This road is NOT three lanes wide and was NEVER intended to be. Please ignore this poster and if anything, please repaint lane markings to indicate two travel lanes to deter the sort of aggressive driving (like people creating a third lane) that makes this intersection so dangerous. Thank you.

There are no lanes painted presently. There's no indication how many lanes it's supposed to be, and about half the time I drive here, it's used as three. There's no aggression involved. There's no need for the judgmental and condescending attitude. This is a purely logistical issue.

Either way, regardless of how many lanes are intended to be here, the lanes need to be painted to avoid this ambiguity.

PS. The road is safely wide enough for three lanes.

Three lanes will help the traffic flow. Why would we not want the best for all drivers

Because drivers arent the only people.

Traffic Acknowledged

SGT Charles Hartnett assigned this issue to SGT Charles Hartnett

This area is not designated for three lanes.

DOT guidelines include recommended safe traffic lane width. These guidelines take into account more than whether a vehicle can squeeze through. They also have to consider whether it is SAFE, not only for vehicles, but also for pedestrians, cyclists, and others. That is why, as the Sgt points out, it is not three lanes there, never will be, and never should be. It is not safe. Just because you can fit a car there doesn't change that. This discussion is an interesting insight into the minds of unsafe dirvers who think that every time there is a patch of available pavement, they get to make their own lane to pass everyone else who is behaving in an orderly fashion, ultimately contributing to congestion and endangering everyone around them.

In light of this conversation, could the lanes be painted in to show that there are definitely only two lanes? This would provide guidance to drivers to keep the safety of the intersection by remaining within the two lanes instead of making three.

You must contact the Traffic Commission to request that lanes be painted. You can be placed on the next agenda by calling (781) 391-6409.

The point of my creating this issue was to eliminate ambiguity for the public, to eliminate safety risk (especially in the reckless and aggressive form of road rage), and to put this point of contention to rest once and for all. For the record, I'm not a city planner or anything of the sort. I'm an average driver going about average business on the roads. This patch of road has NEVER been painted as long as I've been driving in the area, which has been over a decade. I did not attempt to choose to make it three lanes for others to follow my ideal example. I simply described a traffic pattern that I have seen form organically in this area minus the guidance of painted lanes that made logical sense at the time.

Both patterns seemed to have worked well and safely from my limited perspective as a driver occasionally passing through. When three lanes have existed, I have participated in this pattern safely and without incident (no squeezing anywhere required!). When two lanes have existed, I have participated in this pattern safely and without incident (except for when people are using both lanes to go straight through the intersection into the single lane ahead).

Either way, the path of least resistance given the existing active patterns is going to be the safest choice, whether it aligns with original designer intent or not. Attempting to force people already using the area as three lanes to use them as two by blocking the "third lane" with one's own vehicle would be the unsafe, aggressive choice, and incredibly irresponsible.

Further, it should be blatantly obvious that even safe drivers will make decisions ad hoc, when official, authoritative intent is unknown, that other drivers won't agree with. It should be noted that when this section has been used as three lanes from my own experience, it's happened by vehicles naturally lining up next to each other at the red light in an orderly fashion, and not aggressively or irresponsibly. Not once have I ever experienced an increase in congestion nor anyone becoming endangered at any time as a result of this minor issue. To jump to such catastrophic conclusions about this and make such wild accusations of others is inflammatory.

When the average person drives on public roads, they don't carry a ruler around with them to precisely measure their spacing with the vehicle next to them compared to DOT guidelines. They do what feels natural and safe, on average. These things just happen on their own absent authoritative guidance, without reckless intent or behavior on the part of anyone involved. Until robots with perfect precision, perfect knowledge of every design aspect everywhere, and perfect decision-making capabilities drive all of our cars for us, these kinds of things will continue to innocently happen.

Thank you to the Sgt for the clarification of the intended design for this section of road. I've left a message with a short summary of the issue at the number provided.