four seconds to clear the intersection.