Here’s Roadguy’s column from today’s paper. If you’ve read it elsewhere, please skip on down to the comments section and leave some thoughts. Thanks.

SWITCHING LANES IN TUNNEL DISCOURAGED BUT NOT ILLEGAL

Questions keep landing in Roadguy’s inbox, so let’s start with alert reader Mary, who wants to know about lines on the freeway:

Way back in my early days of learning to drive, I recall driving through the Lowry Hill Tunnel and making a lane change. My passenger gave me a worried look and said, “No passing in the tunnel — see the solid white lines?” Since then I’ve been keenly aware of it.

The last six months I’ve been driving through the tunnel daily, and without fail every time I’m going through at least one car is changing lanes. Is this lawful? Obviously it’s a bad idea, as a traffic accident would cause [a] major headache. But there don’t seem to be signs reminding drivers that no passing is allowed, unless of course it is. … So, what’s the deal?

Mary’s instincts are good, says Maj. Kent O’Grady of the State Patrol. Changing lanes in the tunnel is indeed a bad idea, and that’s basically what a solid white line means — it’s used to “discourage” lane changing. However, there’s no statute covering such lines, O’Grady says, so a sign would be needed to make crossing solid lines an enforceable offense.

Next we have a question from alert reader Becky, who has been feeling a chill in the air:

I was wondering if you knew the logic to the bus shelter heat lamps. … [Early last week] on Nicollet Mall, I only saw one activated, but when I tried to activate two others, they wouldn’t turn on. Luckily it wasn’t too cold out last night, but waiting for the bus would have been a nicer experience with the heat lamps.

Roadguy couldn’t quite unravel Becky’s specific mystery, but he learned a few things about the heat lamps.

First, most of the bus shelter lamps around town are run by Metro Transit, and spokesman Bob Gibbons said they’re designed to work only when the temperature is 45 degrees or lower. He said maintenance folks were checking on them last week to make sure they’re in working order for the winter.

Most of the ones along Nicollet Mall, on the other hand, are operated by the city of Minneapolis, which uses a system based on the calendar rather than temperature. Spokesman Matt Laible said they generally flip the switches for the lamps about Nov. 15.

(In a second e-mail, Becky reported that the lamps were working the next day, so perhaps the switch was flipped a bit early.)

Our last question is from, well, Roadguy himself.

On my drive to work downtown a few weeks ago, I received an unexpected bonus: One of the “No Turn on Red” signs was missing. This shaved about 45 seconds off my commute from south Minneapolis, though I tried not to act too visibly excited as I didn’t want to become a suspect in the sign’s disappearance.

I spoke with Laible about it, and he told me that the sign was officially (and legally) removed on Oct. 15. Since 2005, he said, Minneapolis has been evaluating its numerous signs forbidding turns on red, and a consultant deemed this one unnecessary.

The city considers such factors as visibility for drivers and whether an intersection gets a lot of pedestrian traffic. Minneapolis residents can request to have a “No Turn on Red” sign removed — or installed — by calling 311 or visiting www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/traffic/NTOR.asp.

I’d tell you where the sign on my commute used to hang, but I don’t want anyone asking that it be put back.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 11th, 2007 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Good to know, Main, WUWT?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.