Right-of-way questions from Poulsbo have come in from Dick Galleher and Monica Berninghaus.
Galleher says, “Let’s go down to the three-street intersection of Front Street, Lindvig Way and Bond Road. Coming along on any of these and the light is red. There is no traffic. Can I make a right turn, as is legal in a normal intersection? There is no sign prohibiting such.”
Berninghaus wonders about Hamilton Court and First Avenue on the fringe of Poulsbo Place, where the mainline makes a 90-degree turn. Hamilton takes you into a football field.
“A lady coming along First Avenue (west) made a left turn into the ball fields and almost T-boned my car as I was traveling north on Hamilton into the ball fields,” Berninghaus said. “Apparently no one has a stop sign at either point once Hamilton and First Avenue intersect.
“There IS a stop sign coming the other way on Hamilton FROM the ball field south onto Hamilton.
“Is a stop sign missing from either of the other corners?”
lsbo Intersections Turn Up Tough Queries
By Travis Baker | Road Warrior
March 3, 2006
Right-of-way questions from Poulsbo have come in from Dick Galleher and Monica Berninghaus.
Galleher says, “Let’s go down to the three-street intersection of Front Street, Lindvig Way and Bond Road. Coming along on any of these and the light is red. There is no traffic. Can I make a right turn, as is legal in a normal intersection? There is no sign prohibiting such.”
Berninghaus wonders about Hamilton Court and First Avenue on the fringe of Poulsbo Place, where the mainline makes a 90-degree turn. Hamilton takes you into a football field.
“A lady coming along First Avenue (west) made a left turn into the ball fields and almost T-boned my car as I was traveling north on Hamilton into the ball fields,” Berninghaus said. “Apparently no one has a stop sign at either point once Hamilton and First Avenue intersect.
“There IS a stop sign coming the other way on Hamilton FROM the ball field south onto Hamilton.
“Is a stop sign missing from either of the other corners?”
The out basket: Right turns on red are permitted on two of the three streets Galleher mentions. There is nowhere for a driver turning right to go for those on Lindvig. But one can turn right on the red light from Front to Bond and from Bond to Lindvig, providing, as always, that you come to a complete stop first and yield to any traffic that has a green light.
The Hamilton-First intersection is one of many locations in the county where the street turns and drivers can proceed without stopping. So First Avenue traffic wanting to go left to the ball field must yield to cars coming around the corner from Hamilton to First. Had the woman T-boned Berninghaus’s car, the woman would have gotten the ticket, Poulsbo Police Sgt. Bill Playter says.
The weird thing about that intersection is that the city street crew goofed up when they re-painted the directional arrows on the street. The right lane on Front Street is painted with a right turn arrow only instead of the old marking that was the straight and right turn arrow. Meaning you must turn right onto Bond Road. I assume like all the other drivers that you can go straight through the intersection in the right lane.
I travel through that intersection daily and every once in awhile a car is confused by the painting and trying to merge into the left lane as they don’t want to turn right onto Bond Road. It creates a hazard and of course makes the backup on Front Street even worse.
So hopefully they will paint the arrow correctly the next time they do the street striping/painting.