After numerous accidents at a Town of Southport intersection that have occurred over the past several years, Sheriff Chris Moss, County Legislator Rodney J. Strange and the Southport Town Board asked for a Intersection Safety Study by the New York State Department of Transportation.
The intersection at State Routes 328 and 14 have seen many accident that resulted in property damage, personal injury and deaths.
The state completed the study and instituted changes in early September the most notable change is allowing only left turns on a green arrow.
Excerpts from a letter from Martin Butler, PE Regional Traffic Engineer for NYSDOT Region 6 outlining the changes
“Our accident analysis revealed a pastern of mainline left turning vehicles not yielding to oncoming through traffic. To solve this problem, the signal operation was changed from a permissive/protected left turn phasing to a protected left turn phase only. The phase change was made in the field on September 10th. Mainline left turning traffic will now only be allowed to turn during a protected phase (left green arrow). Prior to this change, traffic would have a green arrow at the beginning of the phase, then still be allowed to turn left permissively (green ball) after the green arrow went away. A capacity analysis was completed to identify the impacts of the change. Minor degration to the intersection capacity is calculated by this change but an acceptable level of services remains.”
“To achieve this desired operation, our signal crew had to make minor altercations to the signal heads and after looking over the intersection we decided to replace the entire overhead span.”
“Other safety enhancements were also made to the signals including reflective back plates on all the signal heads and supplemental signal heads located to the side on the signal poles. Additionally, some overhead signs were removed to minimize driver confusion.”