You know how you’re not supposed to use the turning lane to merge* into traffic on College Avenue? Now might be a good time to start obeying that law.
The Fayetteville Police Department on Tuesday announced a plan to begin directed traffic enforcement at select intersections on College Avenue. The idea is to bring awareness to drivers regarding traffic collisions and to try and reduce the number of accidents.
The stepped up enforcement will begin Wednesday, April 6 at the intersection of Township Street and College Avenue.
Police officers will utilize marked and unmarked vehicles during the directed enforcement and will be looking for the following violations:
- Following too close
- Improper use of center lane
- Failure to yield
- Failure to signal turn or lane changes
- Improper right turn
- Disobeying traffic signals
Police officials say these violations have consistently been the most common contributing factors to traffic accidents in Fayetteville and nationwide.
According to a release issued Tuesday afternoon, the directed enforcement will move to other intersections along College Avenue, on different dates. We’ll have more updates on where and when the enforcements will take place.
From the release:
The Fayetteville Police Department is dedicated to reducing crashes and increasing safety on Fayetteville streets. This enforcement campaign is part of a comprehensive plan to improve transportation safety in the City of Fayetteville.
* According to the 2009 Arkansas Driver License Study Guide, it is legal to use the turn lane to gain access as long as you don’t accelerate after entering.
Hooray! I get ridiculously annoyed by the misuse of the center lane.
I’ve always been a little fuzzy on this…
In Arkansas, if you are making a left-hand turn from an intersecting street, is it legal to turn into the turn lane first and wait for traffic, or do you have to be able to cross all on-coming traffic lanes at the same time? I’ve heard a lot of differing opinions about this…
p.19 of the Driver’s Ed handbook:
http://www.asp.state.ar.us/divisions/hp/pdf/DL%20study%20guide_v1ed5_.asponline_october%202009.pdf
“These lanes are marked on each side by solid yellow and dashed yellow lines. In Arkansas it is permissible for a vehicle making a left turn from an intersecting street or driveway to utilize a center left turn lane as part of the maneuver to gain access or merge into traffic lanes, except that it is not permissible to use the center left turn lane as an acceleration lane”
Sounds like “acceleration” is the key word there. Thanks for the link. I’ll see what else we can dig up on this.
You can’t drive down the center lane until an opening comes up for you to get over. I was drving down College the other day and some nut was doing this when I needed to get into the center lane to turn left. He was right beside me and wouldn’t stop. Easy way to cause a wreck.
People who rely on the center lane to merge into traffic are generally terrible drivers who consistenly perform traffic violations.
I’m a good driver, but even so, there are times when the traffic is so bad that there is NO alternative, unless you want to have to turn right and then cross over to the left, find a parking lot to turn around in, then take another right to get back on the road. Now, wouldn’t it be lovely if everybody decided to do that instead of using the center lane for making left hand turns? Believe me, it could turn out to be even more of a catastrophe…
Let’s park a few patrol cars at Joyce and College, and ticket the 4 cars that routinely keep going even when the light turns red (mostly turning left off College onto Joyce going west) and half of all such turns being U turns. Why is this so ignored by Fayetteville police?
The real question is, why is that light so short? It’s regularly got a line stacked up halfway back to the overpass. It should be a longer light. Note, I’m not advocating running the red, just that there’s a reason people are doing that.
I’ll second that. That drives me crazy.
Seriously!!!!! I have always noticed this about that intersection…. not to mention that it’s our largest intersection yet it’s always the one that everyone runs red lights through. I’m talking every single time. Whether they’re turning or going straight…. everyone tries to make it, running the red light in the process. SO DANGEROUS AND SO ANNOYING!!!!
There needs to be another light somewhere between Sycamore and Township (Poplar?). Traffic through there picks up a lot of speed, making it pretty difficult for drivers to pull out of businesses along that stretch of College.
A light at Poplar would allow people using businesses along Green Acres/College to have a safe intersection to turn onto College Avenue. It would be nice to have that to allow safe pedestrian crossing along there, too.
Agreed.
