Bike lane tweaks aim to improve flow in 102 Avenue and 125 Street area
New system includes lights for both the left and right lanes at the intersection
City engineers will monitor traffic flow in the Glenora and Oliver neighbourhoods as they look to refine its network of bike lanes in the area of 102 Avenue and 125 Street.
Traffic signal engineer Keith Muffly said the city looked at “some really out of the box solutions” to try and maximize vehicular and bicycle traffic through the neighbourhood in one of the high volume commuter traffic areas near the downtown core.
“We’ve updated a lot of the equipment at the site so we can do timing tweaks within a day if we see an issue or want to try something out,” Muffly said.
Muffly said that sometime in the next week they plan to set up monitoring cameras that will record video for 24 hours to get a better understanding of the traffic dynamics.
“We can review that video and track different things like driver behaviour, near misses and lane changes to get a feel of just how people are actually responding to the traffic signals,” he said.
When the bike lanes were originally installed there was a leftturn ban from 102 Avenue onto 125 Street and traffic measures included the installation of an overhead sign to warn eastbound left-turning motorists of cyclists approaching the intersection, installation of signs along the bike route to warn cyclists of left-turning vehicles potentially crossing their path, additional green pavement markings and barricades that narrow the receiving lanes on 125 Street to reduce the speed of vehicles arriving at the intersection.
The new system now includes traffic lights for both the left and right lanes at the intersection.
The left lane signal controls when drivers intending to turn left onto 125 Street from 102 Avenue can do so safely without coming into contact with westbound traffic, cyclists going in either direction in the bike lane, or pedestrians on the north side, the city said.
The right lane signal will help maintain efficient traffic flow overall through the High Street area.
The new traffic signals for this intersection will operate in the following order:
The eastbound left-turning lane will show a flashing green arrow and solid green light to tell drivers when it’s safe to turn left or proceed straight through, while the eastbound right lane has a solid green light.
When the eastbound lanes have a
We’ve updated a lot of the equipment at the site so we can do timing tweaks within a day if we see an issue or want to try something out.
solid green light, the south pedestrian crosswalk signal will flash to tell pedestrians it is safe to cross. All other directions will have a red light.
The eastbound left lane signal will change to amber then dual red (for both the turning signal and solid light) to stop all traffic in this lane, while the eastbound right lane and south crosswalk will continue to be green.
Westbound vehicles, cyclists in both directions of the bike lane, and the north pedestrian crosswalk will receive green lights overlapping with the eastbound right lane green light.
All lights for the east and west routes will change from amber and red lights to stop traffic. The red, amber and green lights for the northbound and southbound vehicles and pedestrian crossings will turn green.
The left lane is intended as both a turning lane and share-through lane.
Limiting through traffic to only the right at all times would have hampered traffic flow during peak hours.
To discourage drivers waiting on a red light in the left lane while the right lane remains green from doing a sudden lane change, there are solid double lines on the pavement and overhead signs near the intersection and in advance of it to warn drivers that lane changes are not permitted.
The design mirrors one in located in Leduc at 50 Avenue and 47 Street which was installed in 2015.