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MBTA bus in crash at Boston's worst intersection
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Comments
Worst intersection?
Just curious where that comes from in your headline, since it's not in the story you linked to.
I don't know this intersection, but have trouble imagining it is worse than Harvard Ave. and Comm. Ave. in Allston, or Harvard Ave. and Brighton Ave, or Packard's Corner, or Kenmore Square, or Leverett Circle ...
It's from personal experience
Over the past year or so, I've made quite a few trips through it on the way to/from Dorchester. By "worst," I was thinking in terms of the potential for really nasty accidents. You've got two wide, fast roads that come together at a Y, with a single stop sign. There's a feeling of impending disaster you just don't get at, say, Leverett Circle, because you don't have to worry about somebody plowing into you at 30 or 40 mph.
I never noticed that
I never noticed that intersection to be too bad. Now Gallivan and Dot Ave., on the other hand....
Sure enough ...
The Globe's now reporting that it's looking like the minivan ran that one stop sign.
Why isn't this an all-way stop?
If the two streets are both busy this would be an appropriate change to make.
Gallivan-Morton very high traffic
Gallivan Blvd and the main part of Morton Street is a major thoroughfare. The spur of Morton St is much less so.
A four-way stop would be a nightmare for traffic flow.
A light, even flashing yellow for the main and red for others, would be an improvement.
The main problem is driver inattention and ignorance.
Stop signs are optional for many and it's not clear-cut who has the right of way if you're not familiar with the intersection.
" A four-way stop would be a
" A four-way stop would be a nightmare for traffic flow."
Thats why the roundabout was invented! They come in oval shapes too.
And even if not possible, I think safety should come way before traffic flow, in the priority list.
Triangular rotaries, even
You know, the neighborhood between Savin Hill and Meetinghouse Hill with Hancock and Pleasant and whateverelse, known as "over where those triangular rotaries are."
Allston intersections
While all those Allston intersections could use some help -- specifically, protected left signals would do wonders on Harvard Ave -- none of them are anywhere close to the worst intersection in town. I'll grant you Kenmore Square, though, especially heading outbound.
Having gone through all the
Having gone through all the intersections you listed and the Gallivan-Morton intersection, the one in Dot is worse. It's one of those intersections where your first time through at 40 MPH can be a bit fear inducing.
State in the middle of redesigning the intersecction
Dorchester Reporter story from January on the badly needed redesign.
The driver of the minivan is saying
She DID stop, and the bus ran the stop sign... (as seen on WBZ News)
http://wbztv.com/local/mbta.bus.crash.2.1724297.html
Should be easy to verify
There's only one stop sign there, right? Morton northbound. Was the bus coming from that way, or was she?
You'd think
This one will no doubt be easier since there's a bus involved and it's become a high-profile case, but when my car got totaled at an intersection (Quincy and Ceylon Sts.) where I had no stop sign and the other person did, it took forfuckever for the other guy's insurance company to admit he'd run a stop sign and I didn't have one, since they kept telling me and my insurance company that "both of you are saying the other person ran a sign."
But to answer your question
The 21 and 26 stay on the main road (Gallivan, which changes to Morton, all of which is route 203), and no buses drive on the smaller branch of Morton Street with the stop sign. Which AFAIK means the non-bus vehicle didn't yield.
(However, the bus also could have done an asshole move. I think we've all pulled in front of or around pulled-over buses with their right blinker still on, only to have the bus move forward with the blinker still on and without looking whatsoever.)
and if the bus hits you doing
and if the bus hits you doing such a maneuver, the police will cite you. Because, well, it's a bus.