8 replies to this topic

[johnfwd]

Last Friday afternoon around rush hour was a motorist's headache in downtown Fort Worth.  That semi-tractor trailer accident at 7th and Henderson.  Took me 20 minutes from leaving my office near Henderson and Lancaster to get out of downtown and head west to home.  I don't know why the police had to block off a number of intersections but I guess it was prudent.

 

Brings to mind this:  Downtown Fort Worth's street design works when there's no major traffic tie-up.  But I've had out-of-town visitors who complain that the one-way configuration is confusing.  Not sure what, or whether, anything should be done about it.

 

 

[george84]

All big cities have one way streets in downtown. It must be more efficient for urban centers or something, because its definitely the norm.

[roverone]

I just wish there was more effort put into a coordinated light timing system for downtown, particularly during rush hours.

 

Here in the modern times of inexpensive sensors, robust wireless connectivity, and the intelligence of near-autonomous vehicles, this seems like a problem easily solved.  The traffic flows could be detected and trended and anticipated, goals set, and flows optimized.

 

I don't know why this is not a common thing by now.

 

And I have to say along with this, I feel like when I was much younger, I had heard that the City of Fort Worth did have some kind of system of coordination of downtown intersections, but perhaps that was only monitoring.  For sure the level of technology just was not available then as it is today.

 

In modern times the intelligence of this seems little more than a university project, and the implementation just another example of internet-of-things.

 

Does anyone know if this is a problem with inertia, or stale vendors, or lack of investment?

[george84]

I agree. Not just downtown, but all over Fort Worth, I often find myself stopping at every intersection. The signals are very inefficient. 

[JBB]

Pretty small sample size, but I take 30 east to Cherry Street and use 7th going east to get on 35/121 every evening around 5:30 and the lights on Cherry and 7th all seem to be fairly well coordinated.  I might wait at one light on each of those streets and that doesn't seem bad at all.

[Austin55]

During Rush Hours there definitely seems to be a coordinated North/South run of greens, then they all get red and the East/West traffic goes. Outside of rush hour they just seem to cycle every 15 seconds or so, which makes it nice for pedestrians. 

[Volare]

The signal timing is a constant irritant to one council person in particular who often brings it up. I believe another study of it is underway right now.

[Doohickie]

I agree. Not just downtown, but all over Fort Worth, I often find myself stopping at every intersection. The signals are very inefficient. 

 

The only solution I've found is to live right next to the freeway. 

[Austin55]

Several streets have recently started giving pedestrians a head start, as described here. A few lights already had this for a while now (main and 4th and 3rd at Sundance Plaza have been doing it for about 2 years) Lamar, Taylor, Main, Weatherford and Belknap are doing it now along the entire lengths of the street. It might be going on with other streets as well but I haven't noticed. Commerce Street is the only one I've noticed that is not doing it.