Another traffic light is the last thing a carrying route that busy needs. Fayetteville has limited options for North-South movement, and another stopping point would only worsen jams and increase travel times. Reducing the closing rate for just a handful of addresses at the expense of traffic density isn’t a hot plan.
A measured, steady state is the most efficient mode of operation for a vehicle. Energy wasted on cycles of slowing and accelerating is bad for the environment, increases wear on vehicles, and lengthens the time spent in traffic. Fayetteville’s love for speed tables, traffic lights, and haphazard decorative road-narrowing is suprisingly pro-pollution for a “green” town.
Disagree.
North College Avenue in the past was an “edge of town” thoroughfare. Now, its the heart of the city in a lot of ways. Long term, the city needs to consider options which will improve the pedestrian environment and encourage denser development along that corridor. Having it “balls-out” for fast-moving traffic isn’t compatible with long term density in that section of the city.
I get the impression that speeding and risky turns are the reason for this enforcement exercise. Its not about congestion. North College Avenue is a perfect example of the need for traffic calming, IMO. If people were driving carefully and at or below the speed limit already, there wouldn’t be a need for extra enforcement.
The city is, thankfully, finally looking at College Avenue as something other than a speedway connecting downtown with uptown.
God forbid we ask people to slow down as they travel through the heart of our city.
I’ll add that the time for making College Avenue more efficient for auto traffic is long past. Unlike Crossover, which is being rebuilt as an efficient thoroughfare with limited curb cuts and controlled access, College Avenue can never be reclaimed and maximized solely for efficient thru travel. It is a commercial street with several curb cuts per block. As such, there will always be an issue with traffic making turns onto and off of the road. The only real option to improve safety is to encourage slower speeds. A bonus to that will be increased pedestrian and bicycle activity in the area. How often do you see someone brave enough to bicycle College Avenue?
I would love to see a walkable, bike-able mid-Fayetteville. The area is ripe for a renaissance. However, the infrastructure doesn’t support it. Until there’s an alternate route through the town to pull traffic off College, efficiency has to be top priority.
There is no good way to go North-South in this town. Other than College, here’s what you have:
1. Crossover -> two-lane traffic nightmare to Crossover -> opens to five lanes just in time to enter the sticks
2. Old Missouri -> converges with Old Wire (bottleneck) -> converges with Mission (bottleneck) -> jogs down choice of surface streets to get downtown
3. Gregg -> four-lane ends at North with speed table clogged stretch -> dumped into residential surface streets
4. Garland -> thread through campus -> Razorback Road
5. I-540 – limited access, high traffic, shares with through vehicles/trucks
In a previous post a while back on the Flyer, I said that increasing North-South vehicle capacity through street expansion and possibly another limited access highway was one of Fayetteville’s most pressing needs. The response (to paraphrase) was, “[long toke] No way, up with frozen yogurt, [peace sign] down with cars, man.”
Fayetteville’s center of population and affluence has shifted North over the years, and it’s very visible in development. If we want to improve North-South interaction/commerce, do something about the gnarly routes people have to travel. Yeah, the terrain isn’t always throughput friendly, but the city will have to own up to efficient traffic being safer than over-capacity, bumper-to-bumper, accident-ready clusters.
I hope the city gives a medal to the first cop who pulls someone over for “following too closely.” The tailgaters in this town need to be brought to heel.
Amen. The same thing needed on 540.
While we’re at it, can we get the left passing lane impeders??
If “slow traffic keep right” were policed, or even heeded with any regularity, tailgating would be much less frequent. People are understandably frustrated with left lane squatters, as they’re rude and holding up the normal flow of traffic. If drivers aren’t paying attention to the line of cars stacking behind them in the passing lane, how well are they paying attention to the road in general?
Roads are a cooperative effort. Going too slow and bunching up traffic is inefficient and hazardous.
I endorse “Slow Traffic Keep Right” in driving as well as politics. At the same time, tailgating is never acceptable. It’s dangerous, obnoxious and stupid. I regularly drive N. College at the speed limit or a few miles above and have people not only tailgating but impatiently changing lanes and squeezing past in tight traffic so they can hurry up and stop at the light (frequently Township). It’s idiotic.
