POLL: Would You Support a Crackdown on Intersection Blocking?
Photo credit: Horia Varlan, Creative Commons/Flickr.
Gridlocks suck.
Getting stuck in the middle of an intersection when the traffic light turns red is embarrassing, and waiting for that car to move while you have a green light is annoying.
The City of Boston in the last couple of weeks has begun cracking down on cars blocking intersections, issuing a whole lot of $150 fines in the process.
‘Villens have their own identity in a lot of ways, but their driving habits seem distinctly deriven from the Boston model (with maybe a little bit more illegal reversing). The city is a lot smaller than Boston, but we have our fair share of similarly clogged intersections, be it at the intersection of Broadway and McGrath or at points near the Cambridge border in West Somerville.
Would you like to see the Somerville Police start handing out tickets to cars stuck in the middle of intersections as well?
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When you think about it, by putting enough space between you and the person in front of you, avoiding getting stuck at an intersection would be easier. It’s such a nasty driving habit that really needs to be broken.
This is also the reason why the head-out parking system in Union Square has experienced difficulty. Drivers are too close to one another & someone trying to back into a parking spot causes gridlock.
I got a kick out of the poll’s “No” option. “It’s hard to really put the blame on a car that gets stuck in the middle of a traffic pattern”. Well, with a mixture of common sense and courtesy it’s easy. When the traffic is heavy enough and it looks like you may get caught in the middle of an intersection, DON’T proceed. Stop as if YOU have the red light. If traffic begins to move and you can move on without blocking, then move on. If everyone practiced this, traffic jams would be at a minimum. If it works in other states, it can here too. Maybe enforcement with a hefty fine would be encouragement enough for those without common sense and/or courtesy.