Left turns not enough of an issue to warrant arrow at signal on Route 222 in northern Berks, PennDOT says

Yahoo

03-03-2025

At 7:53 a.m. on a weekday in mid-January, a van sits in the left turn lane of Route 222 at Route 73 in Maidencreek Township as its driver waits for a gap in two lanes of oncoming traffic.
It doesn't come.
Only after the traffic light changes to yellow from green is the van able to complete the turn to go west on Route 73.
The driver of the pickup truck behind the van isn't as fortunate. The truck takes over the position vacated by the van and waits for the green light.
At precisely the moment the light changes from red, if not before, the truck driver accelerates, turning in front of both lanes of traffic.
An SUV that pulls up into the left lane about a minute later goes through the same sequence.
In the absence of a left-turn arrow signal on Route 222 at its intersection with Route 73, this is how one makes a left turn — usually one vehicle at a time.
Northern Berks Regional police and the Maidencreek Township supervisors asked PennDOT to include a left-turn lane when the intersection was redesigned as part of the Route 222 widening project, Police Chief James Keiser said.
But PennDOT engineers said a traffic study indicated a left-turn arrow, which would create an extended red light for traffic on the main line, wasn't warranted.
'I think the turning arrow is absolutely necessary,' Keiser said. 'I see it all the time. Not only is it one lane but two lanes that you have to cross. Commercial vehicles can't take off as quickly and often have to turn on the yellow or wait until it turns red.'
Nearly three years after completion of the Route 222 widening project that added lanes at the Route 73 intersection and roundabouts at two nearby intersections PennDOT engineers have reaffirmed their decision about the left-turn arrow.
Executives with Redner's Markets Inc., which has its headquarters and distribution center along Route 73 just west of Route 222, asked Berks County transportation planners in the fall to consider upgrading the intersection to include left-turn arrows on Route 222.
John Flickinger and Eric White addressed the Reading Area Transportation Study, a committee composed of appointed county and municipal elected officials and PennDOT representatives, at the group's November meeting.
The committee, helps PennDOT decide how to distribute state and federal transportation funding for highway, bridge and transit projects in Berks.
Flickinger, Redner's director of loss prevention and security, and White, director of marketing and communications, said they believe a dangerous condition exists not only for Redner's employees and truck drivers but the public.
As an example, Flickinger cited a crash on Sept. 11 between a turning pickup truck and an oncoming tractor-trailer that ruptured the 18-wheeler's saddlebag fuel tanks, spilling diesel and closing the intersection for hours.
White told the committee that in his daily commute he sees drivers trying to beat the light on northbound Route 222 while making the left onto westbound Route 73.
Flickinger said there are turning lanes allowing for turning movements from northbound Route 222 to westbound Route 73 as well as turning lanes from southbound 222 to eastbound Route 73. However, there are no arrows on the traffic light indicating turns for the northbound and southbound Route 222 approaches to Route 73 like there are for the Route 73 approaches to Route 222.
A Reading Eagle reporter observed traffic for one hour (7:45 to 8:45 a.m.) on a recent weekday.
At times, drivers who were likely familiar with the challenges in completing left turns would turn while the light was green despite oncoming traffic bearing down.
Others turned after the light changed to yellow, but that maneuver placed their safety in the hands of oncoming motorists, who just as often barreled through the intersection on yellow and even red.
At 8:18 a.m., an 18-wheel tanker truck that was sitting in the left lane had no opportunity to turn left throughout the red-to-green-to-yellow cycle because opposing traffic continued through the yellow signal. The driver completed the turn on red without incident.
A sedan behind the tanker truck assumed the rig's position and waited through another cycle, completing the turn by jumping the green signal.
It was also observed that opposing motorists occasionally delayed accelerating on green to allow a truck to turn left in front of them.
Heavy traffic volume at Routes 222 and 73 has prompted calls for a dedicated left-hand turn signal for traffic heading north on Route 222 and turning west on Route 73 at in Maidencreek Township. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
Despite the obvious challenges that were observed in completing the left turn, there was a conspicuous lack of vehicles stacked in left-turn lanes on Route 222. On only a few occasions were there more than one vehicle queued in the left, northbound turn lane.
There were also occasional gaps in traffic that allowed plenty of time for left turns.
State regulations require significantly more traffic conflict to justify left-turn signalization, which the state refers to as 'advance left turn phase' signalization.
In a December letter to Flickinger formally responding to Redner's Markets' concerns, Christopher Kufro, PennDOT District 5 executive, said two separate traffic and engineering studies — one preconstruction and one post-construction — concluded the left-turn arrow is not warranted.
The study encompasses left-turning volume, opposing through volume, crash data, roadway geometry, amount of green time, level of service, etc.
For a left-turn advance phase to be appropriate under the criteria set forth, a study needs to identify a crash pattern that would be corrected by the addition of an advance left-turn phase, he wrote.
'A correctable left turn pattern was not identified,' Kufro wrote.
The study also determines if adequate gaps in traffic are present for left-turning traffic. This is accomplished by calculating a conflict factor, which is a product of the left-turning volume and the opposing traffic.
'For this type of intersection, a conflict factor of 65,000 is required,' Kufro wrote. 'Our study identified a maximum conflict factor of 37,000, only a little more than half of what is required.'
He went on to say that implementation of an unwarranted left-turn phase has proved to have multiple negative effects on an intersection: increased vehicle delays due to increased/excessive vehicle queueing on the opposing road and an increase of red light running and rear-end crashes.