On 540 I’m usually cooking at 75-80, and still the tailgaters. Am I in the wrong to be annoyed when I’m 10 percent over the speed limit and someone’s still up my tailpipe?
If you’re in the left lane, yes. I don’t care if you’re doing 100MPH, if you’re in the left lane impeding traffic move the hell over.
I’m with @Michael on this one. The left lane is for passing, so if someone is obviously in a hurry for reasons unknown to me, I will move over whenever possible. It’s not MY job to play traffic cop, and I won’t slow them down just because I can.
Wait… I think I am confused on the conflict here… isn’t there already a light intersecting Poplar and College? I take it every day to get home.
AGREED!!!! I take 540 every day to work and I’m appalled at the amount of people that obviously don’t know how to use the left lane…. Right lane people, right lane.
You are confused.
Well, why don’t you enlighten me @burgerboy!
You just said you were “may be confused” and thought that there is already a light at Poplar and College Ave.
There is not.
This also would be a Great Idea on Highway 62 from Farmington to Fayetteville.. Esp during the early morning rush.. People will use the center turn lane to drive a mile or more just to not get stuck in the rush hour traffic..
You travel in the turn lane for an indefinite distance so long as it’s part of your turning maneuver.
While we are at it….. let’s appreciate the Police for doing a bunch of dangerous stuff we don’t want or physically can’t do around town. I wouldn’t want to do their job and I doubt they’re are on blogs second guessing how I do my job.
“I wish they would file papers better…. if they would just clean the produce section more…..why can’t the drive thru lane be faster……. they should just put more stuff on sale when I can go to the store…… I should have better magazines to read at the docotor’s office…………”
Uhh, my salary isn’t taxpayer funded, @sandy. If it was I would fully expect the taxpayers to voice their opinions.
Am I the only cynical one thinking this is simply an excuse to pass out more tickets and make some revenue for the department?
These offenses are jaywalking on wheels. Paying someone by the hour to run the engine on a V8-powered cruiser in hopes of catching an illegal turn isn’t the best bang for their buck if their mind is on revenue. Keeping a high profile at a busy intersection sounds more like an exercise in maintaining social order.
Maybe they can cash in with this initiative, but speeding tickets are the money drawer. The big fleece is charging fines for going a few miles per hour over a limit that’s arbitrary to the capacity of the road, vehicle, and conditions. I’m actually glad they’re not doing speed traps instead (always in the name of “safety,” of course), because people going five over on a clear, empty road trouble my mind none. Them nannying common causes of accidents might make a difference, though.
#1 cause of wrecks: excessive speed.
#2 cause of wrecks: inattention.
Traffic enforcement has one goal. Reduce the number of wrecks. (Note I did not say ‘accident’. Most, if not all wrecks are not ‘accidents’)
Contrary to popular opinion, the Police Department does not benefit directly from fines and court costs associated with traffic tickets. It IS however much more desirable from the officer’s perspective to save tens of thousands of dollars in repairs and lost time, physical injury, and the mountain of paperwork caused by a vehicle wreck, than it is to spend a few minutes getting a person’s attention by stopping them, informing them of their violation and possibly writing a ticket.
I, for one, hope that increased enforcement will save just one person the pain and cost of a vehicle wreck. Thank you FPD.
JMO…
.. To which…
never realised speeding on college was a problem, since it is rare that traffic congestion ever lets me even reach 35mph. another light is not the solution.
How many, if ANY, tickets have been written for U-turns at College and Joyce in the last 12 months?
Is there a sign that says it is illegal to make a u-turn there?
Wait.. are you saying it’s illegal to pull out from a store parking lot into the center lane and wait for traffic to pass before entering the proper lane? I’ve only been doing this for the past 20 years and never knew it was illegal or wrong. Sure, it’s a risk, but is it illegal? If it is, then why do these lanes exist all down a road?
Boo, hiss.
Follow the second commentor’s link to the AR state driver’s ed manual. It is perfectly legal as long as you don’t drive down the road in the turning lane before merging.
Yes, there is a large sign. Plus, it’s illegal anyway.
there is no sign at college and joyce regarding u-turns. since there is no other reasonable outlet for northbound drivers on College to access the bypass, a u-turn is necessary.