cptjeff t1_ix84c9b wrote on November 21, 2022 at 2:06 PM

That intersection will always be a clusterfuck as long as you have to wait at a light to get onto the 295 ramp. Hard to fix with that CSX bed there, but I'm sure a traffic engineer more creative than I can find a solution. Putting in 295 access from Benning and East Capitol WB would really take a lot of pressure off that intersection as well. When you take traffic from major streets and force them to go onto local roads to get to a major highway, this is kinda what you get. The fact that you cannot directly get onto 295 from the two largest roads in NE is one of the absolutely dumbest infrastructure decisions in a city fully of very dumb decisions.

Of course, the fact that both Benning and E Cap have very easy access to 295 from the EB side makes it pretty obvious that this was an intentional environmental racism thing from when they built 295. Should probably think about fixing that.

willsington t1_ix8bujs wrote on November 21, 2022 at 3:04 PM

Wow I live right down the street from this intersection and I've never really thought about how the 295 access points are easier from the eastbound direction.

cptjeff t1_ix8c7k8 wrote on November 21, 2022 at 3:06 PM

I live right off of East Capitol, so I think about it every time I have to go up Division to go over on Eastern or NHB to get to the BW Parkway or have to do the goddamned loopty loop around RFK (with bonus speed camera to rob people who live EotR and are forced to take that loop constantly!) to get on 295 South.

TrueBirch t1_ix8sape wrote on November 21, 2022 at 4:59 PM

Good points. I'm glad they at least added the right turn lane there not too long ago.

Gumburcules t1_ixal7la wrote on November 22, 2022 at 12:26 AM

>That intersection will always be a clusterfuck as long as you have to wait at a light to get onto the 295 ramp.

Honestly it wouldn't be so bad if assholes didn't block the box on every. single. light cycle.

The traffic design isn't amazing but the bigger problem is selfishness. Both at the intersection in the picture (where people jam themselves into the intersection against the light from an astounding three sides at once) and at the southbound turn where people getting off 295 south make it so only one or two people can make the turn onto the service road/on ramp each light cycle.

cptjeff t1_ixb13j5 wrote on November 22, 2022 at 2:27 AM

People block the box because getting into the box and beating the light cycle saves them about two minutes. There's simply way too much traffic volume shoved into not one, but two lights. The one thing I could think of doing is to make the ramp two lanes (which means fucking over that body shop, but they deserve it) and allow that right turn lane to bypass the light entirely. The left lane could be allowed to turn right into the outer lane with the light, but the inner lane would be continuous flow. You'd have to merge on the ramp, but that would eliminate any gaps in the flow of traffic on the ramp that the second light cycle causes.

Always expect people to behave in their own self interest. Any system that doesn't account for that will never succeed.