Bloglander

I was turning left from Lincoln onto Main (the corner where the downtown
library is), heading toward the Monroe Street Bridge today, and had to stop
suddenly for a young woman crossing the street on a bicycle with her dog on
the crosswalk. She was very irate with me, let out some expletives and
pointed to the "walk" signal. Okay. I can understand her frustration.
Actually I've had similar experiences as a pedestrian and bicyclist with
that crosswalk, though I didn't get all bent out of shape about it. Thing
is, this is a very confusing signal arrangement. It isn't just a hard left
turn, it's more of a curve, and when the green light is on, people aren't
slowing down as much for the turn. On top of that, the "walk" signal and
green light are on simultaneously! There's no oncoming traffic to yield to,
so the green light is effectively like a green arrow, and when left
pointing green arrows are on, "walk" signals are usually off. So when these
few people had to stop abruptly for me in the crosswalk, I can see how they
were misled into doing that. I think the traffic signals may need a little
adjustment at that intersection.