Michigan is great, but can we do something about those traffic lights?
Earlier this summer, I moved to Ann Arbor from Oregon. Oregonians are a proud people. We like our beer (we have more microbreweries per capita than any other state). We started the bottle deposit (which Michigan took a nickel further, which is great), and we embraced Michigan's own Dr. Jack Kevorkian and became the second place in the world to legalize doctor-assisted suicide (Switzerland was the first, and Washington was the only state to follow suit). When I told my friends and family I was moving to Michigan, the only question they could muster was, "Why? What's in Michigan?" As it turns out, Michigan and Oregon have more in common than most would think. I graduated from the University of Oregon. Eugene, Ore., and Ann Arbor not only look very similar in terms of vegetation and architecture, they even have the same liberal college town feel. Although we (the Ducks) embarrassed the Wolverines the game after your infamous loss to Appalachian State, we even share a common hatred of Ohio State after they beat us in last year's Rose Bowl. In short, I love Michigan. I love the food, the beer (which is really saying something), the laid-back atmosphere, and come winter, I will love the cold.
With that being said, there is one aspect of Michigander life that I can't forgive: your traffic laws. First of all, the roads here are terrible. I understand the state is in a bit of a financial crises, so I'm willing to forgive pot-holed, uneven roads. This next complaint I realize is a bit hypocritical as I realize it exists all over the states. I know every summer brings a herd of orange cones as road construction and repair sites pop up on highways all across America. I drove three quarters of the length of the country in three days, so I've seen my fair share of such sites. Upon entering Michigan, and specifically Ann Arbor, the number of construction sites doubled.
They aren't just minor waits either. The entire southern part of the town is a giant detour thanks to the massive scar on West Stadium Drive. State Street was closed in downtown, making transit to Kerrytown much more difficult. The repaving on Geddes Avenue has completely disrupted bus routes, and even student foot traffic. I realize in the end these projects will be beneficial, but I can't help but wonder if they could have been planned better to minimize traffic disruptions. My coworker has just informed me that the Michigan state tree is the traffic cone. I take from the joke that I'm not the first person to notice. My next grievance I will word as a question. Why do Michiganders need a right turn light? I can say why they don't. If you see a "no turn on red" sign, it's obvious: don’t turn. If you don't see that sign, turn away and love it. No right turn light necessary. I don't need to know that my right turn is protected. The green light next to it already told me that. What's the harm then, if it's just a random redundancy?
The problem is that Michiganders seem divided over whether or not they can turn on a red right turn light. I always turn. I'm 99 percent positive I can. About half of people don't seem to know this and wait. I repeatedly sit two or three cars back, crippled by a norm that I call complaint 3 1/2: never honk your horn in Michigan - you never know whom you'll anger. The existence of a right turn light makes Michiganders wait when they wouldn’t have waited otherwise. My final complaint is the one dearest to my heart: traffic lights. Yes, I hate traffic lights. I've been to 47 of the 48 continental states and have driven through the heart of almost every metropolitan city. I can say with absolute certainty that Ann Arbor's (and Ypsilanti's) traffic lights are the worst I have ever seen. There are two ways to do traffic lights. You can get traffic sensors. I realize this is expensive, so I'll move on.
The other alternative is to time your lights. Most of the time Ann Arbor doesn't do this. How many lights you'll miss is a random crapshoot. I don't like this. What's worst is when they are timed, they're timed exactly wrong. In Eugene, you can speed up to 30 MPH out of a light, then slow down to 25, and enter the intersection precisely as the light turns green and continue this for blocks and blocks. I realize it isn't safe, but it's fun. In Ann Arbor, I repeatedly miss light after light. I've started counting. My record is eight. I missed eight consecutive lights in a row, but it's worth noting that I repeatedly get to four or five. I am a calm driver, but I repeatedly sit at lights or traffic sights and fume and vow to write a letter to the editor or something. So here it is: my complaint is time. Time is money. Time is a resource. I've only been here a month, and I've had hours of my time needlessly wasted. Because of poor planning and foresight, Michigan, and especially Ann Arbor, is wasting one of the most precious resources it has: its people's time. Elijah Charles Hydes (Ely to his friends) was born and raised in rural Eastern Oregon. After graduating from the University of Oregon in the spring of 2008 with a B.S. in biochemistry, he joined the Peace Corps and lived in Niger, West Africa, for 18 months as a millet farmer. He currently works and lives in Ann Arbor.
