Highway 16 and Marquis Drive traffic lights no longer blinking red

The flashing red lights at Marquis Drive and Highway 16 are being switched to normal traffic lights on Wednesday.

The new set of lights for the intersection first started flashing red on Thursday to alert drivers about the change.

“Folks coming off of Marquis were used to taking two stages to move through the intersection so it is hard to change driver behaviour. That’s one reason we put in the flashing red to (say), ‘hey something is different here folks,’” Jay Magus, transportation engineering manager with the City of Saskatoon said.

After leaving the lights flashing till Monday morning, the city tested them out.

“We observed some erratic driver behaviour. Folks kind of not completing their movement. They were getting stuck in the middle,” Magus explained. It was decided to work out a few kinks and keep the lights flashing until Wednesday morning.

The left turning lanes were originally supposed to allow concurrent left turns. However, it was decided to only allow one left lane turn at a time because the volume of truck traffic made it hard for drivers to see.

Since Monday, the city has painted lane lines and stop blocks, changed the turning lane and removed one of the four signal heads.

City of Saskatoon Director of Transportation Angela Gardiner has explained in the past that traffic signals were the best solution given the development in the area. She said traffic signals are not the best choice in a rural area but vehicles are driving slow enough near SaskTel Centre to warrant traffic signals to improve the safety of the intersection.

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