The Boston Transportation Department (BTD) is installing new traffic signals at the intersection of Centre and Burroughs streets and updating the existing signals at Centre and Thomas streets, according to spokesperson Tracey Ganiatsos.
The signals at Centre and Burroughs streets will not be overhead lights, but mounted lights on posts on the sidewalks, said Ganiatsos. Detectors will be installed under the road on Burroughs Street to activate the lights for cars waiting to enter Centre Street. The crosswalk signals will be audible to assist vision-impaired pedestrians and will be programmed for concurrent walks, according to Ganiatsos.
“At the neighborhood’s request, BTD conducted a study of the intersection of Centre and Burroughs Streets in August of 2012,” she said in an email to the Gazette. “Our analysis showed that traffic signals were warranted due to the volumes of both vehicles and pedestrians passing through the intersection.”
The light installation is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Two additional signal posts will be added at the intersection of Centre and Thomas streets. One post will be near the Dunkin Donuts and another across the street. The existing poles will be replaced with new poles with new signal equipment mounted on them, said Ganiatsos.
A trench is also being dug between the two intersections to install a cable that will allow BTD to coordinate the timing of the traffic signals.
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This will be bad for pedestrians. Think about it: When a pedestrian shows up at an unsignaled intersection, cars stop for them right away and they can cross right away, but when a pedestrian shows up at a crosswalk with a light, they are forced to wait for the light to change. This makes sense at an intersection where there is a lot of high speed traffic that routinely fails to yield to pedestrians, but that is not the case here.