The in basket: When I read that Bremerton and the Navy had scraped together $200,000 to put a traffic signal at Burwell and State streets, the site of numerous complaints about danger to pedestrians going to and from Naval Base Bremerton, I wondered how the signal would handle left turns. It’s not much of a problem eastbound, where two lanes offer traffic a way around a left turner, but westbound there is only one lane and a driver waiting for oncoming traffic to clear before turning left holds up everyone behind him.
The out basket: Larry Matel of the city’s street engineers says, “This signal was warranted by the number of pedestrian crossings at this
location. Signal heads will be red-amber-green on all approaches, with
NO left-turn signal arrows. There simply are not enough left turning
cars at this location to warrant.”
The new signal, on flashing mode today, will go into full operation Jan. 21.
I don’t understand why they didn’t just build a simple pedestrian bridge. This signal seems like an awful idea. Burwell already has enough backups during shift changes.
Pedestrian bridges aren’t simple. They are costly, must be high enough for trucks to pass beneath, long enough to provide an easy ramped climb for the disabled (which requires a lot of expensive right of way), and unless crossing at street level were forbidden, most pedestrians still would cross the street rather than make the climb.