Comments
Mike Garrahan
Fri, Sep 24, 2010 : 1:01 p.m.
My pet peeve is Huron Street downtown. 1st St through 5th Ave change together, and Division St and State St change together, but Division and 5th are consistently opposite at Huron.
Snarf Oscar Boondoggle
Wed, Aug 18, 2010 : 1:05 a.m.
about the blinkin right-trn lights red/green... at some intersections the opposoing traffic has a green left turn light, which, if ocmbined with unconttrolld right turns from the opposithe direction, woeuld create a crash scenario as two vehicles try to enter the same lane at the same time from two diff directions.
LAEL
Tue, Aug 3, 2010 : 9:24 a.m.
Other Michigan areas, like Canton, use blinking red lights for left turn lanes and then finish out the cycle with a green left turn arrow. That way left turners can turn when there's a break in the traffic, but if there is no break then at least they are guaranteed a chance to turn at the of the cycle. I much prefer that over the left-turn first system in A2, which forces left turners to wait even if there is no oncoming traffic. And some intersections even give the left-turn signal a turn even when there are no left turners, thus forcing the oncoming traffic to wait and waste gas for nothing.
ypsicat
Sat, Jul 31, 2010 : 10:28 p.m.
Thanks for writing this, the comments were very illuminating for me. In the (Michigan) city I grew up in, if you drove at the posted speed you could get to where you were going with very little stopping and fuming and wasting of gas. During my last 30 or so years in this county hardly a day has gone by where I haven't puzzled about this vexation. But we haven't always had so many left turn arrows, so I don't think that's entirely the explanation. The old excuse was that it was a 1970s era computer that controlled the traffic signals but I believe that's been gone for some time now.
MG
Wed, Jul 28, 2010 : 2:52 p.m.
Lots of good comments here. Big B is correct that the downtown streets are a pleasure to drive, in addition to walking of course. And yes, sensor lights are an abomination. Nothing beats having 50 cars stop in either direction because someone happens to be pulling out of a sub shop! Can we not just time those lights as well? The biggest oddity, however, has to be the "Michigan Left" boulevard turn. That is one aspect of living in Michigan that I really do not miss. It can work beautifully on some extremely heavily used roadways (e.g. Woodward Ave in Detroit) but the vast majority of intersections on roads with Michigan Lefts could just as easily manage left turns on a straight green without the goofy turnarounds. The idea of going through an intersection twice just to take a left is just silly.
Big B
Wed, Jul 28, 2010 : 1:25 p.m.
Ahhh yes. Welcome to the heavy handed traffic signals of Ann Arbor. Left arrow, right arrow, straight arrow, angled arrow... it seems we do love our arrows. I just got back from Oregon actually and marveled at the public transit and smooth operation of traffic through the fine city of Portland. Hardly a honk was observed as drivers, bikers and pedestrians smoothly navigated the urban terrain. Here's a key difference you may not have observed yet. Large cities like Portland, with a decent urban plan, have made good use of the efficiency gained by having alternating one-way streets in their core areas. This allows lights to be nicely timed because all traffic on the streets are moving in predictable directions and no one is waiting to turning left in front of oncoming traffic. Here, we don't have much of that. So timing lights in one direction is brutal to those going the opposite way. However, if you hop on to Division heading north through downtown or Fifth Ave. heading south, our two key one-way streets, you'll find that a cool 30mph and a little lane changing craftiness will get you right through all the lights. One bright spot, you are allowed to turn left on red onto a one-way street, even if you're on a two-way street. Sadly this does not apply if you have a red arrow or red light in your left-hand land. Welcome to Michigan.
Independent_Thinker
Wed, Jul 28, 2010 : 9:32 a.m.
