“They must be kidding” was my thought when I first laid eyes on this new symbol in the middle of the right-hand travel lane of Albany’s Ellsworth Street downtown. But they’re not. Kidding, that is.
“They must be kidding” was my thought when I first laid eyes on this new symbol in the middle of the right-hand travel lane of Albany’s Ellsworth Street downtown. But they’re not. Kidding, that is.
A reader, Larry Falk, was wondering last week why ODOT was painting crosswalks on Lyon and Ellsworth even though both legs of the downtown Albany couplet of Highway 20 will be repaved next month. Evidently it was a mistake.
Lane closures that caused unusual traffic slowdowns on Albany’s downtown Highway 20 couplet Wednesday should be a thing of the past, for this year anyway.
This is where Independence Highway runs into U.S. 20, the Albany Corvallis Highway. It’s a tricky place for making left turns on to 20, toward Albany, as one of these trucks is waiting to do.
The official name, I think, is sidewalk extensions. But you can also call them bulbouts. They’ve been a favorite of street planners for years, and Albany is getting a bunch more as part of the CARA streetscape project that’s going to start in June.
What’s the deal with the Hill Street traffic signal on Pacific Boulevard? Sometimes this signal on one of Albany’s busiest streets seems to delight in teasing drivers by giving them a green light for only a few seconds at a time. And when traffic is heavy, it may take three or more phases to get through.
ODOT has announced more than $8 million in projects to improve safety on the Albany-Corvallis Highway, mostly on the Corvallis end. But the hazards at the junction of Highway 20 with Independence Highway remain unaddressed and unresolved.
Roughly 10,000 drivers a day drive Highway 20 between Albany and Corvallis and back again, and most of them could recite all its hazards. But the state is sponsoring a safety study anyway. The question is whether anything will be done when this study is complete.
“We ought to do something about Highway 20.” I’ve heard words to that effect for more than 30 years. But nothing significant has been done.
A traffic change: Dotted line turns solid
ODOT has followed through on changing an important lane marking on Ellsworth Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues. Now let’s see if Albany drivers get the hint.
Tags: Albany downtown, Albany traffic, Ellsworth Street, Highway 20, highway lane markings, ODOT, Oregon highways, solid white line, traffic control change