Annoying or bad lane striping

[Mergingtraffic]

Recently the DOT in my state widened a 4-lane road to allow exclusive left turn lanes and an intersection (CT-66 at Oil Mill Road in Middletown), making it 5 overall in this area.  That is the good news, the bad is that they widened it for a long swath before and after the intersection and failed to provide exclusive left turn lanes for some of the nearby apartments and stores even though there is enough room for a left turn lane.  What they did instead was to just striped it as a "closed" lane with a double yellow on each side.

The link enclosed is the exact same set up to which I described in middletown but in Stamford.
(Speaking of Stamford, I know the locals use the "closed" lane for left turns but would it so difficult to stripe it as a TWLTL or exclusive left-turn lanes!?!?)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=stamford,+ct&aq=&sll=41.554487,-72.675118&sspn=0.000791,0.002736&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Stamford,+Fairfield,+Connecticut&ll=41.105436,-73.548108&spn=0.000796,0.002736&t=h&z=19

The problem I had in Middletown is that both through lanes backed up b/c somebody made a left turn into the nearby apartments but was afraid to use the "closed" center lane because it wasn't marked as a turn lane.  If that was marked as an exclusive left-turn lane or a TWLTL the back up wouldn't have happened.

What's even more maddening is that CT widened another swath of CT-66 in Middlefield and added exclusive left turn lanes down the whole project even for non-used driveways.

[Brandon]

The striped off area is intended to be used for left turns.  They should already know that.  Of course, I've seen idiot drivers to fail to understand the function of a center turn lane and turn from the main traffic lane.

[Mergingtraffic]

The striped off area is intended to be used for left turns.  They should already know that.  Of course, I've seen idiot drivers to fail to understand the function of a center turn lane and turn from the main traffic lane.

Correct, so why doesn't the DOT just stripe it as a turn lane?

[Eth]

At least it *is* striped.  A couple of streets here in Gaithersburg (both four-lane divided) were repaved sometime last fall and they just flat out didn't bother to stripe them after doing so.  While most drivers appeared to be aware of what the configuration was supposed to be, some clearly weren't, and I'm quite surprised I never saw an accident.  This week they finally striped the streets, some 6-8 months or so after the paving was done.

[Quillz]

Exit 29 on US-101 southbound has some of the worst line striping ever. It's when you get to the side street make a left to get to the offramp namer, there is a yellow line that curves inward to make space for two left turn lanes. The problem is this stretch of road is really too short to have a proper divided yellow line, so there is little choice but to completely ignore the yellow line and drive over it.

It's been realigned probably a good 4-5 times and has never been gotten right.

[roadfro]

The striped off area is intended to be used for left turns.  They should already know that.  Of course, I've seen idiot drivers to fail to understand the function of a center turn lane and turn from the main traffic lane.

As striped, using double yellow lines on both sides of the center area, it is supposed to function as a raised median.

The question is whether the designers intended for this to function as a raised median, or did they really want it to be a two-way left turn lane and stripe it incorrectly. The street view looks like the center lane is fairly narrow, so they may actually have intended it to function as a median area. But if that's the case, they either should've installed a median or at least put hash marks in the central area to further emphasize that the area is not to be used for turns...

[Duke87]

The street view looks like the center lane is fairly narrow, so they may actually have intended it to function as a median area.

It's not as wide as the travel lanes but it is wide enough to safely contain a car.

As for intent, it certainly isn't a one-off thing. It's been striped that way for at least 20 years and within that time the road has been repaved twice (three times?), and the lines were repainted the same way every time. So, clearly it isn't something anyone is considering "fixing". And there's no way ConnDOT isn't aware of how the lane is getting used.
I'm sticking to my theory from before, that it's because properly striping it as a two-way left turn lane would be impractical due to the high number of side streets demanding dedicated left turn lanes.

Or, here's a question worth asking: when was the TWLTL first put in the MUTCD? Is it possible that this stretch of road predates it? It was first widened to four lanes some time in the 1950's, although as the movie The Horror at Party Beach shows, there was no center lane of any sort in 1964:

[roadfro]

I'm sticking to my theory from before, that it's because properly striping it as a two-way left turn lane would be impractical due to the high number of side streets demanding dedicated left turn lanes.

Or, here's a question worth asking: when was the TWLTL first put in the MUTCD? Is it possible that this stretch of road predates it?

Even if your theory about the needing dedicated turn lanes at intersections is true, there are ways to strip a center lane such that it provides dedicated lanes at the intersection and also acts as a TWLTL in between.

I don't know when the MUTCD first adopted the TWLTL, but if the road has been resurfaced/reconstructed a couple times since becoming four lanes, there's no reason why the DOT couldn't have gone in and put in a TWLTL after one of those projects.

[Brandon]

The striped off area is intended to be used for left turns.  They should already know that.  Of course, I've seen idiot drivers to fail to understand the function of a center turn lane and turn from the main traffic lane.

As striped, using double yellow lines on both sides of the center area, it is supposed to function as a raised median.

It is?  Never seen it used like that around here or even intended for that around here.

[Mergingtraffic]

or since TWLTLs have to be 14 feet wide nowadays.  Then, why dont they jusyt stripe it as various exclusive turn lanes down the middle ala CT-66 in Middlefield?  It seems most other state would do some kind of left-turn thang.

CT: The no turn lane state!

[roadfro]

The striped off area is intended to be used for left turns.  They should already know that.  Of course, I've seen idiot drivers to fail to understand the function of a center turn lane and turn from the main traffic lane.

As striped, using double yellow lines on both sides of the center area, it is supposed to function as a raised median.

It is?  Never seen it used like that around here or even intended for that around here.

MUTCD 2009, 3B.03, paragraph 6:
Standard:
06 If a continuous flush median island formed by pavement markings separating travel in opposite directions is used, two sets of solid double yellow lines shall be used to form the island as shown in Figures 3B-2 and 3B-5. (...)

The figures referenced show diagonal striping as optional. Granted it's not the exact situation as was depicted in the link above, but the markings are similar. In this case, the diagonal striping should be used to further emphasize the area between the two double solid lines is not for driving on--or, it should be appropriately marked as a TWLTL.

[realjd]

Personally, if I see a "dead" zone between traffic, I'll treat it as a two way left turn lane whether it is striped as such or not. There's no sense blocking traffic if there is room to move over while I wait for a left turn.

Have you considered writing your local DOT (or whoever owns the road) about it? They tend to be friendly folks and would most likely either give you a reason why the striped it the way they did or consider restriping it to be a double left turn lane.