Welcome to Michigan. This "problem" is not a Michigan thing, it's an Ann Arbor thing. As a native Michigander I can tell you that you will encounter this in Ann Arbor and Detroit, the rest of Michigan uses common sense traffic lights that leave both right and left turns at lights up to the responisble individual. For the most part you can turn right at most lights and you get a blinking red to turn left at your own discretion. This is what you get in a far left city where the government wants to completely direct/control your every move up to and including how you drive for the supposed "good" of the "collective". What ends up happening instead is inefficiency in a city that is already full of horrible drivers.
PittsfieldTwp
Tue, Jul 27, 2010 : 10:59 a.m.
I would like to hear from someone qualified to answer.. Is it even possible to co-ordinate or "time" traffic lights that also have left turn signals? To me that seems impossible. The only places where I have driven with timed signals are big city downtown stretches with no left turn signals. With turn signals, its not just ones-side-on, one-side-off.
theodynus
Tue, Jul 27, 2010 : 9:21 a.m.
The lights are coordinated...they're just not coordinated in such a way that cars get to move freely. It's deliberately designed to keep traffic speeds down and manage the system at the macro level. ie, spreading the load across the entire road network. It feels worse at an individual level (which is part of why roundabouts are nice...they keep traffic moving) but works better overall. Life is hard.
annarbor1245
Mon, Jul 26, 2010 : 9:04 p.m.
I agree 100% with your observations and share your frustrations with this towns traffic lights. The amount of time and gas wasted on stopping at nearly every traffic light is noticeably worse then anywhere else I have lived or traveled to. It seems like the city invested in sensors on minor streets and turn lanes, but installed them without any thought or intelligence. A single car or pedestrian frequently stops oncoming traffic of several cars making any coordination of traffic lights nearly impossible. There are several places where the lights are so badly coordinated on main roads that during rush hour only few cars can pass between two intersections causing huge backups (examples: W Washtenaw Ave near hwy 23 exits or Scio Church between Maple and Oak Valley Dr). Driving in this town is very frustrating but unfortunately it seems that most find the situation adequate and are willing to spend half of their trips waiting on the red light. Luckily we have a great NPR station.
Tony Livingston
Mon, Jul 26, 2010 : 8:29 p.m.
Yes, the traffic light system is madening. Driving around Ann Arbor means spending a lot of time at red lights with no one moving in any direction. Part of it is the insistance on giving every intersectin its very own left turn lane complete with a green arrow light. We can't be trusted to know how to yield and turn with the traffic going straight. This wastes tremendous amounts of time and gasoline because most intersections really only need left turn lanes during rush hour.
Wolverine3660
Mon, Jul 26, 2010 : 4:32 p.m.
Welcome to Ann Arbor, Elijah. I was a Duck for a year a while back, ran on Billy Dellinger's team on Hayward field. Am a Prefontaine fan.
AlfaElan
Mon, Jul 26, 2010 : 3:48 p.m.
I remember reading an article on this a number of years ago when the Ann Arbor News was around. It seems some of the lights are controlled by the city and some by the state and the two systems don't talk to each other so they can't be timed. Sucks horribly, but then my commute stays in Pittsfield township so I just get to curse at the demand driven lights on Ellsworth that end up going red because someone wants to leave the sub just as the traffic flow reached the light.
PittsfieldTwp
Mon, Jul 26, 2010 : 2:35 p.m.
As a person who has also moved here from the West Coast let me offer some advise: Don't complain about your new community to the natives, at least not for a year. You will have a much easier time adjusting and making friends if you publically withold judgement. You will also find in time their are logical reasons for the differences (green arrow means go ahead turn without stopping even though the through light is red), and other things are still a mystery (why do we hang traffic lights in the middle of the intersection making them hard to see when you are waiting up front? Cost?) I learned this when I lived on the west coast where many people moved to from other states such as Michigan. They constantly complained and compared what they saw with where they came from. It was bothersome. I remembered this when I moved here and the adjustment was easier I believe because I let go of comparisons and embraced where I now live.