ODOT changes Perrysburg interchange to address safety
https://www.toledoblade.com/local/transportation/2023/07/26/odot-changes-perrysburg-interchange-address-safety/stories/20230726113Right turns on red signals are no longer allowed at two State Rt. 25 exit ramps from I-475/U.S. 23 in Perrysburg.
The Ohio Department of Transportation made the change early Wednesday morning citing crash problems with vehicles using the ramps to enter Route 25, also known as Dixie Highway.
In a video posted to ODOT’s local social media, Chris Waterfield, the district traffic engineer in Bowling Green, said the change was made because of rear-end collisions on the ramps.
When ODOT rebuilt the interchange into a “diverging diamond” configuration six years ago, Mr. Waterfield said, it expected a 33 percent reduction in crashes there, mainly because the layout eliminates left turns across opposing lanes. But the crash reduction has only been 10 percent, he said.
The way the ramps’ right-turn legs angle into the roadway means “you have to lean over the steering wheel, try and look over your left shoulder beyond the car or truck pillar, and look to the far side of the wall in the middle of the bridge to see oncoming traffic, and try to judge the gaps,” Mr. Waterfield said.
New signs forbidding turns on a red light at those two locations were put up Wednesday morning. ODOT said they would have yellow “Notice” placards affixed to call extra attention to the change, but as of late morning those placards were absent.
Amy Kincaid, a Perrysburg resident who bought gas at a nearby filling station Wednesday morning, said she doubts the new “No Turn on Red” signs will have much of an impact.
“I don’t think anybody was paying attention anyway – that’s what causes the accidents,” she said. “I don’t think they [the new signs] will change much. They should have put bigger signs up. Half of the people stop, and half of the people try to go.”
Another driver who declined to give her name said that while she was unhappy about the new rules, she also understood why the change was needed.
Turns onto Route 25 from the ramps’ left-turn legs remain legal if the signal is red, as long as motorists stop and then yield to any approaching traffic. The distance ramp motorists have to see to make those left turns is greater, and Mr. Waterfield said in a follow-up, email interview that those intersections “are not showing a high frequency of crashes at this time.”
The social-media statement described the “No Turn on Red” signs as a “short-term” solution for the problem with right turns on red. Mr. Waterfield said in the follow-up that any further changes will wait until any projects that result from a study of the I-475/U.S. 23 corridor through Perrysburg that is about to start.
“Our goal is to address the geometry of the ramps which would allow us to safely accommodate right turns on red. This configuration is the best way to mitigate safety concerns until then,” he said.
The main "diverging diamond" features are intersections at either end of the freeway bridge where Route 25 traffic crosses over to the left side of the roadway, then back to the right at the other end.
The pattern allows left turns to be made onto the freeway entrances continuously, with no need for separate traffic-signal phases to govern those turns. That enables stoplights to operate with just two signal phases each cycle and reduces the number of locations within the interchange at which collisions can occur.
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Topic: Ohio (Read 235893 times)